Livestock Products, Australia

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

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Reference period
March 2022
Released
20/05/2022
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Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms for the March 2022 quarter:

  • Red meat production decreased 2.5%
  • Chicken meat production increased 3.2%
  • Wool receivals increased by 6.8%
     

Livestock products (seasonally adjusted)

Cattle

  • Cattle slaughtered in the March 2022 quarter decreased 3.6% to 1.4 million.
  • Beef production in the March 2022 quarter decreased 3.2% to 452,673 tonnes.   

 

(a) Data has been revised

Sheep

  • Sheep slaughtered in the March 2022 quarter decreased 5.2% to 1.5 million.
  • Mutton production in the March 2022 quarter decreased 9.3% to 37,246 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Lambs

  • Lambs slaughtered in the March 2022 quarter increased 1.2% to 4.9 million.
  • Lamb meat production in the March 2022 quarter increased 3.6% to 120,677 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Pigs

  • Pigs slaughtered in the March 2022 quarter decreased 5.4% to 1.3 million.
  • Pig meat production in the March 2022 quarter decreased 3.7% to 107,435 tonnes.

 

(a) Data has been revised

Chickens

  • Chickens slaughtered in the March 2022 quarter increased 0.5% to 173.4 million. 
  • Chicken meat production in the March 2022 quarter increased 3.2% to 347,304 tonnes. 

(a) Data has been revised

Wool

  • National wool receivals for the March 2022 quarter increased 6.8% to 85,274 tonnes.

(a) Data has been revised

Gross value of livestock (original)

  • The gross value of cattle and calves slaughtered decreased 1.4% to $3.5 billion.
  • The gross value of sheep and lambs slaughtered decreased 3.7% to $1.3 billion. 
  • The gross value of pigs slaughtered increased 0.1% to $381.9 million. 
  • The gross value of poultry slaughtered increased 12.3% to $868.3 million.

(a) Data has been revised

Changes in this and forthcoming issues

Impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and floods in March 2022

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

Flooding across Queensland and New South Wales impacted the March 2022 quarter. For livestock and chicken slaughtering individual abattoirs and slaughtering establishments and chicken processing plants reporting a range of impacts attributed to the floods.  These included:
•    Closures due to flood damage, loss of power and staff availability,
•    Transport restrictions impacting freight to and from processing plants.

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.

Review of the Wool Purchases, Receivals and Sales Survey

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 is currently exploring the use of existing data sources to produce official wool statistics, with the view of reducing survey reporting burden on agricultural businesses by not continuing the Wool Purchases, Receivals and Sales Survey.  As part of this review, we are consulting with data users to better understand how data from the Wool Purchases, Receivals and Sales Survey, published quarterly in Table 16 of Livestock Products, Australia, is being used within the industry.  If you are currently using this data and would like to participate in this consultation, please get in touch by emailing agriculture.statistics@abs.gov.au by 31 May 2022.

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 7215.0.

Methodology

Livestock Products, Australia methodology, March 2022