Key points

• Cattle: UK prime cattle slaughterings for December 2010 were 189,000 head with beef and veal production at 83,000 tonnes.
• Pigs: UK clean pig slaughterings for December 2010 were 896,000 head with pig meat production at 72,000 tonnes.

Note that December 2010 is a five-week statistical month and therefore data are not comparable with December 2009.

Section 1. UK monthly slaughter estimates

This table shows monthly estimates of the number of cattle, sheep and pigs slaughtered for meat for human consumption in the United Kingdom. The survey is run according to statistical, rather than calendar months, the number of weeks in the statistical month is specified below.

Section 2. UK average dressed carcase weights

This table shows the monthly average dressed carcase weight of livestock slaughtered for meat for human consumption in the United Kingdom. Longer term trends can be found on the Defra web site by clicking here.

Section 3. UK monthly home-killed production of meat

This table shows the monthly volumes of meat produced in the United Kingdom. Data is shown according to statistical, rather than calendar months, number of weeks in statistical month as specified.

Section 4. UK average weekly slaughterings

This following table shows the average weekly slaughter figures for the last thirteen months. The monthly slaughter figures in section one are affected by the number of weeks in the statistical month. To get a clearer measure of trends weekly averages are calculated by dividing the number of livestock slaughtered each month by the number of weeks in the statistical month.

Longer term trends can be seen in the charts following this table.

Table 4. UK average weekly slaughterings Thousand Head
United Kingdom	2009	2010
	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Steers	18	17	19	20	20	19	18	18	18	21	22	21	18
Heifers	15	14	16	16	15	14	14	13	13	14	15	17	15
Young Bulls	5	5	5	6	6	7	8	8	8	7	6	6	5
Cows and Adult Bulls	10	9	11	10	9	9	9	10	10	11	13	16	11
Calves	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	1
Clean Pigs	180	169	176	177	172	174	171	171	181	184	190	197	179
Sows and Boars	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	*	*	*	*	*	*
* Data are confidential

United Kingdom average weekly slaughtering – Cattle

United Kingdom average weekly slaughtering – Pigs

Section 5. UK slaughterings by country

This table shows monthly estimates of the number of cattle, sheep and pigs slaughtered for meat in England and Wales, Scotland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Data are shown in statistical months, rather than calendar months. The totals for the countries may not add up to the Great Britain totals or the United Kingdom totals in section one, due to rounding.

Further Reading

-

You can view the full report by clicking here.