Pastoral activities, particularly sheep grazing, are widespread in South Australia. Compared with other states, cattle grazing is not a major industry in South Australia. Nevertheless, meat cattle are raised throughout the state, with the highest numbers occurring in the South East and Murray Lands Statistical Divisions. At 30 June 2007, the South Australian meat cattle herd stood at 1.1 million with 50% found in the South East Statistical Division (529,000).

	2005-06		2006-07		2007-08
Livestock slaughterings(a) ('000)
Cattle	324.8		341.9		312.5
Calves	4.4		4.9		4.6
Sheep	1 061.9		1 414.0		1 318.1
Lambs	3 231.2		3 251.5		3 710.4
Pigs	1 018.9		1 047.3		1 145.7
Livestock products (tonnes)
Meat produced(b):
Beef	83 547		90 136		80 949
Veal	149		157		148
Mutton	24 098		32 962		31 791
Lamb	69 636		71 871		82 718
Pig meat	76 663		78 008		85 066

(a) Includes estimates of animals slaughtered on farms and by country butchers and other small slaughtering establishments.
(b) Dressed carcass weight, excludes offal.
Source: Livestock products, Australia (cat. no. 7215.0).


At 30 June 2007, the sheep and lamb flock in South Australia was estimated to be 11.6 million. Over 46% of sheep and lambs in South Australia were found in the South East (3.3 million) and Northern (2.1 million) Statistical Divisions.

In the past, pigs were kept in South Australia as a sideline on mixed farms or in conjunction with dairy cattle. Now, most pig production comes from establishments specialising in pigs. At 30 June 2007, the pig herd in South Australia was estimated to be 360,000, with 43% found in the Murray Lands Statistical Division (154,000) and 23% in the Outer Adelaide Statistical Division (83,000).

	Dairy cattle '000		Meat cattle '000		Sheep & lambs '000		Pigs '000
1964	252		417		16 403		153
1971	220		946		19 166		389
1981	152		904		17 056		394
1991	132		831		17 153		400
2001	192		1 050		12 585		438
2003	191		1 209		13 060		381
2004	188		1 164		12 918		378
2005	160		1 223		12 476		336
2006(a)	168		1 161		11 331		403
2007(a)	176		1 067		11 641		360

(a) The ABS has moved to a new frame from the 2005-06 Agricultural Census onwards. This means that data are not directly comparable with historical time series. For more information, please see the technical notes at the back of the 2005-06 edition of the source publication.
Sources: Agricultural Commodities, Australia (cat. no. 7121.0) and Historical Selected Agricultural Commodities, by State, 1861 to Present (cat. no. 7124.0).

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