NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
February 2011	7 April 2011
March 2011	18 May 2011
April 2011	10 June 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.


EFFECT OF QUEENSLAND FLOODS

Flooding in Queensland began in late December 2010. Flooding has had a small impact on response rates with 95% achieved against a target of 100%. This has had a minor impact on the estimates.


INQUIRIES

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


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK

• In January 2011, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings fell 1% from December 2010 to 584 thousand.
• Calf slaughterings in January 2011 increased 3% compared to December 2010, but are still down 21% from January 2010.
• The trend estimate for sheep slaughterings in January 2011 decreased to 453 thousand, a fall of 4% from December 2010 and a 26% fall from January 2010.
• Lamb slaughterings remained relatively steady in January 2011 compared to December 2010, but are still down 5% from January 2010.
• In January 2011, the trend estimate for pig slaughterings fell 1% from December 2010 to 380 thousand.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - January 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	429 290	558 623	583 913
Calves	27 843	67 908	66 552
Sheep	475 798	450 095	453 274
Lambs	1 313 912	1 449 174	1 482 049
Pigs	336 778	376 895	379 525
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In January 2011, the trend estimate for beef production decreased to 166 thousand tonnes, a fall of 1% from December 2010.
• Veal production rose 5% in January 2011 compared to December 2010, but is still down 14% from January 2010.
• The production of mutton in January 2011 decreased to 10 thousand tonnes, a fall of 3% from December 2010 and a fall of 23% from January 2010.
• In January 2011, production of lamb remained relatively steady at 32 thousand tonnes, but is still down 2% from January 2010.
• The trend estimate for production of pig meat fell 1% compared to December 2010, but is still up 2% from January 2010.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - January 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	121 975	155 639	165 648
Veal	2 615	4 310	4 130
Mutton	10 839	10 282	10 388
Lamb	28 911	31 445	32 025
Pig meat	24 315	27 724	27 835