AUSTRALIA exported a whopping 17,135 dairy cattle during July. Or did it?

Questions have been raised within industry circles over the accuracy of Australian Bureau of Statistics dairy export figures.

Both Dairy Australia and export company LiveCorp claim the ABS has been over-reporting live-export dairy numbers leaving Australia since January.

According to ABS figures, more than 71,000 dairy cattle were exported in the seven months to the end of July but export companies place the real number at almost half that.

LiveCorp says it has been forced to rely on its own shipping figures, since it discovered the ABS numbers and value of dairy cattle exported to Indonesia were wrong.

LiveCorp chief executive officer Cameron Hall said the ABS statistics could have been inflated for up to 18 months.

However, he said it was only the dairy statistics that were affected.

"We know the overall cattle statistics are correct but when you break it down to the dairy numbers, that is where the problem is," Mr Hall said.

"We are working with the ABS to find the problem."

Mr Hall said the statistics were only wrong for Indonesia, which shows the misleading trend of a surge in numbers being exported.

According to the ABS statistics, 16,162 dairy cattle were exported to Indonesia during July at a value of about $9.7 million.

Mr Hall said the ABS data suggested the dairy live export industry was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

"We hope at some point they (the ABS) will rectify the figures," he said.

The problem has been linked to procedures in Australia and both ABS and LiveCorp were still trying to find the source.

Dairy Australia industry analyst Peter Wilson said the industry body had not relied on the data for several months because it was "wrong".

"The numbers looked a bit suss," Mr Wilson said.

"It looks as though they have been putting through some of the beefies as dairies."

A surge in dairy exports could not be further from the truth, according to Mr Wilson.

He said wet conditions and good domestic prices meant demand for dairy cattle locally had strengthened, resulting in a tighter supply for overseas markets.

The ABS failed to return Weekly Times' phone calls.