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The drive to increase the output of animal product in some sectors of ruminant livestock production has led to greater use of feeds such as cereal grains and soyabean meal that are potentially human-edible. This trend has caused concern since, by so doing, ruminants compete not only with monogastric livestock but also with the human population for a limited global area of cultivatable land on which to produce grain crops. Reasons for using potentially human-edible feeds in ruminant diets include increased total daily energy intake, greater supply of essential amino acids and improved ruminal balance between fermentable energy and degradable protein. Soyabean meal, produced on land that has been in arable cultivation for many years can fulfil a useful role as a supplier of undegraded dietary protein in diets for high-yielding dairy cows. However, in the context of sustaining the production of high-quality foods from livestock to meet the demands of a growing human population, the use of potentially human-edible feed resources by livestock should be restricted to livestock with the highest daily nutrient requirements; that is, potentially human-edible feed inputs should be constrained to meeting requirements for energy and protein and to rectifying imbalances in nutrient supply from pastures and forage crops such as high concentrations of nitrogen (N). There is therefore a role for human-edible feeds in milk production because forage-only systems are associated with relatively low output per head and also low N use efficiency compared with systems with greater reliance on human-edible feeds. Profitability on farm is driven by control of input costs as well as product value and examples are given of low-cost bovine milk and meat production with little or no reliance on potentially human-edible feeds. In beef production, the forage-only systems currently under detailed real-time life-cycle analysis at the North Wyke Farm Platform, can sustain high levels of animal growth at low feed cost. The potential of all-forage diets should be demonstrated for a wide range of ruminant milk and meat production systems. The challenge for the future development of ruminant systems is to ensure that potentially human-edible feeds, or preferably human-inedible by-products if available locally, are used to complement pastures and forage crops strategically rather than replace them.

The food-feed competition is one of the complex challenges, and so are the ongoing climate change, land degradation and water shortage for realizing sustainable food production systems. By 2050 the global demand for animal products is projected to increase by 60% to 70%, and developing countries will have a lion’s share in this increase. Currently, ~800 million tonnes of cereals (one-third of total cereal production) are used in animal feed and by 2050 it is projected to be over 1.1 billion tonnes. Most of the increase in feed demand will be in developing countries, which already face many food security challenges. Additional feed required for the projected increased demand of animal products, if met through food grains, will further exacerbate the food insecurity in these countries. Furthermore, globally, the production, processing and transport of feed account for 45% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector. This paper presents approaches for addressing these challenges in quest for making livestock sector more sustainable. The use of novel human-inedible feed resources such as insect meals, leaf meals, protein isolates, single cell protein produced using waste streams, protein hydrolysates, spineless cactus, algae, co-products of the biofuel industry, food wastes among others, has enormous prospects. Efficient use of grasslands also offers possibilities for increasing carbon sequestration, land reclamation and livestock productivity. Opportunities also exist for decreasing feed wastages by simple and well proven practices such as use of appropriate troughs, increase in efficiency of harvesting crop residues and their conversion to complete feeds especially in the form of densified feed blocks or pellets, feeding as per the nutrient requirements, among others. Available evidence have been presented to substantiate arguments that: (a) for successful and sustained adoption of a feed technology, participation of the private sector and a sound business plan are required, (b) for sustainability of the livestock production systems, it is also important to consider the consumption of animal products and a case has been presented to assess future needs of animal source foods based on their requirements for healthy living, (c) for dairy animals, calculation of Emission Intensity based on the lifetime lactation rather than one lactation may also be considered and (d) for assessment of the efficiency of livestock production systems a holistic approach is required that takes into consideration social dimensions and net human-edible protein output from the system in addition to carbon and water footprints.

As the global population increases and the economy grows rapidly, the demand for livestock products such as meat, egg and milk continue to increase. The shortage of feed in livestock production is a worldwide problem restricting the development of the animal industry. Natural woody plants are widely distributed and have a huge biomass yield. The fresh leaves and branches of some woody plants are rich in nutrients such as proteins, amino acids, vitamins and minerals and can be used to produce storage feed such as silage for livestock. Therefore, the development and utilization of natural woody plants for clean fermented feed is important for the sustainable production of livestock product. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the research progress, current status and development prospects of forageable natural woody plant feed resources. The nutritional composition and uses of natural woody plants, the main factors affecting the fermentation of woody plant silage and the interaction mechanism between microbial co-occurrence network and secondary metabolite are reviewed. Various preparation technologies for clean fermentation of woody plant silage were summarized comprehensively, which provided a sustainable production mode for improving the production efficiency of livestock and producing high-quality livestock product. Therefore, woody plants play an increasingly important role as a potential natural feed resource in alleviating feed shortage and promoting sustainable development of livestock product.

