Livestock

Livestock – Digital Systems for Animal-Based Production in the Bioeconomy

The Livestock field brings together digital solutions for animal-related production and husbandry systems within the bioeconomy. It addresses conventional agricultural livestock farming, insect production, and aquaculture alike. These application areas differ significantly in their biological foundations, technical frameworks, and scaling logic. However, they face similar structural challenges: increasing requirements for animal welfare and biosecurity, growing regulatory demands, rising cost pressure, and high expectations regarding transparency, traceability, and sustainability 

Digital technologies enable the automated, continuous, and objectively measurable recording of animal-related conditions and biological processes. This makes production and husbandry systems systematically quantifiable. On this basis, processes can be analyzed, evaluated, and further developed using data-driven approaches, allowing them to be reliably integrated into future bioeconomy value chains in a transparent and traceable way.

Framework Conditions and Dynamics of Change

Animal production systems are undergoing a fundamental transformation. Regulatory frameworks increasingly require transparent documentation of animal welfare, housing conditions, and production processes. At the same time, economic pressure on farms and companies is rising, while the availability of qualified personnel is decreasing. New production systems such as insect farming and aquaculture are additionally characterized by high scaling requirements and a currently low level of standardization.

In practice, relevant conditions are often recorded only selectively or through labor-intensive manual processes. This makes continuous process control as well as objective evaluation by authorities, market actors, and the public more difficult.

From Biological Processes to Scalable System Solutions

Research activities in the Livestock field arise from concrete practical needs and are developed jointly with agricultural farms, industry partners, and research institutions. The starting point is real-world questions from different production contexts, which are analyzed under practical conditions and addressed in close coordination with the involved stakeholders.

A central objective is the translation of complex biological processes into reliable and usable information. To achieve this, imaging sensors, optical measurement techniques, and AI-supported analysis approaches are applied. The solutions developed are non-invasive, suitable for continuous use, and designed so that they do not interfere with ongoing operations.

Across all production and husbandry systems, the focus lies on the continuous observation and reliable evaluation of animal-related conditions. Digital methods automatically capture physiological, behavioral, and activity-based characteristics, enabling early detection of changes and interpretation within their biological context.

These condition assessments form an essential basis for herd and husbandry management. They support the continuous adjustment of housing conditions, feeding regimes, stocking densities, and management routines, and help identify deviations at an early stage so that they can be addressed in a targeted way. As a result, management shifts from reactive interventions toward continuous, condition-based control.

A key design principle is the modular structure of the systems. Individual methods are developed so that they can function both as standalone applications and as components of integrated monitoring and management solutions. Testing takes place under real-world conditions in different production environments in order to consider robustness, transferability, and scalability from the outset.

At the same time, animal-related conditions are recorded and evaluated in a way that ensures comparability across time periods, animal populations, and production systems. This comparability allows biological variability to be distinguished from systemic effects, enables the classification of developments, and facilitates the transfer and scaling of digital solutions beyond individual sites.

The resulting information is not only relevant for operational management but can also be used beyond individual farms—for example to support audits and certifications, accompany approval and reporting procedures, or enable transparent communication along supply and marketing chains.

Projects in the Livestock field are therefore designed as exemplary implementations: they address concrete application cases while being methodologically structured so that the underlying approaches can be transferred to other species, husbandry systems, and production contexts.

Our Digital Solutions in Different Production Systems

In conventional livestock farming, the focus lies on the objective measurement of animal welfare indicators, health conditions, and behavioral patterns within barns and housing systems. Digital methods support early detection of deviations and informed decision-making in health, feeding, and herd management

In insect production, the emphasis lies on process stability, quality assurance, and scalability. Image- and data-based systems contribute to the standardization of industrial production processes as well as the comparability of production conditions and results.

In aquaculture, digital methods are used to analyze behavior, activity, and biomass of organisms in water-based systems. Underwater imaging and AI-based analysis support both operational management and environmental and animal welfare considerations.

The following projects illustrate the work carried out in the Livestock field and demonstrate how the developed approaches can be transferred to different production systems.

Livestock in the Context of the Bioeconomy

Animal-related production and husbandry systems are a central component of the bioeconomy. They ensure the supply of food and biogenic raw materials while simultaneously being subject to societal and political expectations regarding animal welfare, environmental compatibility, resource efficiency, and transparency.

The Livestock field addresses these requirements by establishing digital foundations for the objective observation and evaluation of animal conditions, animal welfare aspects, husbandry conditions, and system performance. Through the continuous monitoring of animal-related conditions, differences between production systems become traceable, developments measurable, and trade-offs between animal welfare, efficiency, and resource use visible.

In this way, the Livestock field contributes to the knowledge-based, transparent, and dialogue-oriented development of animal production systems within the bioeconomy and helps place the exchange between practice, industry, science, and policy on an empirically grounded foundation.

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