All quarters of last year showed positive changes in relation to the respective periods of the previous year
Cattle slaughter registered an increase of 8.2% and reached 42.94 million heads slaughtered in 2025, 3.25 million more than in 2024. It is the highest result obtained in the history of the research, surpassing that recorded in 2024, until then the highest value in the series.
All quarters of 2025 showed positive variation in relation to the respective periods of the previous year. The data comes from the complete results of the Quarterly Animal Slaughter Survey for the year 2025, released on Wednesday (18 March 2026) by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).
Slaughter of pigs and chickens also registered records, with 60.69 million heads of pigs, an increase of 4.3% compared to 2024, and 6.69 billion heads of chickens, an increase of 3.1% compared to the previous year.
Increases in cattle slaughter were recorded in 25 of the 27 federation units. The most significant increases, with a share of 1.0% or more, occurred in:
- São Paulo (+629.22 thousand heads),
- Pará (+472.77 thousand heads),
- Rondônia (+364.43 thousand heads),
- Goiás (+244.87 thousand heads),
- Mato Grosso (+199.21 thousand heads) and
- Mato Grosso do Sul (+175.09 thousand heads).
Pigs and chickens
Pig slaughter reached 60.69 million heads in 2025, an increase of 4.3% (+2.51 million heads) compared to 2024, setting a new record in the historical series since 1997. There was an increase in 15 of the 26 federation units participating in the survey. Santa Catarina maintained the leadership, with 28.2% of the national slaughter, followed by Paraná (21.2%) and Rio Grande do Sul (17.9%).
Chicken slaughter also registered a new record in the historical series, with 6.69 billion heads slaughtered in 2025, an increase of 3.1% (+201.34 million) in relation to 2024. In 23 of the 26 federation units participating in the survey there was growth. Among the federation units, Paraná continued to lead in 2025, with 34.4% national participation, followed by Santa Catarina (13.7%), Rio Grande do Sul (11.4%) and São Paulo (11.3%).
4th quarter
Cattle slaughter in the 4th quarter of 2025, with 11.04 million heads, fell 2.7% compared to the previous quarter. This amount was 14.0% higher than that obtained in the same period in 2024.
Pig slaughter was 15.29 million heads in the 4th quarter of 2025, an increase of 5.8% compared to the same period in 2024 and a drop of 3.5% compared to the 3rd quarter of 2025.
Chicken slaughter was 1.71 billion heads in the 4th quarter of 2025, an increase of 5.7% compared to the same period in 2024. In comparison with the 3rd quarter of 2025, the increase was 1.5%.
Chicken egg production breaks record
Production was 4.95 billion dozen in 2025, an increase of 5.7% compared to the previous year. The total is a production record in the historical series.
The sector has been performing consecutive records in annual accumulated egg production recorded by the survey since 1998.
More than half of the farms, 1,179 (54.1%), produced eggs for consumption, accounting for 82.4% of the total produced, while 1,000 farms (45.9%) produced eggs for hatching, accounting for 17.6% of the total.
In the 4th quarter of 2025, chicken egg production reached 1.26 billion dozen, an increase of 4.1% compared to the same quarter in 2024 and growth of 1.5% over that recorded in the immediately previous quarter.
Acquisition of milk
Dairies that operate under some type of health inspection service captured 27.51 billion liters in 2025, an increase of 8.5% over the amount recorded in 2024.
The year 2025 was the third year of growth in milk acquisition, after experiencing 2 years of consecutive declines, and was the largest acquisition in history when records started in 1997 were verified.
Considering production throughout 2025, the average price of a liter of milk purchased was around R$2.56, a drop of 1.9% compared to the average price of purchases in 2024 (R$2.61).
In the 4th quarter of 2025, the acquisition of raw milk was 7.36 billion liters, an increase of 8.6% compared to the 4th quarter of 2024, and an increase of 3.9% compared to the immediately previous quarter.
Cowhide
In 2025, the tanneries investigated by the Quarterly Leather Survey declared having received 44.03 million whole pieces of raw bovine hide. This amount was a record for the survey, 9.8% higher than that recorded in the previous year.
In the 4th quarter of 2025, tanneries declared having received 11.13 million pieces of leather, an increase of 11.8% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and a decrease of 2.4% compared to the previous quarter.
Following the pace of slaughterhouses, the Quarterly Leather Survey revealed that the acquisition of leather by tanneries followed the record of cattle slaughter.
With information from .
