At 30 June 2007, the Tasmanian meat cattle herd stood at 481,000 with most meat cattle found in the Northern (212,000) and Mersey-Lyell (202,000) Statistical Divisions.

	2005-06		2006-07		2007-08
Livestock slaughterings(a) ('000)
Cattle	197.3		217.5		215.1
Calves	40.2		40.8		51.5
Sheep	277.7		376.5		339.9
Lambs	511.6		499.3		504.6
Pigs	41.8		42.7		40.4
Livestock products (tonnes)
Meat produced(b):
Beef	54 807		59 580		56 603
Veal	809		815		1 024
Mutton	5 294		7 192		6 650
Lamb	10 452		10 286		10 423
Pig meat	2 374		2 487		2 345

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


At 30 June 2007, the Tasmanian sheep and lamb flock stood at 2.7 million. At 30 June 2007, the majority of all sheep and lambs were found in the Northern (1.4 million) and Southern (1.2 million) Statistical Divisions.

At 30 June 2007, the Tasmanian pig herd stood at 19,200 with 77% found in the Northern Statistical Division (14,800).

	Dairy cattle '000		Meat cattle '000		Sheep & lambs '000		Pigs '000
1964		224	212		3 600		83
1971		229	487		4 517		113
1981		146	497		4 381		54
1991		138	434		4 804		38
2001		210	426		3 284		22
2003		200	482		3 299		19
2004		189	496		3 183		14
2005		191	498		3 105		12
2006(b)		203	501		2 963		17
2007(b)		201	481		2 717		19

(a) Prior to the 1999-2000 collection period the reference period was 31 March. From 1999-2000 the reference period was 30 June.
(b)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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