NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
January 2011	11 March 2011
February 2011	7 April 2011
March 2011	18 May 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.


EFFECT OF QUEENSLAND FLOODS ON FUTURE PUBLICATIONS

Flooding in Queensland began in late December 2010. It is expected that the first significant impact of this and floods in other states will be reflected in the February 2011 issue of this publication and future months.

The Livestock and Meat Survey collections for the December 2010 month were not affected by the floods.


INQUIRIES

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


INQUIRIES

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


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK

• In December 2010, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings fell 1% from November 2010 to 613 thousand.
• Calf slaughterings in December 2010 increased 2% compared to November 2010, but is still down 25% from December 2009.
• The trend estimate for sheep slaughterings in December 2010 decreased to 474 thousand, a fall of 3% from November 2010 and a 27% fall from December 2009.
• Lamb slaughterings remained steady in December 2010 compared to November 2010, but is still down 4% from December 2009.
• In December 2010, the trend estimate for pig slaughterings remained steady at 386 thousand.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - December 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	527 671	617 754	613 469
Calves	25 618	64 270	61 712
Sheep	480 106	427 908	473 678
Lambs	1 465 122	1 531 752	1 516 158
Pigs	422 786	386 674	385 545
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In December 2010, the trend estimate for beef production remained steady at 175 thousand tonnes.
• Veal production rose 4% in December 2010, but is still down 19% from December 2009.
• The production of mutton in December 2010 decreased to 11 thousand tonnes, a fall of 3% from November 2010 and a fall of 23% from December 2009.
• In December 2010, production of lamb remained relatively steady at 33 thousand tonnes, but is still down 2% from December 2009.
• The trend estimate for production of pig meat remained steady at 28 thousand tonnes in December 2010.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - December 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	148 518	175 957	174 596
Veal	2 363	3 895	3 785
Mutton	11 325	10 015	10 782
Lamb	31 599	33 513	32 670
Pig meat	29 851	28 441	28 280