Final quarter livestock slaughter and production data is now available for 2025, offering insight to the October to December period, and the annual figures. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics livestock products drop confirmed last year’s cattle slaughter was at its highest level since 1978 and beef production reached record highs. The consistency of both supply and price points to the current growth of the beef industry being sustained.
We have to go back to 2014 to find a December quarter with higher cattle slaughter than was recorded last year. While it fell from the extremes of the September quarter, it was 8% higher year on year, and 36% above the five-year average. This brought the 2025 total cattle slaughter to 26% above the average, and 12% higher than the previous year. Reflecting the improvement in market conditions, despite less cattle slaughtered in the December quarter compared to the September period, the gross value of those cattle increased 2.4% to $5.6 billion. To put this into perspective, the December quarter 2023 gross value figure was just $2.9 billion.
The Female Slaughter Rate nationally declined less than 1% from the previous quarter in December, to sit at 52%, about on par with the year-ago figure. This was 12% above the five-year average for the quarter, and the highest October-December FSR since 2019. The tale of two seasonal conditions continued to play out in the cattle kill. NSW FSR remained at 63%, where it had sat for the two quarters prior, and meant a 2025 average of 60%. This quarterly FSR was as high as it had been for at least the past 15 years.
In the north however, Queensland FSR fell to 38% in December, its lowest quarterly figure since December 2023, and less than 2% above the five-year average. And even though it was above the average FSR for the quarter, looking at yearly figures, we can see it has only been below 38% in the fourth quarter twice in the past decade. Victorian FSR has a stronger influence from dairy industry sentiment and cow turn-off than the rest of the country but comparing it to Queensland gives us a look at female throughput last year. On five-year average figures, Victoria’s annual actual female slaughter is 25% below Queensland. In 2025, it was just 3% lower.
What does it mean?
The two charts offer some insight to the sustainability of current production levels. Figure one shows that despite the FSR being historically high and above the previously recognised turn-off indicator of 47%, it is still well below the 2019-20 figure, and not far in front of when herd numbers peaked prior to that in 2015-16. Figure two shows us that Queensland’s total slaughter is only just catching back up to where it trended for most of the 2000s, meaning there is precedence for it to remain at those levels for the medium term.
Key Points
- 2025 cattle slaughter is the highest in nearly 50 years, beef production at a new high.
- Female Slaughter Rate down on the previous quarter, but still historically strong.
- Southern states turn up the turn off, while the north holds on.
Click on graph to expand
Click on table to expand
Click on table to expand
Data sources: MLA, ABS, Mecardo
