Agronomists Beudou et al. show that local actors from two contrasted French territories have different perception of livestock services provided to the society. They highlight how societal demand for these services can lever the agroecological transition of livestock farming systems, orientate public policies and trigger effective actions.
Poultry producers are always seeking a more efficient chicken that will grow faster using fewer resources. But what are the consequences on the birds themselves? Scientists Tallentire et al. find that the improved efficiency of modern breeds is the result of increased growth rate, particularly of breast meat. They discuss the effects of artificial selection on traits such as metabolic activity. As industrial feed production has a huge environmental impact, is this progress in chicken genetics good news for global food sustainability?
Castration of male piglets is a standard practice used by the pig industry to avoid boar taint, a sensory defect of meat from boars. An initiative to abandon this practice has been undertaken by key stakeholders in European Union, which will greatly impact the pig meat sector and which has stimulated intensive research to find easy implementable alternatives to reduce boar taint. Dietary compounds have shown promising results as potential alternative to reduce boar taint. Research from Bilić-Šobot et al. shows that hydrolysable tannins should prevent boar taint by affecting metabolic pathways of boar taint substances.
Grazing intensification with non-native livestock degrade vegetation cover, particularly, in arid environments where low resource availability in the soil strongly limits plant recovery after damage. However, it remains unclear whether the negative effect of grazing on consumed plants is transmitted to plant offspring. Tadey & Souto analysed whether grazing reduces fruit weight, germination percentage and seedling vigor of consumed vegetation along a grazing gradient. They found that increasing livestock density decreased fruit weight and germination percentage but, unexpectedly, enhanced seedling vigor of dryland shrub species.
Dairy farms could improve their environmental footprint by feeding more homegrown forage by reducing imports of feed and enhancing the use of fertilizers. Long and Ketterings analyzed 14 years of yield data from a 1000-cow dairy farm to identify highly productive fields that are stable under changing climate. They found that increasing soil organic matter, impoving drainage and optimizing soil fertility should decrease the impact of weather extremes.
Stubble grazing is traditionally perceived as a practice that degrades soils. As potential consequence is the decrease of soil carbon, which is transferred to the atmosphere as CO2, a greenhouse gas. To check this assumption scientists Stavi et al. studied stubble grazing following wheat crops in drylands. They found that moderate stubble grazing does not degrade the soil and does not decrease the quantity of soil organic carbon.
Global warming is moving plant and animal species toward cooler areas, thus impacting agriculture and food production. In particular livestock farmers should adapt their pratices to climate changes, but there is actually few evidence of shepherd adaptation. Rigolot et al. surveyed shepherds from the French Auvergne. They found that shepherds clearly modify their use of collective mountain pastures in summer.
Chicken farms are very popular in Kampala City, Uganda, with 70% of all poultry products produced locally. However, the high cost of chicken feed may incite chicken growers to use low quality feed. The report by Kasule et al. indeed shows that own-mixed feeds are considerably lower in protein, metabolizable energy, and calcium than the minimum dietary recommendations. These findings highlight the need to give farmers training on how to source feed ingredients of good quality as well as feed formulation and mixing.
Livestock farming is very popular but causes regularly issues of food security and pollution. The long-term viability of livestock farming is critical for animal health, farm income, animal welfare and the environment. Therefore methods to assess the sustainability of livestock farming are needed. In a review by Lebacq et al. three different methods are analysed: the method-based approach, objective-driven approach and data-driven approach.