NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
August 2011	6 October 2011
September 2011	8 November 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.


INQUIRIES

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


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK

The trend estimate for cattle slaughterings in July 2011 remained steady at 591 thousand compared to June 2011.

Calf slaughterings in July 2011 fell by 2% to 55 thousand compared to June 2011 and fell 15% compared to July 2010.

In July 2011, the trend estimate for sheep slaughterings fell 2% to 355 thousand from June 2011 and decreased 30% compared to July 2010.

Lamb slaughterings in July 2011 increased by 3% to 1.6 million compared to June 2011.

The trend estimate for pig slaughterings in July 2011 increased by 1% to 393 thousand compared to June 2011.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia, July 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	565 134	557 149	591 040
Calves	66 410	54 277	54 714
Sheep	242 427	373 412	354 591
Lambs	1 445 249	1 679 888	1 582 377
Pigs	390 756	393 363	393 452
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

In July 2011, the trend estimate for beef production remained steady at 171 thousand tonnes compared to June 2011.

Veal production in July 2011 fell by 2% to 4 thousand tonnes compared to June 2011.

In July 2011, the production of mutton decreased to 8 thousand tonnes, a fall of 1% from June 2011 and a fall of 28% from July 2010.

Lamb production in July 2011 increased by 3% to 36 thousand tonnes compared to June 2011.

In July 2011, the trend estimate for production of pig meat increased by 1% to 29 thousand tonnes compared to June 2011.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia, July 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	160 878	160 985	170 797
Veal	3 813	3 506	3 530
Mutton	5 643	8 860	8 428
Lamb	32 781	38 195	36 131
Pig meat	29 520	29 436	29 301