March 6, 2008

Australia's cattle slaughter, beef production dive by 8 percent

For the fourth consecutive month, Australian cattle slaughtering fell by 8.2 percent to 649,000 tonnes on-year.

Beef production also declined by 8.5 percent to 174,000 tonnes against 2006 output.

Sheep slaughtering was 16.3 percent lower at 976,000, while lamb slaughtering fell to 1.8 million, but was 7.2 percent higher than last year.

However, Australia's mutton production rose for the seventh consecutive month, to 21,800 tonnes, the highest figure since February 2007.

Key figures for January 2008 are shown below: