Australia: Outlook for cattle and sheep remains strong

Lamb

Frozen Bone-In Beef

Meat

Australia

Market & Price Trends

Published Mar 22, 2024

Tridge summary

Meat & Livestock Australia's (MLA) projections for 2024 show a promising future for the cattle and sheep industry. Despite a slight decrease in the Australian cattle herd to 28.6 million due to dry conditions, beef production is expected to hit the third-largest volume at 2.5 million tonnes. The sheep flock is predicted to reach 76.5 million, with lamb production set to achieve a record 621,000 tonnes. However, both cattle and sheep carcase weights are anticipated to decline over the next two years.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

MLA’s cattle and sheep industry projections are published twice a year and provide a comprehensive outlook on the industry. This outlook includes: forecasts of the national herd and flock numbers beef and sheepmeat supply carcase weights. The outlook for the cattle and sheep industry is strong, with a good production forecast in 2024. This year, Australia is expected to remain within a neutral Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), while the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) outlook indicates either an El Niño or La Niña event. Long-term forecasts for a La Niña event in 2024 are varied. Cattle projections The Australian cattle herd eased slightly to 28.6 million head, with the national herd expected to shrink by under 1% compared to 2023. The drop in cattle numbers is due to the assumption of drier conditions. Slaughter in 2023 reached just over 7 million head – a 20% increase compared to 2023. In 2024, the slaughter will reach 7.9 million head, which is the highest slaughter figure since ...

Source: Mla