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.

In this issue:

1. UK monthly slaughter estimates.
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.
6. UK quarterly production and supplies of meat.

This notice will next be published on 17 April 2008.

Other Defra statistics can be found on the Defra website at http://www.defra.gov.uk (from the home page, click on ‘Economic and Statistics’).

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	December 2007 4 weeks	January 2008 5 weeks	February 2008 4 weeks
Steers	74	90	81
Heifers	60	77	66
Young Bulls	22	25	20
Cows and Adult Bulls	39	55	43
Calves	4	3	2
Other Sheep and Lambs	1289	1442	1064
Ewes and Rams	204	220	183
Clean Pigs	718	878	732
Sows and Boars	21	28	23
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 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.

United Kingdom	December 2007	January 2008	February 2008
Steers	359.5	361.3	360.5
Heifers	311.8	313.7	312.6
Young Bulls	344.9	346.0	346.3
Cows and Adult Bulls	316.3	321.7	320.1
Calves	28.5	32.1	31.2
Other Sheep and Lambs	19.4	19.1	19.1
Ewes and Rams	25.2	25.3	24.2
Clean Pigs	77.0	77.2	77.1
Sows and Boars	153.1	155.0	148.4
Kilogramme

• 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	December 2007 4 weeks	January 2008 5 weeks	February 2008 4 weeks
Beef	66	83	70
Mutton and Lamb	30	33	25
Pigmeat	59	72	60
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.

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

Further Reading

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