The present study has mapped the hot spots vulnerable to changing climate and identified the underlying driving indicators in subtropical Trans and Upper Gangetic plains (TUGP) of India. The long-term trends indicate that the area between latitude 25 and 28° N has been more exposed to adverse climatic changes especially rise in maximum summer/monsoon and minimum winter temperatures. The more predominant correlates of vulnerability in the region come not from the exposure to adverse meteorological conditions but from prevailing socio-economic conditions (adaptive capacity) and the increased environmental pressure (sensitivity). Among the top 40 most vulnerable districts in the TUGP, in about two-third, the exposure was at moderate to low level, but sensitivity was high and adaptive capacity very weak. Among the sensitivity indicators, the factor loadings, obtained through modified principal component technique, were high for average size of landholdings, Temperature Humidity Index load and productivity of paddy and wheat crops. Irrigation intensity, farm mechanization, cropping intensity, livestock density, proportion of milch animals stock, rural literacy rate and veterinary institutions were the critical factors in determining the adaptive capacity of a district. The study outlines range of research and policy imperatives for enhancing resilience of crop–livestock production system.

Livestock production systems are complex and evolve over time, affecting their adaptability to economic, political, and disease-related changes. In Europe, disease resilience is crucial due to threats like the African swine fever virus, which jeopardizes pork production stability. The European Union identifies farm production type as a key risk factor for disease spread, making it important to track changes in farm production types to assess disease risk. However, detailed production type data is often lacking in national databases. For Swiss pig farms, we used prediction and clustering algorithms to classify 9’687 − 11’247 trading farms between 2014 and 2019 by one of eleven production types. We then analyzed the pig trade network and stratified farm centrality measures (ICC and OCC) by production type. We found that 145 farms belonging to three production types have substantially higher ICC and OCC than other farms, suggesting that they could be the target of disease surveillance programs. Our predictions until 2025 show an increase both in overall pig trade network connectivity and in proportion of production types with high ICC and OCC, indicating that the structural changes in the Swiss pig production system may increase infectious disease exposure over time.

Youths are the highest consumers of ICT and they are currently using Social Media (SM) to stir interest, ask questions, and solve constraints in agricultural enterprises. Youths’ participation in livestock enterprises through social media is increasing because they are not capital-intensive and can be practiced in their residences. Hence, the effects of SM on youth involvement in livestock production (LP) were investigated. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 150 respondents, and a questionnaire was used for data collection and analysis using percentages, mean, standard deviation Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), and t-test at ≤ 0.05. Findings revealed that respondents had 1–5 years of experience (47.3 %), were efficient in computer literacy (53.3 %), and involved in LP before SM utilisation (6.7 %). Websites ( = 1.83), YouTube ( = 1.69) and WhatsApp ( = 1.65) were the most available SM platforms. Many respondents (88.9 %) were operating on a low scale of LP, while a few (11.1 %) were on a medium scale before SM utilisation. The deployment of SM increased respondents with a medium scale of LP (from 11.1 % to 53.3 %) and decreased respondents with a low scale of LP (from 88.9 % to 30.0 %), while 10.7 % of respondents were characterised by a large scale of LP. Power supply ( = 2.51) and cost of data ( = 2.43) were the major challenges to the use of SM for LP. A significant relationship (r = 0.531, p = 0.025) existed between the use of SM and the level of LP. Significant differences existed between the level of LP before (0.804 ± 1.021) and after the use (1.340 ± 1.000) of SM. Hence, SM boosted youths’ involvement in agriculture, raised LP, and consequently decreased unemployment rates. Solar energy, cheap data, and favourable financial schemes for young farmers should be made available.

Despite the importance of integrated crop–livestock production in sustainable agricultural production and food security, there is a limited literature on the factors that influence this farming system’s efficiency. The objective of this study is to identify the sources and drivers of crop–livestock production efficiency for smallholder farmers in Ghana. First, a Färe–Primont index approach was applied to estimate and decompose overall efficiency (i.e. total factor productivity efficiency [TFPE]) of farmers into three components: technical efficiency (OTE), scale efficiency (OSE) and mix efficiency (OME). The results show that OME was the primary source of TFPE, followed by OTE and OSE. Second, the effects of various socioeconomic and management factors on the three efficiency components were investigated using a fractional regression model (FRM). Land ownership, extension, household head age, crop–livestock diversification and distance to markets improved crop–livestock farming system’s efficiency. However, the results show that these variables had different effects on the various efficiency components. For example, extension improved scale and mix efficiency but not technical efficiency. As a result, policies and development interventions must take these factors and their varying effects into account in order to improve crop–livestock farming system’s efficiency and smallholder farmers’ food security. Overall, this study emphasises the importance of employing methods that decompose efficiency into finer components and investigates their drivers.

