UK Slaughter Statistics May 2008

UK - This publication by Defra shows various statistics obtained from surveys of slaughterhouses run in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

22 May 2008

4 minute read

Europe

The latest statistics produced by Defra from surveys of slaughterhouses run by the UK Agricultural Departments were released on 22 May 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 April 2008.

In this issue:

UK monthly slaughter.
UK monthly average dressed carcase weights.
UK monthly home-killed production of meat.
UK average weekly slaughter estimates.
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.

Thousand head
United Kingdom	February 2008 4 weeks	March 2008 4 weeks	April 2008 4 weeks
Steers	81	80	100
Heifers	66	62	80
Young Bulls	20	18	26
Cows and Adult Bulls	43	36	44
Calves	2	2	3
Other Sheep and Lambs	1067	1025	1106
Ewes and Rams	185	166	208
Clean Pigs	734	700	892
Sows and Boars	23	21	25

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.

Kilogramme
United Kingdom	February 2008	March 2008	April 2008
Steers	360.5	362.2	362.1
Heifers	312.6	313.3	311.8
Young Bulls	346.3	344.8	349.8
Cows and Adult Bulls	319.9	312.8	318.0
Calves	31.3	28.4	42.6
Other Sheep and Lambs	19.1	19.5	19.8
Ewes and Rams	24.2	25.1	26.3
Clean Pigs	77.1	76.5	75.6
Sows and Boars	148.4	151.5	151.5

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.

Thousand tonnes
United Kingdom	February 2008 4 weeks	March 2008 4 weeks	April 2008 5 weeks
Beef	71	66	84
Mutton and Lamb	25	24	27
Pigmeat	60	57	71

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.

Thousand head
	2007									2008
Cattle	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr
Steers	21	20	20	19	18	21	23	23	29	18	20	20	20
Heifers	15	15	15	13	13	14	15	17	15	15	17	15	16
Young Bulls	5	6	8	8	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
Cows and Adult Bulls	7	7	8	9	5	7	8	11	10	11	11	9	9
Calves	0	0	0	1	1	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1