Livestock Products, Australia

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

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Reference period
June 2022
Released
19/08/2022
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Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the June 2022 quarter:

  • Red meat production increased 5.5%
  • Chicken meat production decreased 3.4%
  • Wool receivals increased by 11.6%
     

Livestock products (seasonally adjusted)

Cattle

  • Cattle slaughtered in the June 2022 quarter increased 2.6% to 1.5 million.
  • Beef production in the June 2022 quarter increased 2.9% to 466,747 tonnes.   

 

(a) Data has been revised

Sheep

  • Sheep slaughtered in the June 2022 quarter increased 21.3% to 1.8 million.
  • Mutton production in the June 2022 quarter increased 30.5% to 48,624 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Lambs

  • Lambs slaughtered in the June 2022 quarter increased 5.1% to 5.2 million.
  • Lamb meat production in the June 2022 quarter increased 11.4% to 134,423 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Pigs

  • Pigs slaughtered in the June 2022 quarter increased 1.9% to 1.4 million.
  • Pig meat production in the June 2022 quarter increased 0.3% to 107,745 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Chickens

  • Chickens slaughtered in the June 2022 quarter increased 1.7% to 176 million. 
  • Chicken meat production in the June 2022 quarter decreased 3.4% to 335,386 tonnes. 

Wool

  • National wool receivals for the June 2022 quarter increased 11.6% to 95,172 tonnes.

Gross value of livestock (original)

  • The gross value of cattle and calves slaughtered increased 8.6% to $3.9 billion.
  • The gross value of sheep and lambs slaughtered increased 3.1% to $1.3 billion. 
  • The gross value of pigs slaughtered increased 7.0% to $409 million. 
  • The gross value of poultry slaughtered decreased 14.0% to $747 million.

(a) Data has been revised

Changes in this and forthcoming issues

Impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in June 2022

Continuing outbreaks of COVID-19 infections impacted jurisdictions across Australia.  For livestock and chicken slaughtering, some individual abattoirs, slaughtering establishments and chicken processing plants reported reduced processing capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions on movement and staff availability.

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.

Cessation of the Wool Purchases, Receivals and Sales Survey and subsequent data release (Table 16)

The ABS is partnering with industry and other stakeholders to progressively modernise the ABS' agricultural statistics program through a co-design approach to produce agricultural statistics using new data sources and methods. 

The ABS has reviewed the use of statistics produced from the Wool Purchases, Receivals and Sales Survey (published quarterly in Table 16 of Livestock Products, Australia) within the wool industry and by government.  This review considered how existing data sources could be used to produce official wool statistics, with the view of reducing survey reporting burden on agricultural businesses.

The ABS has now decided to cease running the Wool Purchases, Receivals and Sales Survey and publishing the subsequent data release in the Livestock Products, Australia publication (Table 16).  Wool Levy Payer data, sourced from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, will be used as a replacement data source for wool volume and value data feeding into the ABS' Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced and National Accounts collections.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding this review, please get in touch by email: agriculture.statistics@abs.gov.au.

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Gross value of livestock slaughtered

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 7215.0.

Methodology

Livestock Products, Australia methodology, June 2022