The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has significantly revised its estimates of the beef cattle herd in Australia.
This is due to the estimates for the 2023 cattle herd being modelled using new sources and methods.
As a result, the beef cattle estimates are higher than estimates previously published by the ABS which were produced using farm surveys which did not include cattle held on smaller farms (with an estimated value of agricultural operations below AUD$40,000).
This new estimate now details that there were 27.8 million beef cattle in 2023, an increase of 3.4 million head of cattle from the previous estimate.
ABS historical (survey) total beef cattle ABS experimental total beef cattle 2019 22,379,000 26,651,117 2020 21,139,000 25,340,645 2021 22,044,000 26,340,887 2022 22,245,000 26,587,059 2023 24,400,000 27,816,186
According to ABS, a key part of the creation of these new estimates has been the development of partnerships with industry and government to identify new data sources and develop new statistical methods.
This has reduced reporting burden on farmers and created greater consistency between existing data sources which the ABS has said “helps to build trust in the statistics”.
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 No. of dairy cattle 2,341,370 2,361,402 2,382,840 2,148,435 2,062,000
The method for estimating the total Australian dairy cattle herd will be further refined, with sub-populations being separately published when the revised method is finalised.
Historical estimates of the dairy herd are unchanged from those previously published.
The ABS is continuing work with the red meat statistics working group to further refine the estimate of the number of cattle in Australia as it gains access to additional data sources over the next 18 months.
The ABS is also working to develop an estimate of the number of sheep in Australia.