7218.0.55.001 - Livestock and Meat, Australia, Dec 2009 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 03/02/2010   
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From the December 2009 issue onwards, Table 1 (Bulls, bullocks and steers slaughtered) unit of measurement is '000s. As a result the series indicators have changed.

From the December 2009 issue onwards, some historical seasonally adjusted and trend data cells containing zeros or blanks have been updated in line with current ABS annotations.

Original estimates for October 2009 livestock slaughtering and meat production have been revised for all commodities as more information has become available.


NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE Release Date
January 2010 4 March 2010
February 2010 8 April 2010
March 2010 6 May 2010
April 2010 7 June 2010
May 2010 7 July 2010
June 2010 6 August 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 now 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.



SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK
  • In December 2009, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings continued to decrease, down to 617 thousand.
  • Sheep slaughterings in December 2009 fell for the ninth consecutive month, down to 772 thousand.
  • In December 2009, lamb slaughterings remained steady at 1.7 million.
  • Pig slaughterings remained steady at 388 thousand in December 2009.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - December 2009
Original
Seasonally Adjusted
Trend
no.
no.
no.
Cattle (excl. calves)
539 565
628 864
616 913
Calves
27 529
72 306
67 254
Sheep
916 578
824 913
772 051
Lambs
1 574 614
1 643 485
1 672 279
Pigs
423 837
387 944
388 303



MEAT
  • In December 2009, the trend estimate for beef production declined for the sixth consecutive month, down to 167 thousand tonnes.
  • The trend estimate for mutton production, in decline since May 2008, again fell to 17 thousand tonnes.
  • In December 2009, lamb production remained steady at 35 thousand tonnes.
  • Pig meat production remained steady in December 2009 at 28 thousand tonnes.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - December 2009
Original
Seasonally Adjusted
Trend
t
t
t
Beef
146 117
169 970
167 180
Veal
2 094
3 468
3 388
Mutton
19 794
17 424
16 692
Lamb
32 245
33 883
34 755
Pig meat
29 091
27 531
27 747



INQUIRIES

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