IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i13p1383-d1689414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Transition as a Driver for Sustainable Tailor-Made Farm Management: An Up-to-Date Overview on Precision Livestock Farming

Author

Listed:
  • Caterina Losacco

    (Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Jonian Area, Section of Veterinary Science and Animal Production, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy)

  • Gianluca Pugliese

    (Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Jonian Area, Section of Veterinary Science and Animal Production, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy)

  • Lucrezia Forte

    (Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy)

  • Vincenzo Tufarelli

    (Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Jonian Area, Section of Veterinary Science and Animal Production, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy)

  • Aristide Maggiolino

    (Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy)

  • Pasquale De Palo

    (Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Valenzano, 70010 Bari, Italy)

Abstract

The increasing integration of sensing devices with smart technologies, deep learning algorithms, and robotics is profoundly transforming the agricultural sector in the context of Farming 4.0. These technological advancements constitute critical enablers for the development of customized, data-driven farming systems, offering potential solutions to the challenges of agricultural intensification while addressing societal concerns associated with the emerging paradigm of “farming by numbers”. The Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) systems enable the continuous, real-time, and individual sensing of livestock in order to detect subtle change in animals’ status and permit timely corrective actions. In addition, smart technology implementation within the housing environment leads the whole farming sector towards enhanced business rentability and food security as well as increased animal health and welfare conditions. Looking to the future, the collection, processing, and analysis of data with advanced statistic methods provide valuable information useful to design predictive models and foster the insight on animal welfare, environmental sustainability, farming productivity, and profitability. This review highlights the significant potential of implementing advanced sensing systems in livestock farming, examining the scientific foundations of PLF and analyzing the main technological applications driving the transition from traditional practices to more modern and efficient farming models.

