NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
November 2009	8 January 2010
December 2009	3 February 2010
January 2010	4 March 2010
February 2010	8 April 2010
March 2010	6 May 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 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.


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 October 2009, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings decreased 1% to 647 thousand, from the previous month.
• Sheep slaughterings were 774 thousand in October 2009, a decrease of 20% from October 2008.
• Lamb slaughterings were 1.8 million in October 2009, a 3% rise from October 2008.
• In October 2009, pig slaughterings remained steady at 383 thousand.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - October 2009
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle (excl. calves)	657 931	610 023	646 628
Calves	70 168	61 358	61 664
Sheep	827 055	757 209	774 197
Lambs	1 944 957	1 733 288	1 783 267
Pigs	377 706	387 137	383 108

MEAT

• In October 2009, the trend estimate for beef production was 175 thousand tonnes, a decrease of 2% from October 2008.
• Mutton production was 17 thousand tonnes in October 2009, a decrease of 16% from October 2008.
• In October 2009, lamb production was 37 thousand tonnes, an increase of 6% from October 2008.
• Pig meat production totalled 28 thousand tonnes in October 2009, an increase of 3% from October 2008.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - October 2009
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	180 921	167 996	175 438
Veal	3 447	2 997	2 955
Mutton	19 009	16 411	16 819
Lamb	40 453	36 223	37 114
Pig meat	27 293	27 978	27 837