# Can Livestock Farming Benefit from Industry 4.0 Technology? Evidence from Recent Study
## 3 Approach of Investigation  
This study is a follow-up work of [16; 17], following the same transdisciplinary approach, but with a focused and deeper look into livestock farming. As a preliminary step, we described the most relevant differences between industrial production and livestock farming with respect to the concepts of Industry 4.0. There are: (a) the economic structure of the livestock sectors, (b) the social situation, (c) the strong environmental context, and (d) the constituent existence of living animals on the farm to be the indispensable context when comparing industry and livestock farming. Sections (b), (c), and (d) were worked out in two focused discussion meetings of most of the authors. We then had a deep look into three different sectors of animal production:  
1. Poultry (broiler and layer production systems)
2. Pig fattening
3. Dairy farming  
For each of these sectors we proceeded in three steps: First, we gave a very short introduction to the specific economic situation of the sector, we summarized the state of digitalization in the processes and farms, including sensors, autonomous machines, network and communication, software, and data. In the third step, for each of the sectors, we detailed and discussed the applicability, state, and potential of the eight possible benefits of Industry 4.0 that were elaborated by [PERSON] and others as basics for the development of Industry 4.0-oriented business models [3; 25]. The third step was realized by one or two coauthors per livestock farming sector with extensive expertise about digitalization in the respective sector. For each of the eight Industry 4.0 benefits, the coauthors were requested to estimate the applicability of the benefit to livestock production and to demonstrate the state and potential by selected technologies and applications. The statements were elaborated based on related literature, on own experience, and on personal communication with farmers, manufacturers, and other partners in the value chain. The research method of asking only one or two experts for each sector was chosen due to the need of prior basic understanding of Industry 4.0 and the meaning of the benefits. Instead of taking interviews with the experts, they were asked to work out written statements, referring to related literature. This approach must be regarded as a limitation of the study. For a good understanding of the eight benefits (Table 1), we recall the short explanations given by [PERSON] et al. [17]:  
**Digital individualization**: Digital media considerably simplify the offer of individualized products and services (\"lot size 1\"). This includes the entire production chain from customer request to realization. **Flexibilization**: Industry 4.0 offers the possibility to react quickly to fluctuations in demand by making production capacities more easily scalable (e.g., through more intelligent plants and simplified capacity procurement) and by making more data available about the environment and the company itself. **Demand orientation/\"X-as a service\"**: Service orientation will be transferred to business models, which in turn will be facilitated by increasing data volume and flexibility. For example, products and services can be offered and billed according to the extent of use. **Sustainability**: Better planning and control of production processes through digitalization can save resources, e.g., through cost- and load-optimized production programs for energy-intensive processes. The availability of extensive and timely data from production and the supply chain allows an additional reduction in resource requirements, e.g., through the early detection of quality problems. In the case of animal husbandry, we have to consider the environment and socio-economics as dimensions of sustainability, and also animal health and welfare are important aspects of sustainability.