Australia: Record 2023 slaughter data cause MLA flock projections to rejig

Published Mar 5, 2024

Tridge summary

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has updated its 2024 projections, predicting a record lamb slaughter of 26.1 million, a 4.8% increase from 2023, and mutton slaughter reaching 10.1 million before falling to 9.3 million in 2025. The flock is expected to decrease to 76.5 million in 2024. These revisions are based on last year's record production data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. MLA also anticipates a rise in producer sentiment, leading to higher prices. However, concerns are raised about potential supply chain issues due to existing labor and capacity problems, despite a robust demand outlook.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Data showing the heights lamb slaughter reached in 2023 was a key factor that inspired a rejig of Meat & Livestock Australia's predictions for 2024. The recently released MLA flock projections feature significantly revised slaughter figures, now estimating lamb slaughter 26.1 million in 2024, a jump of 4.8pc or 1.2 million head from 2023, making 2024 the largest slaughter year on record. However the July projections had only tipped lamb slaughter of 22.4 million for 2024. July projections tipped that mutton slaughter would reach 8.7 million head in 2024, then climbing to 9.82 million head by 2025. But the new projections say that mutton slaughter will reach 10.1 million in 2024 before dropping back to 9.3 million in 2025. The projections also estimate that the flock will ease to 76.5 million in 2024, but in the July projections, 79.22 million was the anticipated size. MLA market information manager Stephen Bignell said the figures had been revised to take into account the ...

Source: Farmweekly