They are fetching premium prices in the saleyards so it's no surprise that heifers and ewes are the target of thieves across NSW.
NSW Police figures obtained by The Land show there were 293 events of stock theft reported within the state.
Of those there were 12,678 sheep worth $2.3 million and 926 head of cattle worth $1.7m stolen in NSW.
During 2021, the average number of cattle reported stolen were between one to 10 head and between one to 20 sheep. But there were some incidents where larger numbers were taken including one report of 974 sheep missing in the southern region and another of 100 cattle in the western region.
According to police figures there has been around $26.5 million worth of cattle and sheep reported stolen since 2015.
While there was a decrease of rural crime across the board with 37 per cent decrease in cattle reported stolen, the Rural Crime Prevention Team's (RCPT) detective chief inspector Cameron Whiteside said the changes in animal theft indicated that ewes and heifers were being targeted by offenders.
"Our farmers suffer a significant financial impact when their livestock are stolen not only be the loss of the animal but also the loss of breeding potential and animal by products (wool, hides, milk)," DCI Whiteside said.
"The figures only provide a conservative indication of the financial loss based on cow and ewe average market value during 2021."
In 2021 there was a 20pc decrease in rural break and enter, 27pc in stealing, 33pc decrease in fuel theft, 19pc decrease in trespass and six per cent decrease in malicious damage.
DCI Whiteside said there were many factors that contributed to the decrease in rural crime including COVID-19 as it restricted the movement of people and increased the presence of farmers reducing the opportunity for theft.
"The increase value in stock saw farmers being more vigilant due to the potential loss," he said.
In the past couple of years, he said the RCPT had conducted Tackling Rural Crime workshops, with NSW Farmers, both face to face and via webinars, which provided producers with key information to raise awareness of rural crime and provide prevention strategies.
"A key component to the RCPT is being able to have an impact on rural crime, and that's having the community working with us," he said.
"We need farmers to report crime. If the cow from the back paddock goes missing, report it. If the fuel tank is down 100 litres, report it. If the fence line has been cut, report it. If we don't know about the crime, we can't put strategies in place to disrupt the crime."
Love agricultural news? Sign up for The Land's free daily newsletter.
