Pastoral farming involves the raising of sheep, cattle, and more recently other animals such as deer and goats. An often-heard statistic is that there are 20 sheep for every person in New Zealand, and this was true in 1981 when there were 80 million sheep on the land. As other types of farming have become popular, the number of sheep has declined to 45 million, so there are only about 12 sheep per person now. There are also about 5 million beef cattle, 4 million dairy cattle, and 1.2 million domestic deer. Sheep and beef meats comprised 12.5 percent of exports in 1999 and are processed at plants in various parts of the country for shipment to many parts of the world, notably Europe and North America, but also increasingly Asia. Wool is also an important export, and while Europe is the traditional destination for this export, increasing amounts are going to China for processing