A review on dairy cattle farming: Is precision livestock farming the compromise for an environmental, economic and social sustainable production?

Abstract

Abstract Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is spreading worldwide for its applications on livestock farms, in both intensive and extensive systems. PLF has started being adopted only recently, but the need of technological support on farm is getting more and more important and is facilitating its distribution on farms. A huge number of researches and scientific studies are available in literature about the adoption of technology, sensors and computer tools for almost all reared species. In this literature review, the goal is to study the recent progresses of PLF, and in particular the scientific studies carried out in the last 7 years (2013–2019) on dairy cattle farming. Health, welfare and production aspects were taken into account together with animal behaviour, environmental barn conditions and their effect on the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. From the main findings, it can be underlined that PLF brings environmental, economic and social sustainability benefits on farms, but these benefits have not yet been quantified through specific methods for sustainability assessments. Therefore, it is important for near future researches to focus not only on the technological improvements of tools and sensors but also on the aspects of environmental, economic and social sustainability of livestock productions that impact on both farmers and the community and consumers. The role of PLF is more and more important and will support the process of decision-making of farmers, change their role on farm and their management view, and make possible the traceability of products and the control of the quality of products and of the animals living conditions as required from policy-makers and stakeholders.