# Can Livestock Farming Benefit from Industry 4.0 Technology? Evidence from Recent Study
## 1 Introduction  
The term Industry 4.0 stands for the vision of the fourth industrial revolution. Based on an initiative of the German Government, the \"Plattform Industrie 4.0\" was founded in 2013 by three German industry associations, and the term Industry 4.0 was introduced to the public at Hanover Fair 2013 [1]. The principal precondition of Industry 4.0 is a real-time capable, intelligent, horizontal and vertical network of humans, machines, objects, and ICT systems for the dynamic management of complex systems [2].  
This further development of technological processes is leading to a complete restructuring of the industrial sector, which will also have an impact on agriculture. Since no standardized definition or structure is available for the term Industry 4.0, a framework has to be developed through an analysis of the literature with which the effects on agriculturecan be assessed. Based on the fundamentals stated in this work, the current effects and possibilities of Industry 4.0 on livestock farming may be analyzed.  
The work presented here was first motivated by the question of how far the term Agriculture 4.0 may be defined as the implementation of Industry 4.0 in agriculture. This question is part of a necessary discussion towards a common understanding of the term Agriculture 4.0. The answer to this question is beyond the scope of this article, but we want to contribute to answering it.  
The specific aim of this study is to understand whether and how Industry 4.0 benefits, as they were identified as most important for industrial use cases by [PERSON] [3] (cf. Table 1), are applicable and beneficial in agricultural production and the agricultural value chain. The three most important areas of animal husbandry in Germany were considered in detail: poultry, pig fattening, and dairy farming.  
This study brought together expert authors from the Industry 4.0 domain and from livestock farming. The livestock farming experts estimated the applicability and usefulness of the eight Industry 4.0 benefits, based on a non-systematic literature search and personal experience.  
By checking the applicability and the potential of Industry 4.0 benefits to each of these three livestock farming areas, this study not only resulted in an in-depth look at the status and potential of the application of 4.0 technologies and concepts in animal husbandry. The study also helped to understand the limits and necessary adoptions when transferring the Industry 4.0 idea to livestock farming. Thus, this study contributes to the general discussion on how far the real role of Industry 4.0 in livestock farming may justify the attribute \"4.0\" in the terms Livestock Farming 4.0 and Agriculture 4.0.  
The primary regional focus of the study was Central Europe, with a particular focus on Germany.  
This article is organized as follows: Section 2 mentions the most relevant literature and the context of this study. In Section 3, Approach of Investigation, the explanation of the Industry 4.0 benefits is cited, as the benefits determine the basic structure of this study. In Section 4, Results, we first present the most relevant differences between industrial and livestock production. This is followed by the results for the three livestock farming sectors, and finally a generalized view on the applicability, state, and potential of Industry 4.0 benefits in livestock farming. The article ends with a Discussion and Conclusion.  
At the end of the paper, we conclude that, with certain adaptations, most of the Industry 4.0 benefits are applicable to livestock farming and may contribute to improving livestock production.