WHILE the Australian beef herd is now officially in destock mode, it is more a symptom of herd maturation rather than any deliberate attempt to reduce numbers, latest government data released today suggests.

Quarterly livestock products data released this morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the Australian beef industry has smashed a number of production and trade records.

The national cattle herd is in an official destock with the female slaughter ratio (female slaughter numbers as a percentage of the overall slaughter – with 47pc deemed the tipping point between expansion and contraction) at 52.2pc.

Consecutive quarterly figures above 47pc indicates a destock, where producers sell off breeding cows, usually once they reach maturity.

The ABS data shows that the last quarter was the nation’s largest quarterly slaughter since September 2015 at 2,241,200 head.

According to MLA’s market information manager Stephen Bignell, the statistic is not a destock due to depressed prices or weather conditions, but rather a stabilisation or maturation of the herd after a protracted multi-year rebuild.

“Paddock capacity is high, and so producers are turning off older breeding cows, resulting in the highest cow and heifer slaughter since December 2019,” Mr Bignell said.

“Across the board we have seen elevated slaughter rates. Nationally, cattle slaughter lifted by 6pc compared to the last quarter, up 17pc compared to Q3 last year. Cattle slaughter rates lifted in all states except for Tasmania,” he said.

“If this trend continues it is expected slaughter will reach MLA’s projection of 8.18 million head calendar year 2024.”

More beef from less animals

Nation beef production has also lifted. The September quarter was the highest quarterly beef production on record at 690,694 tonnes, a 7pc lift from the previous quarter and 17pc higher compared to Q3 last year.

Year-to-date beef production is 1,908,222 tonnes, the third highest on record, behind only 2015 and 2014 which were years when slaughter exceeded nine million head due to drought. Improved carcase weights over the last decade have allowed Australia to produce more beef from less animals.

Cattle carcase weights lifted to 308.2kg nationally during the quarter. However, these carcase weights are below those recorded in 2021, 2022 and 2023 due to the increase in female slaughter and grassfed animals.

For the quarter, Queensland experienced a 2pc lift in carcase weights to 323.7kg, the highest in the country.

Record producer receipts top $4b

Beef producers in Australia generated record receipts for the September quarter, receiving $4.26 billion for slaughter-ready cattle – the highest value on record for any quarter in history.

With barely six weeks of the 2024 trading year remaining, beef exports remain on track to set a new volume record in 2024. Calendar year volume to the end of October, was already at record levels for the ten-month period, at 1.097 million tonnes, suggesting exports will easily exceed the full-year record of 1.23 million tonnes, when full-year data is released next January.

Lamb also hits records

Quarterly national lamb slaughter of 6.3m head last quarter was 12pc lower than the previous June quarter and 5pc below the same point last year, while production last quarter was also down 16pc from the June quarter at 177,147t.

“Despite lamb dipping in quarter three, Australia is still on track for record lamb slaughter and production this year. For the year to September 2024, we had processed 20,272,000 lambs which produced 488,566t of lamb meat” Mr Bignell said.

“After an extremely strong second quarter which broke records, lamb production has come back. A delay in production was expected due to conditions currently experienced across southern regions of the country,” he said.

Lamb carcase weights eased 4pc to 23.6kg nationally. Positive conditions across New South Wales helped produced the largest lambs with an average of 26kg/carcase.

Mutton highest since 2002

Mutton production rose 2pc from the previous quarter and 26pc from Q3 last year to 69,093t.

In year-to-date terms, mutton production has totalled 206,700t, 16pc higher than the first nine months of 2023 and is the highest year to date production figure since 2002.