Despite abundant evidence about livestock production’s large contribution to climate change and serious negative impacts on sustainability, it only recently has started to come under scrutiny. Greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, biodiversity loss, inefficient use of natural resources and application of antibiotics are some of the aspects associated with the current and increasing trends in the supply of livestock food products. With sustainability being an anthropocentric concept, there seems to be little concern about animal exploitation and limited discussion about the role of livestock in improving human quality of life. The presentation provides an overview of the climate and sustainability impacts of livestock production and argues that an increase in the adoption of plant-based options is a win-win situation for all species on this planet

Rodents are an important part of agricultural ecosystems, including within commercial orchards. In 2018–2020, we studied small mammals in commercial orchards in Lithuania (northern Europe), snap-trapping them twice a year (in June–July and September–October, 1450 individuals, 11 species) at 18 sites across central, northern, eastern, southern and western parts of the country. Sites were located in apple and plum orchards, as well as currant, raspberry and highbush blueberry plantations, with each site also having a control habitat (meadow or forest) adjacent. We present results of our analysis of body condition, based on body weight and body length in relation to the habitat type and the intensity of agricultural activities, and reproduction parameters (litter size, pregnancy disruption) in common, bank, short-tailed and root voles as well as yellow-necked and striped field mice, accounting for over 96% of trapped rodents. The average body condition index of A. flavicollis was C = 3.39, that of A. agrarius was C = 3.38, and of M. agrestis, M. arvalis, M. glareolus and M. oeconomus C = 3.29, 3.25, 3.23, and 3.01, respectively. Body condition of rodents was significantly dependent on species (p < 0.0001), age (p < 0.005) and gender (p < 0.05) of the individual, season (p < 0.0001) and habitat (p < 0.05); influence of crop age (p = 0.07) and intensity of agricultural practices (p = 0.12) was much weaker or insignificant. We found observed litter size decreasing in autumn in all rodents; that in M. arvalis and A. flavicollis was significant, and there was a tendency to decrease in M. oeconomus. A decrease of the observed litter size in area with higher intensity of agricultural practices was registered for M. arvalis and M. oeconomus, trend in M. glareolus was not significant. In A. flavicollis litter size was similar irrespective of intensity of agricultural practices. In spring, litter size was significantly correlated with the female body mass in M. oeconomus (r = 0.67, p < 0.05, body mass explained 45% of variation of the litter size) and A. flavicollis (r = 0.53, p < 0.005, 27% of litter size variation explained). In autumn, litter size and female body mass was positively correlated in all rodent species. Female body condition index and litter size correlations were weak. Therefore, old orchards with low intensity of agricultural practices are important habitats, maintaining sustainable rodent populations and diversity of animals in the agrolandscape.

The demand for animal-based food products is growing across the world, and many are consciously consuming a protein-rich diet. However, the growing consumption of animal proteins contradicts the Earth's ability to sustainably feed its population. Curbing emissions from agriculture, and especially from livestock production, is essential to fulfilling the Paris Agreement and shifting to a different diet, including EAT-Lancet's Planetary Health Diet, the flexitarian diet, and other ethically based dietary choices. Consuming modest or lower amounts of meat is viewed as one of the ways toward achieving sustainability. An increased focus on plant-based foods and other meat alternatives presents a strong potential for reducing agriculture-induced emissions and transitioning towards a more plant-based agricultural sector and underlines the need for worldwide national policies incentivizing this transition. The presentation explores whether consumers are ready to shift to a diet which is better for their health and that of the natural environment.

Finding practicable and cost-effective forms of enrichment for cattle in feedlot environments is challenging. Specifically, the enrichment must alleviate cattle from the boredom imposed by often barren and confined environments, while not negatively impact productivity. Providing enrichment could also assist in improving feedlot sustainability, addressing societal concern for cattle having a non-natural life. Exercising cattle within their home pens or in laneways, using low-stress stock handling, was tested for its effect on Bos taurus cattle behaviour, temperament and productivity. In late summer 2019, 287 mixed breed B. taurus cattle in a feedlot located approximately 250km north-east of Perth were split across three pens; two provided with different exercise treatments (pen 1 = exercised in-pen, 2 = exercised in the laneway) and a control pen. Cattle were exercised 2-3 times per week for approximately 20 minutes between days 40-80 of a 120-day feeding program. Individual body weights, crush temperament and crush exit speeds were collected on days 40 and 80, while behavioural testing (novel person test, ethograms prior to and post novel person test, and avoidance test) was conducted on days 41, 60 and 79 in home pens. While body weight was found to significantly increase for all pens combined over the study, weight gains did not significantly differ between pens (p < 0.05). Despite this, a smaller and higher range of weight gains were found for the exercised pens, while the control pen had two animals lose weight, with exact cause for weight loss (health or poor performance) unknown. This suggests that while enrichment did not negatively impact productivity, there is a possible positive influence, with more cattle having consistently higher weight gains; however, conducting study over an entire feeding program is needed. Behavioural testing found the cattle exercised in the laneway to be less responsive or recover quickly to human exposure, returning to lying posture and resting behaviour after the novel person test. Cattle exercised in-pen were found to be less reactive during avoidance tests and the novel person test, showing an improved human-animal relationship. Exercise was not found to influence temperament; however, all cattle studied had calm temperaments at the beginning of the study. This initial study shows that exercise impacted cattle behaviour and the human-animal relationship, which if implemented, could assist in feedlots becoming more socially sustainable.

Over the last 20 years, the dairy industry has implemented new technologies related to Automatic Milking Systems (AMS). AMS have the potential to maximise milk production and animals’ welfare, thanks to the voluntary milking access, but also to increase the resource efficiency and environmental sustainability of dairy farms. This study assesses the state of the art of research on AMS through a systematic review of patent trends in the last two decades. Patents of the last 20 years were extracted from the EspaceNet database. Terms appearing in title and abstract of a total of 154 patents were processed by text mining approach, ignoring low-frequency and meaningless words, and including stemming analysis to aggregate variant forms of the same word. Four clusters were identified: Components, Sensors, Process and Animal, which weights were 30%, 29%, 25% and 16%, respectively. The patent trend and the top contributing countries were evaluated. Moreover, for each cluster, a words frequency analysis was carried out in order to identify research tendencies. The results showed that the highest number of patents was yielded in the early 2000s, thus indicating the great interest to AMS in the initial period. The main contributing countries were The Netherlands and Sweden. The clusters trend pointed out that the focus on the animal and the sensing technologies was constant over time. In recent years, the priority of research shifted towards process efficiency and components. Detailed analysis of clusters allowed to appreciate an increasing interest in the animal health and body conditions over time (+249% and +391% from 2000 to 2019, respectively). Moreover, the study gave evidence of the evolution of the barn towards more efficient systems. The processes which showed increasing relevance were the ones related to facilities cleaning (+291%) and vacuum-based milking systems. The new sensing technologies focus primarily on imaging, allowing to develop new decision models (+348%). Results suggest that AMS patents are moving their attention towards more efficient and sustainable systems. This trend represents an important opportunity for a significant increase in the sustainability of the dairy sector, not only for animals but also for the farmers through the efficient use of the resources, thus enhancing the perception of sustainability by the consumer.