This publication shows various statistics obtained from surveys of slaughterhouses run in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They are based on data from all slaughterhouses but remain provisional until all the returns are in. The statistics are shown in statistical months - that is, statistics for January, April, July, and October are for periods of five weeks while statistics for other months are for periods of four weeks, with the exception of 2004 which is a 53 week statistical year where December 2004 statistics are for a 5 week month.

Unless otherwise stated, all information is for the United Kingdom.

1. UK monthly slaughter estimates

Monthly estimates of the number of cattle, sheep and pigs slaughtered for meat in the United Kingdom are given in the table below. They are shown in statistical months.

United Kingdom	May 2007 4 weeks	June 2007 4 weeks	July 2007 5 weeks
Steers	81	79	94
Heifers	60	58	67
Young Bulls	26	32	39
Cows and Adult Bulls	29	33	45
Calves	1	2	2
Other Sheep and Lambs	917	994	1378
Ewes and Rams	155	167	211
Clean Pigs	683	724	880
Sows and Boars	15	16	22
Thousand head

• Livestock slaughtered under the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme are excluded.
• A dataset showing slaughter statistics for the same months in previous years can be found on the Defra website at http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/datasets/slaughm.xls.

2. UK average dressed carcase weights

The surveys of slaughterhouses also collect information on the meat produced which average dressed carcase weights to be calculated. Monthly average dressed carcase livestock slaughtered for meat in the United Kingdom are given in the table below.

United Kingdom	May 2007	June 2007	July 2007
Steers	365.7	364.9	363.0
Heifers	315.9	315.2	316.2
Young Bulls	346.8	350.9	353.9
Cows and Adult Bulls	325.5	323.7	320.1
Calves	32.0	31.5	30.4
Other Sheep and Lambs	19.9	19.2	19.2
Ewes and Rams	30.0	27.5	27.3
Clean Pigs	75.3	75.0	74.3
Sows and Boars	156.8	149.3	152.1
Thousand head

• Livestock slaughtered under the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme are excluded.
• A dataset showing slaughter statistics for the same months in previous years can be found on the Defra website at

http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/datasets/alldcw.xls.

3. UK monthly home-killed production of meat

The surveys of slaughterhouses also collect information on the meat produced. This enables the total quantity of meat produced in the United Kingdom to be calculated. Home-killed production includes livestock imported into the United Kingdom for slaughter and differs from home-fed production (see Table 6) which excludes livestock imported into the United Kingdom for slaughter. The figures are shown in statistical months.

United Kingdom	May 2007 4 weeks	June 2007 4 weeks	July 2007 5 weeks
Beef	67	69	84
Mutton and Lamb	23	24	32
Pigmeat	54	57	69
Thousand head

• Livestock slaughtered under the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme are excluded.

4. UK average weekly slaughterings

The monthly figures shown in Table 1 are affected by the number of weeks in the month. In order to provide a better, and more immediately accessible to readers, measure of trends over time, the following tables show average weekly slaughterings for each of the last twelve months. Longer time series are shown in the charts.

	2006						2007
Cattle	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
Steers	19	18	22	23	23	20	20	21	21	21	20	20	19
Heifers	14	13	16	16	18	16	17	18	17	15	15	15	13
Young Bulls	7	6	6	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	6	8	8
Cows And Adult Bulls	8	8	9	11	12	9	10	10	9	7	7	8	9
Calves	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
Thousand head

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