Largest annual sheep and lamb slaughter in decades as cattle female slaughter rate eases
19 February 2025
The latest quarterly statistics on livestock slaughter and meat production from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) have shown that 2024 was the largest year for lamb and sheep slaughter in decades.
Numbers analysed by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) show that 26.4 million lambs were slaughtered in calendar year 2024, which is the largest number ever. Sheep slaughter also reached 11.8 million head, the largest since 2006.
According to Market Information Manager at MLA, Stephen Bignell, the record slaughter rates are significant for a number of reasons.
“These elevated slaughter rates seen in 2024 are due to a combination of a large national sheep flock with higher percentages of sheepmeat breeds being processed, and generally drier conditions seen in South Australia and Victoria,” Mr Bignell said.
Total lamb production for the year reached 629,385 tonnes. This makes 2024 the largest lamb production year on record, 6% above 2023 lamb production figures.
“In the past two years production has lifted by 18%. This is due to genetic improvements in the flock but also the demographic shift towards sheepmeat and shedding breeds, which is driving fertility and thus leading to productivity gains in the national flock,” Mr Bignell said.
For the previous quarter to December 2024, mutton production hit 90,847 tonnes, which was the largest quarterly sheep production since 2001.
“Across the country towards the end of last year we saw mutton production soar,” Mr Bignell said.
“Favourable prices at the end of the year drove this increase. Lamb prices reached $10/kg while mutton was at 300-440c/kg, making it more desirable to process mutton as opposed to lambs for many producers.”
Cattle
For Q4 last year, adult cattle slaughter reached 2.13m head, which was 16% above the same quarter in 2023.
Over the whole year, 8.3 million cattle were processed, which was the largest throughput since 2019 and 18% higher than 2023.
All states lifted on the previous year, with Tasmania’s rate lifting 4% and Western Australia at 10%. New South Wales and Queensland had similar lifts at 15% and 16% respectively.
“The largest lifts were seen in Victoria which had a 27% increase and South Australia which had a 56% higher slaughter rate compared to 2023,” Mr Bignell said.
“Dry conditions across the southern band of the country have forced stronger turnoff across those states as producers move to destock by selling interstate or processing excess cattle.”
Despite 2024 slaughter being 10% below the previous slaughter record, production last year reached record volumes. Over 2.57 tonnes of beef was produced, up 16% on 2023, and enabling the record exports seen last year.
The average adult carcase weight (cwt) lifted 2.6kg from the previous quarter to 310.8kg cwt, although this was 2.8kg below December 2023.
A reduction in female turnoff is the reason for these lighter weights with female slaughter reduced 6% and the female slaughter rate (FSR) down 52.2% to 51.8%.
The industry uses 47% FSR as a benchmark as to whether the industry is in a restock, steady or destocking phase. A quarterly FSR of 51.8% is the third consecutive quarter above this benchmark, which indicates the cattle herd has entered a destocking period.
