NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2010	7 December 2010
November 2010	17 January 2011
December 2010	8 February 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 FORTHCOMING ISSUES

As part of the ongoing quaIity review of the Livestock Collection, a coverage exercise has been undertaken to review the quality of the collection sample frame and enable revision of the constant factor (applied to account for production from small abattoirs). Updates to the sample frame and constant factor will be applied prior to the release of the October 2010 issue of Livestock and Meat, Australia (cat. no. 7218.0.55.001). Whilst such updates will assist in ensuring the quality of estimates from the October 2010 cycle onwards, these updates are anticipated to have a minor impact on the collection estimates.

Further information will be provided in the October 2010 issue of Livestock and Meat, Australia (cat. no. 7218.0.55.001).


INQUIRIES

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


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


LIVESTOCK

• In September 2010, the trend estimate for cattle slaughterings fell, down 1% from August 2010 to 629 thousand.
• Calf slaughterings were down 4% from August 2010. Sustained falls over a number of months has seen calf slaughterings decline by 21% compared to September 2009.
• The trend estimate for sheep slaughterings in September 2010 increased to 536 thousand, a 3% rise from August 2010, but still down 25% from September 2009.
• Lamb slaughterings in September 2010 fell, down 2% from August 2010 and 11% from September 2009.
• In September, the trend estimate for pig slaughterings remained steady.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia - September 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	600 270	594 287	629 017
Calves	103 644	57 634	57 899
Sheep	556 060	551 297	535 663
Lambs	1 520 543	1 387 143	1 510 781
Pigs	404 034	391 686	396 230
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

• In September 2010, the trend estimate for beef production fell by 1% from August 2010 to 174 thousand tonnes.
• Veal production fell by 7% from August 2010 and was down 22% from September 2009.
• The trend estimate for mutton production rose to 12 thousand tonnes, an increase of 3% from August 2010, but still down 19% from September 2009.
• In September 2010, production of lamb fell by 2% from August 2010 to 33 thousand tonnes. Lamb production was down 7% compared to September 2009.
• The trend estimate for production of pig meat remained steady.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia - September 2010
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	166 309	164 049	173 721
Veal	4 603	3 103	3 192
Mutton	13 076	12 698	12 447
Lamb	31 643	30 191	33 269
Pig meat	30 002	28 503	28 857