The wide diversity of soil, topography and climate enables South Canterbury's 2300 farm holdings to produce a wide range of livestock, arable and horticultural products. The 3 counties (Strathallan, Waimate and Mackenzie) cover a land area of nearly 1.4 million hectares stretching between the Rangitata River in the north to the Waitaki River in the south and the coast in the east to the southern divide in the west. Approximately 75% or 1 million hectares are farmable falling into land use capability classes l-7 (Table 1). Of this approximately 200,000 hectares or 20% are in land use classes 1-3 and can therefore be considered as potentially arable. The bulk of this land occurs on the coastal plain and easier downlands in the counties of Strathat!an and Waimate. The balance of approx uuu,UUU hectares or 80% are in land use classes 4-7 being divided between 600,000 hectares of high country and 200,000 hectares of downland. Over two-thirds of the high country lies in the Mackenzie county while the downlands which can be further divided into wet and dry occur in all counties between the coastal plain and the inland high country.
