This publication shows various statistics obtained from surveys of slaughterhouses run in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 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	February 2007 4 weeks	March 2007 4 weeks	April 2007 5 weeks
Steers	84	86	103
Heifers	70	68	76
Young Bulls	19	20	26
Cows and Adult Bulls	41	35	35
Calves	3	3	3
Other Sheep and Lambs	917	982	1155
Ewes and Rams	175	168	196
Clean Pigs	718	715	870
Sows and Boars	16	18	20
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	February 2007	March 2007	April 2007
Steers	354.6	355.3	356.2
Heifers	311.4	310.3	311.0
Young Bulls	333.2	332.7	334.0C
Cows and Adult Bulls	318.7	318.5	321.1
Calves	29.9	25.1	27.7
Other Sheep and Lambs	19.5	19.4	20.2
Ewes and Rams	27.8	28.9	30.0
Clean Pigs	76.6	75.9	74.3
Sows and Boars	154.5	154.3	149.4
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	February 2007 4 weeks	March 2007 4 weeks	April 2007 5 weeks
Beef	71	69	81
Mutton and Lamb	23	24	29
Pigmeat	58	57	68
Thousand tonnes

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	19	21	20	19	18	22	23	23	20	20	21	21	21
Heifers	15	16	15	14	13	16	16	18	16	17	18	17	15
Young Bulls	6	7	8	7	6	6	5	6	5	5	5	5	5
Cows And Adult Bulls	5	6	7	8	8	9	11	12	9	10	10	9	7
Calves	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0
Thousand Head