{"id":99620,"date":"2015-11-15T14:08:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T19:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=99620"},"modified":"2015-11-15T16:50:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-15T21:50:28","slug":"sheep-farming-in-hobbiton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2015\/11\/15\/99620-sheep-farming-in-hobbiton\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheep Farming in Hobbiton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"intro\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www-images.theonering.org\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834.jpg\" class=\"no-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-99621 no-lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www-images.theonering.org\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Hobbiton\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>For those of you who have been lucky enough to visit the Hobbiton set (like me!), you know how magical it is to wander among the well-tended gardens and Hobbit-home facades, to rest in the shade of the magnificent party tree, and to enjoy a pint at the Green Dragon Inn. However, as most of us are aware, the Hobbiton set is surrounded by a 560 hectare (approximately 1,400 acre) working sheep and cattle farm owned and operated by the Alexander family.<\/p>\n<p>Stuff.co.nz recently recounted a bit of the history of the Hobbiton and how Hobbit holes and sheep continue to coexist nicely in a quiet corner of the New Zealand countryside:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right alongside the tourism business is their sheep and beef operation, on probably the country&#8217;s most-visited farm. While not many of the tourists see the whole farm, the stock is still very much in the public eye, meaning Craig [Alexander] has to be strategic in where he farms stock because of the occasional gate left open by an unsuspecting tourist. Hobbiton is also ring-fenced with paddocks for stock on either side. &#8220;If we&#8217;re driving a mob of 1500-2000 ewes down the main track and there is a [tourist] bus going through that can be pretty frustrating.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the farm is family-owned and operated, Hobbiton is a 50\/50 partnership between the family and Peter Jackson. &#8220;Today, the tourism venture has about 70 permanent staff and twice that number over the busy summer season. It&#8217;s given the Matamata district a huge boost in earnings and the region is now thriving.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stuff.co.nz\/business\/farming\/agribusiness\/73394245\/farming-in-the-land-of-the-hobbit\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you who have been lucky enough to visit the Hobbiton set (like me!), you know&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":99621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[497,4,333,68,5,99,20,74,148,149,67],"tags":[2938],"class_list":["post-99620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-production-directors","category-hobbit-movie","category-hobbit-locations","category-production-locations","category-lotr-movies","category-lotr-production","category-new_zealand","category-jackson","category-hobbit","category-lotr","category-nz-tours","tag-the-hobbit-the-hobbit-movies-sir-peter-jackson-hobbiton-new-zealand"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1000834.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-pUM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99622,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99620\/revisions\/99622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}