"Precision Livestock Farming presents the latest scientific results from worldwide research, field studies and practical application. The book contains peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the 2nd European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming.The major topics in the book are animal welfare; food quality (including traceability of origin) and environmental pollution (including treatment of animal waste). The wide range of research topics reported will be a valuable resource for researchers, advisors, teachers and professionals in agriculture long after the conference has finished."
"Precision livestock farming ’07 contains the latest scientific results from worldwide research, field studies and practical applications. The peer-reviewed papers were presented at the 3rd European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming. The major topics in this book are: - Feed quality management - Sensor technology in animal husbandry - Environmental effects of precision livestock farming - Automation in livestock farming - Implementation, education and training The wide range of research topics reported will be a valuable resource for researchers, advisors, teachers and professionals in agriculture long after the conference has finished. Peer-reviewed papers from the 6th European Conference on Precision Agriculture are presented in a companion publication, Precision agriculture ’07."
Precision livestock farming is becoming ever more relevant as the agricultural industry struggles to come to terms with aspects such as animal welfare, animal disease, the environment, economics, traceability, robots and livestock management. Whilst some benefits have proved elusive, others contribute positively to today's agriculture. Research continues to be necessary and needs to be reported and disseminated to a wide audience. These proceedings contain the reviewed papers from the 4th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming. The papers reflect the wide range of disciplines that impinge upon precision livestock farming including feeding dairy, data quality, poultry and pig applications, livestock environment, wireless sensing, dairy fertility and calving management, animal identification, mastitis detection and locomotion. The broad range of research topics reported are a valuable resource for researchers, advisors, teachers and professionals in agriculture. Also note that the reviewed papers from the 7th European Conference on Precision Agriculture are presented in a companion publication.
"Precision Livestock Farming presents the latest scientific results from worldwide research, field studies and practical application. The book contains peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the 2nd European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming.The major topics in the book are animal welfare; food quality (including traceability of origin) and environmental pollution (including treatment of animal waste). The wide range of research topics reported will be a valuable resource for researchers, advisors, teachers and professionals in agriculture long after the conference has finished."
Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technology is a reality. PLF is a combination of developing animal sensing (sensors) tools and decision-making process at the farm level. It also has the potential to support animal feed suppliers, human-food retailers and other players along the supply chain to make better choices. The current challenge for PLF is the integration of the technology in the majority of the farms and not only to the pioneering farms. This book consist of full-length peer-reviewed papers combined with 'questions and answers' sections. It is the result of a joint session hosted by the European Association of Animal Production and brings together research focusing on real-time interpretation of the combination of sensor development, industry, animal genetics, animal nutrition, and animal health. Unique of this 'cross-disciplinary' approach is that 'animal-focused' scientists, engineers, companies as well as farmers' organizations have interacted and combined their strengths and views. 'Precision Livestock Farming Applications - Making sense of sensors to support farm management' provides an update on the state of the art of PLF in interaction with the other scientific and applicative expertise. It is of interest for researchers, students, professionals, farmers, and livestock industry concerned with livestock production management.
"Precision Livestock presents the latest scientific results from worldwide research, field studies and practical application. The book contains peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the 1st European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming. The papers focus on physiological identification and monitoring of animals, on farm and in transit, and on the operation of automatic milking systems. Major objectives are secure methods of animal identification for traceability; animal welfare and hygiene. The economic and health effects of implementing precision livestock husbandry are featured in many of them. This first conference was held in parallel with the 4th European Conference on Precision Agriculture - the links between both technologies were drawn and the possible interactions between them were shown for the first time. The potential is to integrate both technologies to encompass the whole farm. Peer-reviewed papers from the Precision Agriculture conference are presented in a companion proceedings, Precision Agriculture."
"The potential benefits of ‘doing things more precisely’ in agriculture include terms such as environmental, economic, audit trail, vehicle guidance, crop management and others. Whilst some benefits have proved elusive, others are contributing positively to today’s agriculture. In such an environment, continuing research is required - and needs to be reported and disseminated to a wide audience. These Proceedings contain papers presented at the 5th European Conference on Precision Agriculture, held in Uppsala, Sweden. The papers reflect the wide range of disciplines that impinge on precision agriculture - technology, crop science, soil science, agronomy, information technology, decision support, remote sensing and others. Peer-reviewed papers from the 2nd European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming are presented in a companion proceedings, Precision Livestock Farming ’05."
