Review article
https://doi.org/10.33128/k.66.2.4
The transformations of dairy sector: challenges and alternatives
Pero Mijić
orcid.org/0000-0003-3344-9317
; Fakultet agrobiotehničkih znanosti Osijek, Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku, Osijek, Hrvatska
Tina Bobić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9975-1258
; Fakultet agrobiotehničkih znanosti Osijek, Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku, Osijek, Hrvatska
Mirjana Baban
; Fakultet agrobiotehničkih znanosti Osijek, Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku, Osijek, Hrvatska
Matija Domaćinović
; Fakultet agrobiotehničkih znanosti Osijek, Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku, Osijek, Hrvatska
Abstract
At the level of total golabal production, the dairy sector is facing a very challenging period. These challenges are different: from the legislative and public-social ones (due to a public pressure claiming that an intensive cattle breeding damages the living environment, ethological patterns, and animal welfare), to the challenges in a primary milk production itself due to the high input costs and a low milk-purchase price. It is important to note that there is also a decline in the producers’ interest in this demanding production and an increasingly expensive cost of labor. Responding to these trends, the dairy sector has launched a significant transformation, especially in the world’s developed countries, trying to adapt to the new challenges and trying to become economically profitable. In the countries of the European continent, the specialization, or an intensification, of milk production is most often approached, which is visible in a gradual increase in milk production per cow, and in an increase in the number of cows per farm. Simulatenously, the modern breeding, feeding, and reproduction technologies are being applied, but the standards of care for the environment, ethology, and animal welfare are also increasingly being introduced. As it is difficult to balance all of the aforementioned factors, a precise digital technology and scientific and professional technological solutions should be applied when managing such farms. The aim of this paper was to demarcate the directions of transformation of the dairy sector through an intensification of milk production, with an emphasis on animal welfare and the environment. We believe that these guidelines can also be useful to the Croatian farmers who may go in a direction of intensive milk production.
Keywords
dairy sector; transformation; challenges; alternatives
Hrčak ID:
323162
URI
Publication date:
29.11.2024.
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