NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
June 2011	10 August 2011
July 2011	2 September 2011
August 2011	6 October 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 May 2011 remained steady at 603 thousand compared to April 2011.
• Calf slaughterings in May 2011 fell 3% to 59 thousand compared to April 2011 and fell 19% compared to May 2010.
• In May 2011, the trend estimate for sheep slaughterings fell 4% to 354 thousand from April 2011 and decreased 28% compared to May 2010.
• Lamb slaughterings remained steady in May 2011 compared to April 2011.
• The trend estimate for pig slaughterings in May 2011 increased 1% to 389 thousand compared to April 2011.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - May 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	688 073	617 631	603 425
Calves	65 160	59 376	58 942
Sheep	335 755	347 692	353 783
Lambs	1 540 268	1 454 352	1 418 428
Pigs	419 186	402 288	388 744
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In May 2011, the trend estimate for beef production remained steady at 171 thousand tonnes compared to April 2011.
• Veal production in May 2011 fell 3% to 4 thousand tonnes compared to April 2011.
• In May 2011, the production of mutton decreased to 8 thousand tonnes, a fall of 4% from April 2011 and a fall of 27% from May 2010.
• Lamb production in May 2011 remained steady at 32 thousand tonnes compared to April 2011.
• In May 2011, the trend estimate for production of pig meat increased 1% to 29 thousand tonnes compared to April 2011.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - May 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	196 473	176 869	171 496
Veal	3 739	3 683	3 729
Mutton	7 599	8 258	8 275
Lamb	35 331	32 797	31 672
Pig meat	31 682	29 919	28 726