Australian red meat stays buoyant

MLA said that figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Australian lamb production reached its highest July volume to date this year, totalling 37,669 tonnes cwt. Although this was only a 1% increase on July 2012 figures, it was an 18% increase on the five-year average.

National lamb slaughter also reached its highest July level, with a 8% year-on-year increase to 1,775,080 head. MLA said: “A larger proportion of lighter lambs through sale yards during July accounts for the modest year-on-year production yield increase when considering the larger increase in slaughter for the same period.”​

This trend was also witnessed in mutton, with sheep slaughter up 104% year-on-year to 651,700 head, but production up 90% to 13,916 tonnes cwt.

Beef​

Australian beef and veal production also performed strongly in July, up 20% year-on-year to 214,093 tonnes cwt for the month. It added that adult cattle slaughter totalled 759,036 head, a 12% increase on June levels and a 24% increase year-on-year.

Average carcase weights were down 3% at 277kg/head cwt, which MLA said reflected a “greater percentage of female and store cattle slaughtered in July”.​ It revealed that female cattle slaughter increased 36% year-on-year to 368,668 head – 49% of the total slaughter.