Livestock Products, Australia

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Quarterly statistics on receivals of wool, livestock slaughtering and meat production

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Reference period
December 2020
Released
17/02/2021
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Livestock products (seasonally adjusted)

Since September 2020

Cattle

  • 1.6 million were slaughtered (down 3.4%)
  • 492,000 tonnes of beef were produced (down 0.4%)

Sheep

  • 1.3 million were slaughtered (up 7.1%)
  • 32,700 tonnes of mutton were produced (up 0.4%)

Lambs

  • 5 million were slaughtered (down 1.7%)
  • 122,900 tonnes of lamb were produced (down 5.7%)

Pigs

  • 1.4 million were slaughtered (up 3.8%)
  • 108,600 tonnes of pork were produced (up 4.4%)

Chickens

  • 170 million were slaughtered (up 4.5%)
  • 323,400 tonnes of chicken meat were produced (up 5.3%)

Wool

Receivals for the December 2020 quarter were up 14.1% to 73,000 tonnes.

Wool brokers and dealers reported increases in all states except Tasmania with New South Wales up 24.1% (to 23,200 tonnes), Victoria up 0.5% (to 20,800 tonnes), Western Australia up 18.3% (to 15,000 tonnes) and South Australia up 24.9% (to 11,700 tonnes). Tasmania was down 12.3% (to 1,512 tonnes).

Livestock value (original)

  • Cattle and calves decreased by 2.2% to $3 billion
  • Sheep and lambs increased by 12.2% to $1.1 billion
  • Pigs increased by 11.0% to $400 million
  • Poultry increased by 3.5% to $735 million

Changes in this and forthcoming issues

Impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in December 2020

The ABS is continuing to monitor potential impacts from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the suite of livestock statistics, and will continue to do so for the duration of the pandemic.

For the December 2020 reference quarter, COVID-19 did not impact data collection activities related to the ABS' livestock collections. For livestock slaughtering, individual abattoirs and slaughtering establishments reported a range of impacts attributed to COVID-19:

  • some businesses reported that trade in food services is improving, with continued demand for meat from supermarkets and butchers;
  • some businesses reported a decrease in their operations due to COVID-19 restrictions, changes to the international market impacting exports, and challenges limiting access to some aspects of the supply chain;
  • other businesses reported little to no impact from COVID-19 restrictions.

Suspension of trend estimates

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in livestock slaughter (including poultry), meat production and wool receivals data.  In the short term, this measurement may be affected by changes to regular patterns in livestock slaughterings, meat production and wool receivals arising from continuing COVID-19 restrictions, as well as changes in overall environmental conditions.  If the trend estimates were to be calculated without fully accounting for these factors, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying behaviour in livestock slaughter, meat production and wool receivals.

It may be some time before the underlying trend can be estimated accurately.  The livestock slaughtering and meat production trend series were therefore suspended from the March 2020 reference quarter, and poultry slaughtering and meat production and wool receivals trend series suspended from the June 2020 reference quarter.  These trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend for these series.

For more detail on trend estimates, please refer to paragraphs 24-27 in the Explanatory Notes and the ABS Feature Article: When it's Not "Business-as-Usual": Implications for ABS Time Series (cat no. 1350.0).

Update to seasonal adjustment methods

The seasonal time series in this publication (Livestock Products, Australia) use the concurrent seasonal adjustment method, meaning that seasonal factors are re-estimated each time a new data point becomes available. If not appropriately accounted for, unusual real-world events such as COVID-19 can distort estimates calculated using this method.

From the September 2020 quarter, seasonal factors will be calculated using data up to and including the June 2020 quarter, then projected from the September 2020 quarter onwards. This approach, known as the forward factor method, ensures that the seasonal factors are not distorted for industries affected by COVID-19 impacts. Switching to the forward factor method may result in revisions in seasonal data for future quarters when the concurrent seasonal adjustment method is reinstated.

For more information about the updates to seasonal adjustment methods across ABS' economic statistics during the COVID-19 period, please refer to the ABS release: Methods changes during the COVID-19 period.

New and Renumbered Data Download Tables

The monthly livestock publication (Livestock and Meat, Australia) ceased at the June 2020 month issue, with the time series tables from that publication now available on a quarterly basis in this publication. This change means that some table numbers and names for this publication have been updated and re-ordered. There are now 18 tables available in Data Downloads. The following list details the new table numbers, and where relevant, the former table number reference:

Table 1. Livestock slaughtered - bulls, bullocks and steers: all series ('000)
Table 2. Livestock slaughtered - cows and heifers: all series ('000)
Table 3. Livestock slaughtered - cattle (excluding calves): all series ('000)
Table 4. Livestock slaughtered - calves: all series ('000)
Table 5. Livestock slaughtered - sheep: all series ('000)
Table 6. Livestock slaughtered - lambs: all series ('000)
Table 7. Livestock slaughtered - pigs: all series ('000)
Table 8. Livestock Slaughtered - chickens: all series ('000) - formerly TABLE 2
Table 9. Red meat produced - beef: all series (tonnes)
Table 10. Red meat produced - veal: all series (tonnes)
Table 11. Red meat produced - mutton: all series (tonnes)
Table 12. Red meat produced - lamb: all series (tonnes)
Table 13. Red meat produced - pig meat: all series (tonnes)
Table 14. Red meat produced - total red meat: all series (tonnes)
Table 15. Chicken meat produced: all series (tonnes) - formerly TABLE 4
Table 16. Brokers and Dealers receivals of taxable wool: all series (tonnes) - formerly TABLE 5
Table 17. Livestock Slaughtered - excluding chickens: Original ('000) - formerly TABLE 3A
Table 18. Livestock Slaughtered - Chickens: Original ('000) - formerly TABLE 3B

The Data Cube, Publication Table, that has been available in previous issues of this publication has now ceased. This data is included in the tables accessible from Data Downloads.

Data downloads

Table 1. Livestock slaughtered - bulls, bullocks and steers: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [123 KB]

Table 2. Livestock slaughtered - cows and heifers: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [123 KB]

Table 3. Livestock slaughtered - cattle (excluding calves): all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [153.5 KB]

Table 4. Livestock slaughtered - calves: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [155 KB]

Table 5. Livestock slaughtered - sheep: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [157 KB]

Table 6. Livestock slaughtered - lambs: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [156.5 KB]

Table 7. Livestock slaughtered - pigs: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [158.5 KB]

Table 8. Livestock Slaughtered - chickens: all series ('000)

Data files
Download xls [269.5 KB]

Table 9. Red meat produced - beef: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [149 KB]

Table 10. Red meat produced - veal: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [149 KB]

Table 11. Red meat produced - mutton: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [148.5 KB]

Table 12. Red meat produced - lamb: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [148.5 KB]

Table 13. Red meat produced - pig meat: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [148.5 KB]

Table 14. Red meat produced - total red meat: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [149 KB]

Table 15. Chicken meat produced: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [264.5 KB]

Table 16. Brokers and Dealers receivals of taxable wool: all series (tonnes)

Data files
Download xls [87.5 KB]

Table 17. Livestock Slaughtered - excluding chickens: Original ('000)

Data files
Download xls [107.5 KB]

Table 18. Livestock Slaughtered - Chickens: Original ('000)

Data files
Download xls [81 KB]

All time series spreadsheets

Data files
Download zip [970 KB]

Data Cubes

Data Files

Gross value of livestock slaughtered

Data files
Download xls [223 KB]

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 7215.0.

Methodology

Livestock Products, Australia methodology, December 2020