18 April 2008

4 minute read

Europe

The latest statistics produced by Defra from surveys of slaughterhouses run by the UK Agricultural Departments were released on 17 April 2008 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Monthly statistics on the slaughter of cattle, sheep and pigs, dressed carcase weights and meat production are published for the UK to March 2008.

Additional tables are available here:

Number of livestock slaughtered:

1. UK monthly slaughter.
2. UK monthly average dressed carcase weights.
3. UK monthly home-killed production of meat.
4. UK average weekly slaughter estimates.
5. UK slaughterings by country.

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.

• 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 enables average dressed carcase weights to be calculated. Monthly average dressed carcase weight for livestock slaughtered for meat in the United Kingdom are given in the table below.

1. Livestock slaughtered under the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme are excluded.
2. 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.

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.

Further Reading

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You can view the full report by clicking here

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