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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 2021
Released
16/02/2022
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Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the December 2021 quarter:

  • Red meat production decreased 5.9%
  • Chicken meat production decreased 2.2%
  • Wool receivals decreased by 8.1%
     

Livestock products (seasonally adjusted)

Cattle

  • Cattle slaughtered in the December 2021 quarter decreased 5.1% to 1.46 million.
  • Beef production in the December 2021 quarter decreased 4.1% to 460,447 tonnes.   

 

Sheep

  • Sheep slaughtered in the December 2021 quarter decreased 0.9% to 1.5 million.
  • Mutton production in the September 2021 quarter increased 4.1% to 41,047 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Lambs

  • Lambs slaughtered in the December 2021 quarter decreased 19.2% to 4.9 million.
  • Lamb meat production in the December 2021 quarter decreased 19.1% to 116,595 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Pigs

  • Pigs slaughtered in the December 2021 quarter increased 1.1% to 1.41 million.
  • Pig meat production in the December 2021 quarter increased 0.1% to 112,094 tonnes.

 

Chickens

  • Chickens slaughtered in the December 2021 quarter decreased 2.3% to 172 million. 
  • Chicken meat production in the December 2021 quarter decreased 2.2% to 334,709 tonnes. 

Wool

  • National wool receivals for the December 2021 quarter decreased 8.1% to 80,259 tonnes.

(a) Data has been revised

Gross value of livestock (original)

  • The gross value of cattle and calves slaughtered increased 1.3% to $3.5 billion.
  • The gross value of sheep and lambs slaughtered increased 0.2% to $1.3 billion. 
  • The gross value of pigs slaughtered decreased 2.5% to $384 million. 
  • The gross value of poultry slaughtered decreased 1.4% to $770 million.

(a) Data has been revised

Changes in this and forthcoming issues

Impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in December 2021

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.

The increase in COVID-19 cases in the December 2021 quarter impacted many jurisdictions across Australia.  For livestock and chicken slaughtering, individual abattoirs and slaughtering establishments and chicken processing plants reported a range of impacts attributed to COVID-19 restrictions. These included:

  • some businesses reporting a decrease in their operations due to COVID-19 restrictions on movement and staff availability;
  • some businesses reporting that trade in food services decreased but there was continued demand for meat from supermarkets and butchers;
  • other businesses reporting 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 the ABS Feature Article: When it's Not "Business-as-Usual": Implications for ABS Time Series.

Data downloads

The time series spreadsheets in the December 2021 release of the Livestock Products publication have now transitioned to .XLSX format. Users may need to update their automated processes for downloading and reading the data. Previously released time series spreadsheets will remain in .XLS format. 

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Time Series

Data files

Data cubes

Gross value of livestock slaughtered

Data files
Download xlsx [88.92 KB]

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 7215.0.

Methodology

Livestock Products, Australia methodology, December 2021