NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
September 2010	9 November 2010
October 2010	7 December 2010
November 2010	17 January 2011
December 2010	8 February 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. 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

• In August 2010, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings continued to increase, up 1% from July 2010 to 660 thousand.
• Calf slaughterings were down 7% from July 2010.
• The trend estimate for sheep slaughterings in August 2010 increased to 495 thousand, but is still down 33% from August 2009.
• Lamb slaughterings in August 2010 remained relatively steady.
• In August, the trend estimate for pig slaughterings continued to increase, up 1% from July 2010 to 397 thousand, an increase of 5% from August 2009.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - August 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	641 371	655 534	659 920
Calves	121 479	57 131	60 746
Sheep	467 294	519 591	495 022
Lambs	1 450 834	1 622 233	1 650 134
Pigs	388 253	399 391	396 995
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In August 2010, the trend estimate for beef production rose by 1% from July 2010 to 183 thousand tonnes. This represents an increase of 5% from August 2009.I
• Veal production was down 7% from July 2010.
• The trend estimate for mutton production remained relatively steady at 12 thousand tonnes, but was still down 27% from August 2009.
• In August 2010, production of lamb and pig meat remained steady.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - August 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	178 038	180 929	182 675
Veal	4 977	3 220	3 525
Mutton	11 045	12 107	11 651
Lamb	30 750	35 540	36 580
Pig meat	28 891	29 119	28 930