Smart Dairy Farming, Smart Livestock Farming

Agricultural corporations in dairy farming and livestock farming, university

Decline in the number of farm workers and aging of farmers are pressing issues for dairy and livestock farming industry. The number of animal husbandry workers dropped from 132,000 in 2015 to 86,000 in 2020.

Meanwhile, owing to the national promotion of farm block enlargement, the number of livestock has doubled from 2003 to 2022: Dairy cattles per farm increased from 58 to 103, beef cattles from 29 to 64, pigs from 1,031 to 2,792, and chickens from 86,000 to 142,000. Intensive farming is raising concerns for deterioration of animal health control and worsening of livestock productivity.  

Moreover, the price of animal feed is soaring due to the influence of Russia-Ukraine situation and the increase of animal feed consumption in China. Furthermore, with rising concern for “animal welfare” across the world, EU member countries, for instance, is at phasing out the use of cages in animal farming, aiming to ban completely by 2027. Satisfying animal welfare standards may impose additional challenges to the producers that are already adversely affected by serious labor shortage and surging costs. Under the circumstances, adoption of technologies, such as “smart barn" for improving livestock's environment, “robots” to reduce workloads, and “precision livestock farming” for reproductive health monitoring, is growing in the dairy and livestock farming industry.

This report aims to illustrate the statuses and outlook of the smart dairy & livestock farming market, by highlighting ongoing practices and future directions of smart animal farming tech companies, together with the results of a questionnaire to animal husbandry corporations asking their intention to use technologies of “smart barn”, “robots”, and “precision livestock farming”.

I. Current Status and Future Perspectives of Dairy & Livestock Farming

II. Current Status and Future Perspectives of Smart Dairy & Livestock Farming

III. Results of Use Intention Survey to 100 Agricultural Corporations in Dairy /Livestock Farming Business

IV. Profiles of Leading Players in Smart Dairy & Livestock Farming

14 corporations and 1 university