NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2011	8 July 2011
June 2011	10 August 2011
July 2011	2 September 2011

INTRODUCTION

This publication presents statistics on livestock slaughterings and meat production. These statistics are based on a monthly collection from abattoirs and other major slaughtering establishments and include estimates of animals slaughtered by country butchers and other small slaughtering establishments. More detailed information on this series can be obtained by referring to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) quarterly publication, Livestock Products, Australia (cat. no. 7215.0).

Additional time series spreadsheets containing state/territory and national data are available from the Downloads tab for this publication. These spreadsheets contain original, seasonally adjusted and trend estimates for slaughtering and meat production for bulls, bullocks and steers, cows and heifers, cattle (excluding calves), calves, sheep, lambs and pigs.

The ABS welcomes any comments from readers regarding the usefulness, range and quality of the statistics presented in this publication. Comments can be forwarded to: The Environment and Agriculture Business Statistics Centre, Australian Bureau of Statistics, GPO Box 66, Hobart TAS 7001. Alternatively email <agriculture.statistics@abs.gov.au> or phone (03) 6222 5939.



INQUIRIES

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


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK

• The trend estimate for cattle slaughterings in April 2011 fell 1% to 591 thousand compared to March 2011.
• Calf slaughterings in April 2011 fell 2% to 61 thousand compared to March 2011 and fell 21% compared to April 2010.
• In April 2011, the trend estimate for sheep slaughterings fell 4% to 374 thousand from March 2011 and decreased 26% compared to April 2010.
• Lamb slaughterings fell 2% to 1.4 million in April 2011 compared to March 2011.
• The trend estimate for pig slaughterings in April 2011 was little changed from March 2011 at 378 thousand.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - April 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	549 985	570 874	591 121
Calves	55 618	59 863	61 013
Sheep	293 349	356 344	374 466
Lambs	1 351 691	1 404 041	1 399 698
Pigs	361 300	378 722	377 760
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In April 2011, the trend estimate for beef production decreased 1% to 168 thousand tonnes compared to March 2011.
• Veal production in April 2011 fell 2% to 4 thousand tonnes compared to March 2011.
• In April 2011, the production of mutton decreased to 9 thousand tonnes, a fall of 4% from March 2011 and a fall of 24% from April 2010.
• Lamb production fell 1% in April 2011 to 31 thousand tonnes compared to March 2011.
• In April 2011, the trend estimate for production of pig meat remained steady at 28 thousand tonnes compared to March 2011.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - April 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	156 658	162 546	167 969
Veal	3 496	3 773	3 945
Mutton	6 528	8 187	8 645
Lamb	30 392	30 939	30 873
Pig meat	26 531	27 805	27 729