DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Dec Qtr 2008	Sep Qtr 2009	Dec Qtr 2009
TREND ESTIMATES		'000	'000	'000
Number slaughtered
	Cattle (excl. calves)	1 996	1 934	1 899
	Calves	203	194	189
	Sheep	2 906	2 483	2 325
	Lambs	5 190	5 216	5 145
	Pigs	1 129	1 146	1 168
	Chickens	118 707	116 130	113 873

		Dec Qtr 2008	Sep Qtr 2009	Dec Qtr 2009
		tonnes	tonnes	tonnes
Meat produced
	Beef	534 532	524 519	516 575
	Veal	6 795	8 647	9 371
	Mutton	60 451	52 892	50 599
	Lamb	105 196	108 040	106 825
	Pig meat	80 812	82 363	83 905
	Chicken meat	207 974	206 181	203 459
Wool receivals		92 939	88 790	89 098

	Sep Qtr 2008	Jun Qtr 2009	Sep Qtr 2009
	ML	ML	ML
Whole milk intake by factories	2 362	2 319	2 300

DECEMBER KEY POINTS

• In the December quarter 2009, the trend estimate for sheep slaughterings decreased 6% to 2.3 million.
• The trend estimate for pig meat production increased 2% to 84 thousand tonnes.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2010	14 May 2010
June 2010	17 August 2010

INTRODUCTION

This publication presents statistics on livestock slaughterings (including chickens), meat production, whole milk intake by factories, market milk sales by factories, receivals of taxable wool by wool brokers and dealers, exports of live sheep and cattle and exports of fresh, chilled, frozen and processed meat. It also includes seasonally adjusted and trend totals for numbers slaughtered, meat produced, whole milk intake and wool receivals. More detailed information can be obtained by contacting the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) or by referring to the monthly ABS publication Livestock and Meat, Australia (cat. no. 7218.0.55.001).


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.