An understanding of sustainability in animal production is becoming increasingly necessary since the global demand for food is expected to dramatically increase in the coming decades. In this context, raising animals for the production of food will become increasingly challenging. Farm animals should not adversely compete with humans for their own sustenance, and food of animal origin should be safe and affordable. The production of healthy animals will therefore be a prerequisite. Such animals will efficiently convert their feed into food that can be certified as nutritive and safe. In addition there is growing evidence that there should be a focus on animal welfare, and environmental pollution related to animal farming must be minimized. Indeed the equation to resolve the constraints on animal production is complex and multifactorial. It is inarguable that the environment and the feed that is offered to animals, are key elements of sustainability in livestock and poultry production. This book addresses the major issues related to animal health and welfare maintenance in relation to their environment, as well as housing emissions and waste management. Experiments, reviews and expert opinions and scenarios for the future are presented. Each of the chapters has been written by scientists with international reputations. The language used, and the examples and the illustrations provided, make it easy to read. The book is of major and current interest to teachers and students in animal and veterinary sciences and to professionals: veterinarians, farm managers, agricultural advisers worldwide.
Informed livestock sector policy development and priority setting is heavily dependent on a good understanding of livestock production systems. In a collaborative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Livestock Research Institute, stock has been taken of where we have come from in agricultural systems classification and mapping; the current state of the art; and the directions in which research and data collection efforts need to take in the future. The book also addresses issues relating to the intensity and scale of production, moving from what is done to how it is done. The intensification of production is an area of particular importance, for it is in the intensive systems that changes are occurring most rapidly and where most information is needed on the implications that intensification of production may have for livelihoods, poverty alleviation, animal diseases, public health and environmental outcomes. A series of case studies is provided, linking livestock production systems to rural livelihoods and poverty and examples of the application of livestock production system maps are drawn from livestock production, now and in the future; livestock's impact on the global environment; animal and public health; and livestock and livelihoods. This book provides a formal reference to Version 5 of the global livestock production systems map, and to revised estimates of the numbers of rural poor livestock keepers, by country and livestock production system.
"Quality is a keyword in animal production. Next to product quality, process quality has also become relevant for dairy farmers. Issues like food safety, public health, animal health and welfare are determined by the conditions of the production process. To address these, he EU has issued the General Food Law (178-2002) and the Hygiene directives (EC 852/853/854-2004) dealing with the forenamed domains with the aim to protect consumers. The suggestion was also made by the EU that farmers apply a HACCP-like plan to meet these new quality demands. Key issues are structure, organisation, planning, formalisation and demonstrability, which can also be found in the HACCP concept. This book addresses Quality Risk Management through applying the HACCP-like concept. First, the assessment of strong and weak points on a dairy farm are dealt with, which is useful for farm inspection and herd health programmes. Then, the 12-steps for developing a HACCP plan are followed through the various chapters. Many examples and elaborations are given. An example farm, FX, is introduced to show how the different elements may look in reality. At the end of the book characteristics of entrepreneur-like dairy farmers are given and compared to strong and weak points of cattle practitioners. Practitioners may conclude how to better serve this type of farmer. Communication plays a paramount role. Finally, several general issues are addressed: economics, integrating classical herd health with quality risk management programmes. The aim of this book is to give practical guidelines and examples for dairy farmers, cattle practitioners and extension people, who desire to jointly develop and implement a HACCP-based quality risk management programme. 'This book is well written with many practical flow charts and ""Good Practice"" advice. I would recommend it to any veterinarian involved in producing risk management programs or ""Standard Operating Procedure"" type documents for dairy farms. The chapters on good communication and marketing would be useful for most veterinarians.' David S. Beggs, book review editor 'The Australian Cattle Veterinarian' Volume 50, p. 34-35, March '09"
