Livestock Slaughtering - Methodology
The publication presents results of the Monthly Survey on Livestock Slaughtering (Zem1-12).
The survey includes all registered slaughterhouses in the Czech Republic. The slaughtering statistics covers the livestock for slaughter, both of domestic and imported origin, regardless of whether the animals were bought or slaughtered in return for payment.
The questionnaire allows recording weight of the slaughtered animals both in live and in carcass weight. The live weight means empty body weight of the animal before the slaughter. Carcass weight is the weight of a cold carcass; in case of using the weight recorded warm. Definition of the carcass is the following:
Cattle: the whole body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and skinning, presented without the head (separated from the carcass at the atloido-occipital joint); without the feet
(severed at the carpametacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints); without the organs contained in the thoracic and abdominal cavities with or without the kidneys, the kidney fat and the pelvic fat; and without the sexual organs and the attached muscles and without the udder or the mammary fat.
Pigs: the body of a slaughtered animal, bled and eviscerated, whole or divided down the mid-line, without tongue, bristles, hooves, sexual organs, flare fat, kidneys and diaphragm.
Sheep and goats: the whole body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and skinning, presented without the head (separated at the atloido-occipital joint); without the feet (severed at the carpametacarpal or tarsometatarsal joints); without the tail (severed between the sixth and seventh caudal vertebrae); without the udder and sexual organs; with the kidneys and kidney fat; and without the other organs contained in the thoracic and abdominal cavities.
Horses: the body of a slaughtered animal as presented after bleeding, evisceration and skinning, without the head, the tail, the udder and parts of limbs; the kidneys and kidney fat are part of the carcass; the pelvic fat is not included.
Poultry and ostriches: the animal plucked and drawn, without head and feet and without neck, heart, liver and gizzard.
Recalculation of the recorded weight (live or carcass) to the opposite value (carcass or live) is done during processing of the recorded values using the following coefficients (1/dressing percentage):
Category | Coefficient | Note |
|---|---|---|
Calves | 1.69 | |
Young cattle | 1.836 | |
Bulls, bullocks | 1.82 | |
Heifers | 1.89 | |
Cows | 1.94 | |
Pigs excluding sows and boars | 1.3 | |
Sows, boars | 1.53 | |
Sheep, goats | 2.244 | |
Lambs | 2.346 | |
Horses | 1.94 |
Categories of slaughtering statistics are given by the Commission implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2745.
| Animal category | Definition by Regulation 2023/2745, national specifications | Type of meat |
|---|---|---|
| Bovines | Cattle (Bos taurus L.) and water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis L.), including hybrids such as Beefalo. | Beef Buffalomeat production is considered non-significant. |
Calves | Bovine animals aged 8 months or under | Veal |
Young cattle | Bovine animals aged over 8 but not over 12 months | Veal (of young cattle) |
Bulls | Non-castrated male bovine animals aged 12 months or over | Beef of bulls |
Bullocks | Castrated male bovine animals aged 12 months or over | Beef of bullocks |
Heifers | Female bovine animals that have not yet calved aged 12 months or over | Beef of heifers |
Cows | Female bovine animals that have calved | Beef of cows |
| Pigs | Domestic animals of the species Sus scrofa domesticus Erxleben | |
Pigs without sows; | Pigs other than sows | Pigmeat of pigs other than sows |
Sows | Female pigs that have farrowed | Pigmeat of sows |
Boars; | Non-castrated male pigs | |
| Sheep | Domestic animals of the species Ovis aries L. | Sheepmeat; Mutton (= sheepmeat of sheep other than lambs) |
Of which lambs | Male or female sheep under 12 months old | Lamb |
| Goats | Domestic animals of the subspecies Capra aegagrus hircus L. | Goatmeat |
| Horses | Domestic animals of family Equidae, i.e. horses, donkeys, and their hybrids | Horsemeat |
| Chickens (chicks, hens) | Domestic animals of the species Gallus gallus L. | Poultrymeat; Since 2025 |
| Turkeys | Domestic animals of the genus Meleagris. | |
| Ducks | Domestic animals of the genus Anas and species Cairina moschata L. | |
| Other poultry | Domestic animals of the species Anser anser domesticus L. (Geese) Domestic animals of the species Struthio camelus L. (Ostriches) Other poultry fowl not elsewhere classified, such as quails (Coturnix spp.), pheasants (Phasianus spp.), guineafowl (Numida meleagris domestica L.) and pigeons (Columbinae spp.). Birds raised in confinement for hunting purposes and not for meat/egg production are excluded. | Meat of other poultry summed up with meat of chicken, hens, ducks, and turkeys was presented as Poultrymeat till 2024. Since 2025, the yearly value for meat of other poultry summed up with the yearly value for Poultrymeat has been presented as Poultrymeat, total. |
Source of data on poultrymeat production:
Monthly questionnaire on purchases, stocks, sales, and prices of poultry and poultry products (Drůb (MZe) 4‑12); data taken: heads of slaughtered animals of chicken species (Gallus gallus), ducks, turkeys, and their weight of carcasses whose meat has been deemed fit for human consumption.
Annual questionnaire on slaughters (Drůb (MZe) 4‑01); data taken: heads of slaughtered geese, other poultry, and ostriches and their weight of carcasses whose meat has been deemed fit for human consumption.
Estimates of slaughtering out of slaughterhouses for pigs, sheep, goats, and poultry are provided by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. Data on cattle slaughtering out of slaughterhouses come from the Central Animal Register (Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic). Horse slaughtering out of slaughterhouses is not permitted in the Czech Republic.
The results of the survey are published at national level as well as in regional (NUTS 3) breakdown, except for poultry.
Dissemination:
Livestock slaughtering and meat production (Product code 270127) are presented via Datastat application with pre-set and optional parameters in 3 data sets:
Livestock slaughtering at slaughterhouses (data available from 2014 onwards)
https://data.csu.gov.cz/datastat/dash?aSada=ZEM0202B
Livestock slaughtering out of slaughterhouses (data available from 2014 onwards)
https://data.csu.gov.cz/datastat/dash?aSada=ZEM0202C
Meat production (data available from 2000 onwards)
https://data.csu.gov.cz/datastat/dash?aSada=ZEM0202A
Tables are available in xls (xlsx) and pdf formats in the archive of the publication ending with the reference period of December 2017.
Livestock Slaughtering - December 2017 | Products
Symbols used in archival xlsx tables:
- no cases registered (real zero)
. not available or unreliable
x not applicable
0 less than half the unit used