NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
May 2010	7 July 2010
June 2010	6 August 2010
July 2010	7 September 2010
August 2010	8 October 2010
September 2010	9 November 2010

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. 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 5846.


INQUIRIES

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


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK

• In April 2010, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings continued to increase, up by 1% from March 2010 to 630 thousand.
• The trend estimate for sheep slaughterings continued to fall in April 2010, down to 557 thousand, a decrease of 41% from April 2009.
• The trend estimate for lamb slaughterings remained steady at 1.5 million in April 2010.
• Pig slaughterings in April 2010 remained steady at 379 thousand.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - April 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle (excl. calves)	632 752	642 037	630 459
Calves	61 401	66 630	70 794
Sheep	500 570	530 188	557 414
Lambs	1 576 674	1 592 810	1 547 613
Pigs	371 320	385 440	379 036

MEAT

• In April 2010, the trend estimate for beef production rose by 1% from March 2010, up to 172 thousand tonnes.
• The trend estimate for mutton production in April 2010 fell to 12 thousand tonnes, a decrease of 38% from April 2009.
• The trend estimate for lamb production in April 2010 increased by 1%, up to 33 thousand tonnes.
• Pig meat production remained steady in April 2010 at 28 thousand tonnes.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - April 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	172 379	175 800	172 235
Veal	3 266	3 472	3 591
Mutton	10 693	11 927	12 133
Lamb	34 735	34 749	33 330
Pig meat	27 396	28 045	27 741