Suggested Citation

  • Caterina Losacco & Gianluca Pugliese & Lucrezia Forte & Vincenzo Tufarelli & Aristide Maggiolino & Pasquale De Palo, 2025. "Digital Transition as a Driver for Sustainable Tailor-Made Farm Management: An Up-to-Date Overview on Precision Livestock Farming," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-36, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:13:p:1383-:d:1689414
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/13/1383/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/13/1383/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sachs,Jeffrey D. & Kroll,Christian & Lafortune,Guillame & Fuller,Grayson & Woelm,Finn, 2022. "Sustainable Development Report 2022," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781009210034, January.
    2. Wolfert, Sjaak & Ge, Lan & Verdouw, Cor & Bogaardt, Marc-Jeroen, 2017. "Big Data in Smart Farming – A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 69-80.
    3. Moshou, D & Chedad, A & Van Hirtum, A & De Baerdemaeker, J & Berckmans, D & Ramon, H, 2001. "Neural recognition system for swine cough," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 475-487.
    4. Katarzyna Olejnik & Ewa Popiela & Sebastian Opaliński, 2022. "Emerging Precision Management Methods in Poultry Sector," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Georgios I. Papakonstantinou & Nikolaos Voulgarakis & Georgia Terzidou & Lampros Fotos & Elisavet Giamouri & Vasileios G. Papatsiros, 2024. "Precision Livestock Farming Technology: Applications and Challenges of Animal Welfare and Climate Change," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Sachs,Jeffrey D. & Kroll,Christian & Lafortune,Guillame & Fuller,Grayson & Woelm,Finn, 2022. "Sustainable Development Report 2022," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781009210089, January.
    7. Jaime Manning & Greg Cronin & Luciano González & Evelyn Hall & Andrew Merchant & Lachlan Ingram, 2017. "The Behavioural Responses of Beef Cattle ( Bos taurus ) to Declining Pasture Availability and the Use of GNSS Technology to Determine Grazing Preference," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-12, May.
    8. Anthony King, 2017. "Technology: The Future of Agriculture," Nature, Nature, vol. 544(7651), pages 21-23, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kwame Adjei‐Mantey & Millicent O. Awuku & Ruby V. Kodom, 2023. "Revisiting the determinants of food security: Does regular remittance inflow play a role in Ghanaian households? A disaggregated analysis," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(6), pages 1132-1146, August.
    2. Junuguru Srinivas & Naveen Kolloju & Akanksha Singh & Siriman Naveen & Sudhaveni Naresh, 2024. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Sustainable Development Goals-2030," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 15485-15498, December.
    3. Fareri, Silvia & Apreda, Riccardo & Mulas, Valentina & Alonso, Ruben, 2023. "The worker profiler: Assessing the digital skill gaps for enhancing energy efficiency in manufacturing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    4. Guangsen Wei & Weidong Chen & Nima Dongzhou, 2025. "Enhancing Sustainable Development Through Sentiment Analysis of Public Digital Resources: A PSO-LSTM Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(1), pages 581-600, March.
    5. Kyoko Sasaki & Wendy Stubbs & Megan Farrelly, 2023. "The relationship between corporate purpose and the sustainable development goals in large Japanese companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2475-2489, September.
    6. TRIARCHI Eirini & KOLIAS Georgios & KYPRIOTELIS Efstratios, 2023. "Exploring the Role of Institutional Governance in Climate Action in the Western Balkans Economies," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 02, June.
    7. Most. Asikha Aktar & Al-Amrani Khadeem Ali Dhahi & Usman Abdullahi, 2024. "Advancing Sustainable Development through the lens of Energy Efficiency: A Systematic Literature Review," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(5), pages 168-180, September.
    8. Banerjee, Onil & Cicowiez, Martin & Honeck, Erica Cristine & Muthukumara, Mani S. & Stapleton, Katherine Anne, 2025. "Investing in forests Enhances ecosystem services and economic Growth in Cambodia: Evidence from the Integrated Economic-Environmental Modelling (IEEM) approach," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Gamze Sart, 2022. "Impact of Higher Education and Globalization on Sustainable Development in the New EU Member States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-13, September.
    10. Chiuhsiang Joe Lin & Remba Yanuar Efranto, 2023. "Do Age and Gender Change the Perception of Workplace Social Sustainability?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-15, March.
    11. Christoph Funk & Elena Tönjes & Ramona Teuber & Lutz Breuer, 2024. "Reading between the lines: The intersection of research attention and sustainable development goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 4545-4566, October.
    12. de Moura, Fernanda Senra & Barbrook-Johnson, Peter, 2022. "Using data-driven systems mapping to contextualise complexity economics insights," INET Oxford Working Papers 2022-27, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    13. Rüdiger Mutz & Lutz Bornmann & Robin Haunschild, 2025. "How to use assignments of United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) to scientific papers in research evaluation? The proposal of a gold standard combining assignments from different data pro," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1519-1546, March.
    14. Rakotoarimanana Zy Misa Harivelo & Rakotoarimanana Zy Harifidy, 2022. "A Review of Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in Madagascar," J, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-20, November.
    15. Mohmmad Shafie Hairal Anam & Alawi Sulaiman & Abdul Kadir Othman & Nabila Farhana Jamaludin, 2025. "Review of Sustainability Criteria for Paddy Farming in Malaysia Based on Environmental, Economic and Social Dimensions," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(1), pages 1344-1362, January.
    16. Antonio Sianes & Luis A. Fernández-Portillo & Adela Toscano-Valle & Elena Pérez-Velasco, 2023. "Heterogeneity in financing for development strategies as a hindering factor to achieve a global agreement on the 2030 Agenda," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Alnafrah, Ibrahim & Belyaeva, Zhanna, 2024. "The nonlinear road to happiness: Making sense of ESGD impacts on well-being," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 365-381.
    18. Fengmei Ma & Heming Wang & Asaf Tzachor & César A. Hidalgo & Heinz Schandl & Yue Zhang & Jingling Zhang & Wei-Qiang Chen & Yanzhi Zhao & Yong-Guan Zhu & Bojie Fu, 2025. "The disparities and development trajectories of nations in achieving the sustainable development goals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, December.
    19. Renata Dana Nițu-Antonie & Emőke-Szidónia Feder & Kristina Stamenovic & Adrian Brudan, 2022. "A Moderated Serial–Parallel Mediation Model of Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention of Youth with Higher Education Studies in Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    20. Audronė Urmanavičienė & Eglė Butkevičienė, 2023. "The Role of Work Integration Social Enterprises in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case Study of Lithuania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-21, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:13:p:1383-:d:1689414. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.