Canadian lamb slaughter has increased by 2% overall from 2011 to 2012. The Canadian slaughter graph below illustrates that most lamb is still slaughtered in provincial packing facilities. Slaughter in federal packing facilities increased by 4.7% and slaughter in provincial packing facilities increased by 0.8% in 2012.
In Ontario, the overall lamb slaughter increased by 1.2% in 2012 compared to 2011. As illustrated in the Ontario slaughter graph below, the Ontario statistics follow the same trends as the Canadian statistics with most lamb being slaughtered in provincially inspected facilities. In Ontario, the provincial packing plant slaughter increased by 4% and the federal packing plant slaughter decreased by 23.7% in 2012.
The percentage of sheep and lambs slaughtered in each region of Canada stayed consistent in 2012. The Canadian slaughter by region graph below illustrates that Ontario slaughters the most animals with Quebec and the Atlantic provinces having the next highest numbers followed by the west.
Canadian Slaughter by Region
Ontario slaughtered 51 percent of the lambs processed in Canada in 2012. This has remained relatively constant since 2006. The number of lambs going through the live auction in Ontario increased by about 20,000 lambs between 2010 and 2011 and a further 20,000 lambs in 2012. As illustrated in the Slaughter and Live Market graph below, although the number of lambs going through the live auction increased significantly, the Ontario and Canadian slaughter numbers did not increase significantly over 2010.
Slaughter Volume and Live Market Volume
The graph below compares the Ontario breeding flock, Ontario price, Canadian dressed lamb imports and Ontario slaughter data. It is clear from this graph that the lower prices in 2012 did not result in increased slaughter or imported product. Over the past twenty years, there has been a trend towards increased breeding flock size, increased price, increased slaughter and more imported product.
Trends of Price, Flock Size, Slaughter and Imports
Source: These graphs have been generated from statistics available from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Red Meat Information.
