Livestock Products, Australia

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Quarterly statistics on receivals of wool, livestock slaughtering, meat production, and exports. Includes seasonally adjusted and trend totals

Reference period
December 2019
Released
18/02/2020

Livestock products (trend)

Since September 2019

Cattle

  • 2.2 million were slaughtered (up 2.3%)
  • 616,900 tonnes of beef were produced (up 2.2%)
     

Sheep

  • 2.4 million were slaughtered (up 4.8%)
  • 59,600 tonnes of mutton were produced (up 6.1%)
     

Lambs

  • 5.2 million were slaughtered (down 1.9%)
  • 122,300 tonnes of lamb were produced (down 1.4%)
     

Pigs

  • 1.3 million were slaughtered (down 0.8%)
  • 97,800 tonnes of pork were produced (down 0.6%)
     

Chickens

  • 163 million were slaughtered (up 1.1%)
  • 303,200 tonnes of chicken meat were produced (down 0.2%)
     

Wool

Receivals for the December 2019 quarter continue to be low. Continuing dry seasonal conditions have led to a decrease in wool produced in most regions, with many farms destocking across recent months.

  • 70,000 tonnes were received (down 3.7%)
  • Wool brokers and dealers reported decreases in most states with New South Wales down 3.3% (to 21,900 tonnes), Victoria down 7.1% ( to 19,600 tonnes) and Western Australia down 4.1% (to 16,100 tonnes).
  • South Australia was up 2.9% (to 9,900 tonnes)
     

Exports data

From March 2020, exports data (exports of fresh, chilled, frozen and processed meat and exports of live cattle and sheep) will no longer be published in Livestock Products, Australia (cat. no. 7215.0). ABS exports data can be found in the International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0). Please contact us on 1300 135 070 if you need help accessing this information. The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment also publish detailed livestock exports data.

Livestock value (original)

Gross value quarterly original movements for December 2019:

  • Cattle and calves decreased by 3.1% to $3.3 billion
  • Sheep and lambs increased by 16.7% to $1.4 billion
  • Pigs increased by 3.8% to $379 million
  • Poultry decreased by 2.2% to $686 million
     

Bushfires

Recent bushfire activity in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory has resulted in only minor disruption to ABS livestock data collection activities for this release. Quality assurance undertaken by the ABS confirmed that these disruptions have not resulted in any impacts to national Livestock statistics to date. Whilst it is expected that bushfire activity may have some impact on future Livestock estimates this activity is not observed in the December quarter estimates.

Data downloads - time series spreadsheets

I-note

Table 1. Livestock slaughtered - excluding chickens: all series ('000)

Table 2. Livestock slaughtered - chickens: all series ('000)

Table 3A. Livestock slaughtered - excluding chickens: original ('000)

Table 3B. Livestock slaughtered - chickens: original ('000)

Table 4. Chicken meat produced: all series (tonnes)

Table 5. Exports of fresh, chilled, frozen and processed meat: original (tonnes)

Table 6. Exports of live sheep and cattle: original

Table 7. Brokers and dealers receivals of taxable wool: all series (tonnes)

Data downloads - data cubes

I-note

Publication tables

Gross value of livestock slaughtered

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