NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
November 2010	17 January 2011
December 2010	8 February 2011
January 2011	11 March 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.


CHANGES IN THIS ISSUE

As foreshadowed in the previous edition, this release incorporates updates to the sample frame for the Livestock Collection and associated adjustments to the constant factor applied to the estimates to account for production from small abattoirs. In combination these changes have had only a minor impact on slaughter and production estimates for the majority of livestock types. For further information please refer to the Explanatory Notes.


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 2010, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings fell, down 1% from September 2010 to 619 thousand.
• Calf slaughterings were down 4% from September 2010. Sustained falls over a number of months has seen calf slaughterings decline by 29% compared to October 2009.
• The trend estimate for sheep slaughterings in October 2010 increased to 537 thousand, a 2% rise from September 2010, but still down 22% from October 2009.
• Lamb slaughterings in October 2010 fell, down 2% from September 2010 and 10% from October 2009.
• In October, the trend estimate for pig slaughterings remained steady.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - October 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	645 530	619 241	618 521
Calves	56 372	54 726	54 621
Sheep	570 251	520 552	536 858
Lambs	1 697 812	1 540 076	1 504 691
Pigs	352 141	382 837	390 625
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In October 2010, the trend estimate for beef production fell by 1% from September 2010 to 173 thousand tonnes.
• Veal production fell by 4% from September 2010 and was down 28% from October 2009.
• The trend estimate for mutton production rose to 12 thousand tonnes, an increase of 1% from September 2010, but still down 18% from October 2009.
• In October 2010, production of lamb fell by 2% from September 2010 to 33 thousand tonnes. Lamb production was down 7% compared to October 2009.
• The trend estimate for production of pig meat remained steady.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - October 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	183 813	176 303	173 150
Veal	3 488	3 336	3 135
Mutton	13 585	11 755	12 241
Lamb	36 031	33 365	32 768
Pig meat	25 796	27 744	28 624