# Can Livestock Farming Benefit from Industry 4.0 Technology? Evidence from Recent Study
## 4 Results
### Dairy Farming
#### 4.4.2 State and Potential of Industry 4.0 Benefits
**Productivity optimization:** As stated above, there are many points visible for improving the productivity of dairy production in the context of the reduction in environmental loads and the improvement of sustainability and animal welfare. Thus, the productivity improvement of dairy production must be organized in recognition of the multiple expectations of society. In view of the importance and transformative benefits of AI as well as its risks, AI is a growing policy priority for all stakeholders, and trustworthy AI is the key to reaping AI's benefits [120]. According to the ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI [121], a sector-specific application of these guidelines seems recommended [122]. Generalized View on the Applicability, State, and Potential of Industry 4.0 Benefits in Livestock Farming  
The investigation of the state and potential of Industry 4.0 benefits in poultry, pig fattening, and dairy farming showed many commonalities, even if there are differences between vertically oriented sectors like broiler and pig fattening and the more horizontally oriented dairy farming. Some Industry 4.0 benefits offer the potential for the further development of livestock farming to generation 4.0. A few Industry 4.0 benefits need to be redefined for livestock farming or are not really required (Figure 1). The main part of livestock products is sold to the food-producing sector. In most cases, this sector requests homogenous product and quality parameters over time. The demand in  
Figure 1: Applicability and potential of Industry 4.0 benefits for livestock farming, as far as the main products are not sold directly to the consumer but to the food industry. Other than in industry, individualization and demand are mainly directed towards the biological individuum. Green: Potential Industry 4.0 benefit for livestock farming. Orange: Rarely applicable and little needed in livestock farming. terms of quantity may change over time. However, basically, continuous high-throughput farming is necessary for economic success in a very competitive market. As a consequence, varying small product quantities with individual customer-defined features (\"lot size 1\") are not needed in agricultural production. Additionally, there are typically no changes in the product features that are requested by the customer. Thus, the livestock production system became very rigid and inflexible. Sure, there are some minor options for flexibilization and demand orientation, such as changing the animal race, the food composition, a certain variability in the slaughtering weight, or the hatching date, but they have less importance than in industry. On the other side, livestock farming deals with biological individuals with individual development, behavior, demand, and so on. This aspect is absent in industrial production. Therefore, when transferring Industry 4.0 benefits to livestock farming, **Digital individualization** and **Demand orientation** take on different meanings, addressing the development and needs of individual animals or herds of animals. The remaining five Industry 4.0 benefits are directly transferable and applicable to livestock farming: All pillars of **Sustainability** are relevant in livestock farming and may be stimulated and increased by Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies. Animal health and welfare must be regarded as an important part of the pillars of sustainability, if not supplemented as a fourth pillar in this context, as it receives lots of attention in public opinion and agricultural politics. Livestock farming was always characterized by strong **Process orientation**. Despite the fact that on the farm, most of the process data are not gathered and most processes are not digitally interconnected, some process data are already collected and applied digitally, such as milking results from the AMS. Some suppliers of piglets, chicks, or feed already give digital information along with their delivery. Additionally, some slaughterhouses already transfer digital data.