Red meat production remains strong as beef herd enters destock
National - beef
The national beef herd is destocking. Female slaughter is currently 52% of total processing, remaining above 47% for consecutive years, indicating the national herd is in decline. The nature of this destock is that the herd has reached maturity following a three to four year rebuild. Older breeding cows continue to be turned off rather than a climate-driven destock, which would cause young heifers to be processed.
National beef production grew to new records, lifting 6% to 690,694 tonnes. This is the largest volume of beef produced in a three-month period on record. National slaughter remained elevated, though did not break records. Slaughter lifted 5% on the previous quarter for a figure of 2.2 million head.
Growth in carcase weights have enabled a divergence of slaughter and production. Weights have remained stable in the short-term at 308kg carcase weight (cwt). However, due to investments in genetics, efficiencies and growth in feedlots, average weights have been improving significantly over the last decade, with the average carcase around 30kg heavier than in 2014.
National - lamb
The June quarter is traditionally the largest lamb production quarter. Hence, it is not unexpected that after an extremely strong second quarter which broke records, the third quarter saw a slight reduction in figures.
National lamb slaughter eased 12% to 6.3 million head, and production is back 16% to 149,477 tonnes, thanks to a 4% ease in carcase weights to 23.6kg. Despite the reduction for both slaughter and production, the September quarter recorded the fifth largest volumes on record, indicating the sector is moving in a new norm.
National - mutton
Mutton slaughter eased 2% from the previous quarter but rose 28% from Q3 last year to 2.7 million head, the highest Q3 slaughter figure since 2006. Despite a reduction in throughput, production of mutton rose 2% from the previous quarter to 69,093 tonnes thanks to a lift in average mutton carcase weights to 25.5kg.
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