For livestock production systems to play a positive role in global food security, the balance between their benefits and disbenefits to society must be appropriately managed. Based on the evidence provided by field-scale randomised controlled trials around the world, this debate has traditionally centred on the concept of economic-environmental trade-offs, of which existence is theoretically assured when resource allocation is perfect on the farm. Recent research conducted on commercial farms indicates, however, that the economic-environmental nexus is not nearly as straightforward in the real world, with environmental performances of enterprises often positively correlated with their economic profitability. Using high-resolution primary data from the North Wyke Farm Platform, an intensively instrumented farm-scale ruminant research facility located in southwest United Kingdom, this paper proposes a novel, information-driven approach to carry out comprehensive assessments of economic-environmental trade-offs inherent within pasture-based cattle and sheep production systems. The results of a data-mining exercise suggest that a potentially systematic interaction exists between ‘soil health’, ecological surroundings and livestock grazing, whereby a higher level of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock is associated with a better animal performance and less nutrient losses into watercourses, and a higher stocking density with greater botanical diversity and elevated SOC. We contend that a combination of farming system-wide trials and environmental instrumentation provides an ideal setting for enrolling scientifically sound and biologically informative metrics for agricultural sustainability, through which agricultural producers could obtain guidance to manage soils, water, pasture and livestock in an economically and environmentally acceptable manner. Priority areas for future farm-scale research to ensure long-term sustainability are also discussed.

This paper explores the critical role of the livestock sector in sustaining livelihoods in rural India and emphasizes the need for sustainable livestock production. Livestock farming, which engages over 64% of agricultural households-predominantly small and marginal farmers-contributes significantly to household income, nutritional security, and poverty reduction. In 2022-23, livestock accounted for 30.23% of gross value added (GVA) in India's agriculture and allied sectors, highlighting its economic significance. However, environmental degradation, methane emissions, and inadequate animal welfare pose sustainability concerns. The paper introduces a four-dimensional framework to assess the sustainability of the livestock sector, focusing on livelihood security, meeting nutritional demands, environmental immunity, and animal welfare. Analysis reveals that growth in milk production, a key indicator of livestock productivity, has been driven more by population increase than yield improvements, raising questions about long-term sustainability. Additionally, resource use efficiency remains suboptimal, with labour being overutilized and essential inputs like veterinary care underused. Spatial analysis identifies cropping intensity and livestock income share as significant factors influencing livestock farming adoption across states. The paper also underscores the importance of livestock support services, such as veterinary care and technical knowledge dissemination, in enhancing productivity and profitability. Animal welfare and indigenous breed conservation are crucial for societal acceptability and environmental sustainability. The paper recommends strategies to enhance livestock productivity, reduce environmental impact through methane mitigation, improve resource use efficiency, and strengthen support services. A sustainable livestock sector, driven by higher productivity and responsible practices, is essential for ensuring sustainable livelihoods and addressing future agricultural challenges in India.

To sustainably contribute to food security of a growing and richer world population, livestock production systems are challenged to increase production levels while reducing environmental impact, being economically viable, and socially responsible. Knowledge about the sustainability performance of current livestock production systems may help to formulate strategies for future systems. Our study provides a systematic overview of differences between conventional and organic livestock production systems on a broad range of sustainability aspects and animal species available in peer-reviewed literature. Systems were compared on economy, productivity, environmental impact, animal welfare and public health. The review was limited to dairy cattle, beef cattle, pigs, broilers and laying hens, and to Europe, North America and New Zealand. Results per indicators are presented as in the articles without performing additional calculations. Out of 4171 initial search hits, 179 articles were analysed. Studies varied widely in indicators, research design, sample size and location and context. Quite some studies used small samples. No study analysed all aspects of sustainability simultaneously. Conventional systems had lower labour requirements per unit product, lower income risk per animal, higher production per animal per time unit, higher reproduction numbers, lower feed conversion ratio, lower land use, generally lower acidification and eutrophication potential per unit product, equal or better udder health for cows and equal or lower microbiological contamination. Organic systems had higher income per animal or full time employee, lower impact on biodiversity, lower eutrophication and acidification potential per unit land, equal or lower likelihood of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and higher beneficial fatty acid levels in cow milk. For most sustainability aspects, sometimes conventional and sometimes organic systems performed better, except for productivity, which was consistently higher in conventional systems. For many aspects and animal species, more data are needed to conclude on a difference between organic and conventional livestock production systems.