Cattle slaughter grew 3.3% in relation to the first quarter of 2026 - Photo: Licia Rubinstein/IBGE News Agency

In the 1st quarter of 2026, cattle slaughter increased by 3.3% compared to the 1st quarter of 2025, the slaughter of hogs and pigs increased by 5.5% and chicken slaughter increased by 3.7%. Compared with the 4th quarter of 2025, the slaughter of cattle, hogs and pigs, and chicken reduced 6.8%, 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. These are the first results of the Quarterly Livestock Surveys, released today (19) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

In the 1st quarter of 2026, 10.29 million cattle head were slaughtered under some type of health inspection service. The slaughter of hogs and pigs registered 15.27 million head, whereas that of chickens, 1.71 billion.

2.63 million tonnes of cattle carcasses were registered, an increase of 5.1% in relation to the first quarter of 2025 and a decrease of 10.2% in relation to the fourth quarter of 2025.

The cumulative weight of the carcasses was 1.37 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 2.6% compared with the 1st quarter of 2025 and a reduction of 3.0% in relation to the previous quarter. In turn, the cumulative weight of chicken carcasses was 3.73 million tonnes, rising 7.0% in relation to the 1st quarter of 2025 and 2.3% over the 4th quarter of 2025.

Acquisition of milk and leather

The results showed that, in the 1st quarter of 2026, the acquisition of raw milk, made by establishments that operate under health inspection, was 6.78 billion liters. This value corresponds to an increase of 3.3% compared to the volume recorded in the 1st quarter of 2025 and a drop of 7.9% compared to that obtained in the previous quarter.

Tanneries that tan at least five thousand whole units of rawhide per year declared having received 10.76 million whole pieces of raw bovine hide in the 1st quarter of 2026. This amount represents stability (0.0%) compared to that recorded in the 1st quarter of 2025 and a drop of 3.3% compared to the previous quarter.

Production of hen eggs

The production of hen eggs, in the 1st quarter of 2026, was 1.21 billion dozen. The result represented an increase of 0.4% compared to the same period of the previous year and a reduction of 3.5% compared to the 4th quarter of 2025.

More about the survey

On a quarterly basis, the IBGE carries out the official statistical surveys of the agricultural scenario, which are the Quarterly Survey of Animal Slaughter, Quarterly Survey of Milk, Quarterly Survey of Leather and Production of Hen Eggs. In order to meet requests from users to quickly access the information of the agricultural scenario, the IBGE began to release the first results of these surveys from the first quarter of 2018 onwards.

The first results will be available nearly one month ahead of the general release of the data in the report IBGE Indicators: Statistics of the Livestock Production. Data from the surveys can be accessed on Sidra. The next release of the complete results, relating to the 1st quarter of 2026, will be on June 16th.

Learn more about the Quarterly Survey of Animal Slaughter – SLAUGHTER:

What is the Quarterly Survey of Animal Slaughter ?
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 Learn more about the Quarterly Survey of Milk – MILK:

What is the Quarterly Survey of Milk?
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 Learn more about the Quarterly Survey of Leather – LEATHER:

What is the Quarterly Survey of Leather?
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 Learn more about Hen Egg Production – POG:

What is POG?
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