European farmers’ experiences with precision livestock farming systems

Abstract

With the advent of modern livestock production systems since the 1970s, the numbers of animals per farm increased dramatically, and worldwide livestock production has grown by a factor of four. The production of pig and poultry meat has doubled in the last 30 yr following the demand of a fast-growing world population for food of animal origin (FAO, 2006). The output of the world meat market for cattle, pig, and poultry rose from about 60 million tons in 1961 to about 280 million tons 2010 (FAO, 2006). Chicken meat production worldwide has reached in 2012 clearly more than 100 million tons (FAO, 2014). For 2030, a total meat production of poultry, pork, and cattle of about 350 million tons is expected (FAO, 2006). This enormous increase was only possible by significant breeding progress and the development of specialized farms with modern, intensive, and very often non-grazing production systems where the animals are kept in confined houses at high stocking rates. These systems make best use of the animals’ selected genetic qualities that enable them, under appropriate housing, feeding, hygiene, management, and veterinary control, to reach high growth rates and high feed efficiencies in the shortest possible time. As an example, the efficiency of egg production of laying hens rose from 160 eggs in year 1960 to more than 300 eggs in 2011. Today, about 360 million red meat animals are slaughtered in the European Union (EU) per year along with several billions of chicken. Worldwide, about 60 billion animals are slaughtered for food per year. The number of laying hens in one district of Germany rose between 1960 and 1980 by a factor of nearly 12 from a couple of hundred thousand to 12 million while the number of laying hen farms (with more than 3,000 hens) dropped to a couple of hundred (Klon and Windhorst, 2001; Windhorst, 2006). While the number of animals per farm increased, the number of farms decreased and the number of people making their living as farmers dropped to about 2% in Germany. The 38.5 million laying hens are kept in Germany today on 1,355 farms only (Destatis, 2014). At the same time, the prices of farm animal products stagnated or decreased. From statistical figures, it is known that the relative expenditure of consumers in Germany of their income for food dropped from 57% in 1900 to 14% in 2010 (Statista, 2012). For the first time in human history, Europeans do not need to worry about sufficient food supply (Hartung, 2013). This is not the case in all parts of the world. World population rose by 30% since 1990 and is estimated to reach 9.6 billion people who have to be fed in 2050. It is expected that then 70% of the world population will live in urban areas, which is up from 40% in 1990 and about 50% today (Mottet, unpublished). Not least European farmers’ experiences with precision livestock farming systems