NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE	Release Date
October 2011	5 December 2011
November 2011	11 January 2012
December 2011	7 February 2012

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 September 2011 remained steady at 599 thousand compared to August 2011.

Calf slaughterings in September 2011 remained steady at 55 thousand compared to August 2011 and fell 9% compared to September 2010.

In September 2011, the trend estimate for sheep slaughterings rose by 3% to 399 thousand compared to August 2011.

Lamb slaughterings in September 2011 rose by 1% to 1.6 million compared to August 2011.

The trend estimate for pig slaughterings in September 2011 remained steady at 396 thousand compared to August 2011.

LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTERED, Australia, September 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	no.	no.	no.
Cattle(a)	620 057	605 003	598 666
Calves	91 710	55 764	55 427
Sheep	465 725	418 337	398 695
Lambs	1 562 921	1 516 299	1 591 610
Pigs	396 152	393 871	396 279
(a) Excludes calves

MEAT

In September 2011, the trend estimate for beef production remained steady at 174 thousand tonnes compared to August 2011.

Veal production in September 2011 fell by 1% to 3 thousand tonnes compared to August 2011.

In September 2011, the production of mutton increased by 3% to 9 thousand tonnes.

Lamb production in September 2011 increased by 1% to 36 thousand tonnes compared to August 2011.

In September 2011, the trend estimate for production of pig meat remained steady at 29 thousand tonnes compared to August 2011.

MEAT PRODUCED, Australia, September 2011
	Original	Seasonally Adjusted	Trend
	t	t	t
Beef	179 883	176 870	174 139
Veal	4 234	3 300	3 330
Mutton	11 418	9 906	9 411
Lamb	33 722	33 929	36 128
Pig meat	29 643	29 357	29 493