The future of animal feeding: towards sustainable precision livestock farming

In the future, production will increasingly be affected by globalization of the trade in feed commodities and livestock products, competition for natural resources, particularly land and water, competition between feed, food and biofuel, and by the need to operate in a carbonconstrained economy, says Nutreco’s Dr. Leo den Hartog. Moreover, he suggests, livestock production will be increasingly affected by consumer and societal concerns and legislation. A way forward in the development of profi table modern pig production will be the concept of sustainable precision livestock farming, den Hartog believes. This aims to integrate the technological approach of precision livestock farming with the social and ecological aspects. Optimization of productivity and effi ciency will play a crucial role, as well as maximization of the profi t for all stakeholders in the pork chain, he says. He discusses the necessity for and rationale behind the concept, with a special focus on animal feeding