Australia’s Livestock industry continues to decline. Currently Australia producers export beef, lamb and mutton to the rest of the world. Has anybody worked out that as our National herd numbers decline and our population continues to growth that somewhere in the future we won’t produce enough meat to feed our own population?
Australia’s cattle and sheep numbers declined throughout the 2007-08 fiscal year, as drought continued to ravage southern Australia.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia’s cattle herd for the year ending 30 June 2008 declined 0.8%, to 27.8 million head, while the sheep flock dropped 7.6%, to 79.2 million head – the lowest national flock since 1920.
The sharp decline in the Australian sheep flock for 2007-08 was largely expected, given the unrelenting impact of drought conditions across key sheep producing regions of NSW, Victoria and SA. The shift away from sheep to cropping in WA contributed to the flock in the west plunging 13% year-on-year, to 18.4 million head – down 52% from the peak of 38.4 million head in 1990, and the lowest level since 1962.
Surprisingly, Victoria was the only state to record an increase in flock numbers for the year, up 2% to 17.5 million head, while NSW (26.8 million head) and SA (10.2 million head) recorded falls of 6% and 12%, respectively.
Despite the decline in total flock numbers over the past year, breeding ewe numbers rose 0.4% on the previous year, to 46.6 million head. The maintenance of breeding ewe numbers indicates a willingness to rebuild sheep numbers, if and when seasonal conditions permit.
In contrast to the sheep flock, the national cattle herd remained relatively stable throughout 2007-08, as the 4% growth in Queensland (12.2 million head) almost offset falls across the remaining states.
In NSW, herd numbers declined 1.9%, to 5.8 million head, as falls across drought affected southern regions offset growth in the north. In Victoria, herd numbers dropped 8% year-on-year, to 3.9 million head – the lowest level in 15 years.
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Tags: ABS, Cattle, food security, Meat & Livestock Australia, sheep
