OUTLOOK OF FUTURE LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEMS
Oene Oenema
Wageningen University and Research Center, Alterra, P.O.Box 47,
NL-6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Email: O.Oenema@alterra.wag-ur.nl
The increase in global population and changes in the diet, in response to increases
in prosperity, during the next decades are the main drivers for the increasing demand of
animal products in the world. Forecasts indicate that the necessary intensification of
agricultural production, to meet the increases in demand for animal products, will
contribute to dramatic increases in agricultural driven eutrophication and to
unprecedented changes in global ecosystems, when no major system innovations and
increases in resource use efficiency are taken place in agriculture. Demands by the
society with respect to e.g. food quality and safety, and animal welfare put additional
constraints to future livestock farming systems. Both, market, environment and society
will be equally important drivers for the changes that have to take place in livestock
farming systems, though these constraints will be dynamic and different in space and
time.
Innovations are needed in both production systems and end-products. Animal feed
production systems need to be integrated with animal production systems, and animal
production systems need to be linked with the processing industry and retail sectors. The
future food chain has to be transparent, with tracking and tracing systems, and product
and process controls. There will be more direct business to business and business to
society relationships. Management, and in particular information management will be a
decisive production factor. The management of future livestock production systems
combines entrepreneurship with responsibility and integrity.
Markets will differentiate and diversify further. A global market for commodities
will remain, but there will be an increasing market for specialties with added values.
Other livestock farming systems become multi-purpose and multi-functional systems, to
satisfy societal demands with respect to e.g. animal welfare, biodiversity and landscape
maintenance. These systems form a contrast to high-tech ‘deltapark systems’, which
bring together poultry and pork production with glasshouse horticulture and fishponds
under one roof, and which link energy and waste flows from the various sub systems.
Control over nitrogen leakages is also key to future livestock farming systems.
Decreasing nitrogen losses from livestock farming systems via ammonia and nitrous
oxide emissions to the atmosphere and nitrate leaching to groundwater and surface
waters, requires both innovations in animal feeding, animal housing and animal waste
handling. Forecasts for The Netherlands in 2030 indicate that further decreases by a
factor of 5 to 10 in emissions of N to the environment are needed relative to the levels in
2000, to be able to satisfy the targets for biodiversity and nature development.
Developing livestock farming systems that meet the strict targets set by market,
environment and society is a major challenge. Developing instruments and incentives that
facilitate proper implementation of novel livestock farming systems in practice is equally
important. Evidently, this requires dialogue between the farming community, processing
industry and retail and society, and business to business to society agreements.