In this publication we set out the results of a comparative study of intensive lamb production in Southland. Farm records for a ten year period are analysed in terms of fertiliser application, stocking rates and net income. The particular sample of farms was chosen from an area where stocking rates were already relatively high, and where further gains in productivity might be achieved with difficulty. The study shows that stocking rates have increased by nearly twenty per cent over the period without greater fertiliser inputs. The technological advance during the period has thus been more in the direction of management organisation rather than in direct inputs. Future advances could clearly be dependent on both of these factors.