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	March 2007 4 weeks	April 2007 5 weeks	May 2007 4 weeks
Steers	86	103	81
Heifers	68	76	59
Young Bulls	20	26	26
Cows and Adult Bulls	35	37	29
Calves	3	2	1
Other Sheep and Lambs	985	1160	901
Ewes and Rams	169	195	155
Clean Pigs	715	871	680
Sows and Boars	18	20	15
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	March 2007 4 weeks	April 2007 5 weeks	May 2007 4 weeks
Steers	355.3	356.6	356.9
Heifers	310.3	311.7	312.1
Young Bulls	332.7	336.0	335.2
Cows and Adult Bulls	318.5	321.0	323.0
Calves	25.1	27.6	32.3
Other Sheep and Lambs	19.4	20.3	20.0
Ewes and Rams	28.9	30.1	30.9
Clean Pigs	75.9	74.3	75.4
Sows and Boars	154.3	149.4	156.8
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	March 2007 4 weeks	April 2007 5 weeks	May 2007 4 weeks
Beef	69	81	65
Mutton and Lamb	24	29	23
Pigmeat	57	68	54
Thousand tonnes

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