Statistics

Expansion had seen South Australia’s cattle herd grow (Various Government Statistical Registrars and Livestock Statistical publications, Statistical Handbook of the Australian Meat Industry, plus various MLA publications) from 170,000 in the 1940s to 260,000 in 1960; to 800,000 in 1970 with a peak of 1,890,000 in 1976. It then collapsed to 1,000,000 in 1980 sinking to 980,000 in the 1987 drought before slowly increasing again as different markets emerged to the current (2009) population of 1,300,000. In the 1950s the prime market was the UK absorbing approximately 90% of total beef exports. By 1970 production was rapidly expanding and North America was taking 80% of production. In the early 1970s the Japanese market opened up providing additional competition.