Challenges to livestock production have become urgent and politicized; they require innovation to overcome. The Animal AgTech Innovation Summit is among the few events that bring a broad set of stakeholders together to examine needs, technology readiness, and challenges to implementing and expanding emerging solutions. Lux Research will attend this event in Dallas on April 8–9, and there are three themes we are keeping a close eye on.
Transforming Animal Health Across Traceability, Traits, and Management
Health management is a clear and urgent requirement across the industry, as noted by the need for aggressive culling practices and the impact of regional weather changes on livestock health, which disrupt production and downstream product availability. While there is a clear necessity for treatment innovation, fewer innovators are developing solutions. Instead, most are focusing on early intervention and detection to improve efficiency and reduce risk from advancing biotic and abiotic stressors. With conference sessions touching on livestock health and welfare monitoring, precision livestock management systems and data integration, genetic resilience, and alternatives to antibiotics, we are keen to understand perspectives on two core questions: First, what solutions are proving to be agile enough for scaling and operational diversity? Second, how do we overcome the fact the a one-size-fits-all approach will not be sufficient to protect production?
We’ll be at the sessions “Transforming Animal Health: Preventative Care for Productivity and Welfare” and “Leveraging Precision Livestock Farming Platforms: Data-Driven Livestock Care” to learn more.
Where to capture value with regenerative agriculture
Livestock production is strongly connected to the principles of regenerative agriculture and its associated practices, targeting animal welfare, carbon utilization and sequestration, and soil health. While the ideas are well aligned as the industry looks to scale regenerative agriculture through large funding tranches, it needs to move beyond the concept stage to value. Lux’s Insights team has determined that consumers have not come to a consensus on what regenerative practices mean to them, and therefore, it’s unknown whether consumer-facing labels or certifications will lead to sales; however, early engagers care about ethical consumption, environmental impacts, and human practices.
Therefore, we’ll follow the sessions “Implementing Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Farming with Ecological Practices” and “Enhancing Productivity and Resilience in Livestock Agriculture: Collaboration in Livestock Farming” and “Supply Chain Transparency: Food Traceability & Ethical Practices” to understand how practices at the core are tied to protecting production resilience and where value is being or can be captured.
Aligning technologies beyond carbon and methane markets
Various technologies targeting biogas production or reductions in enteric methane have emerged, including feed additives, livestock genetics, gene editing of rumen Archaea, slow-release bolus devices, wearable devices, and vaccines; however, biogas production is the only opportunity with clear ties to an established cap-and-trade market. Voluntary carbon markets remain unpredictable with respect to quality, market value, and buyer availability.
Therefore, we are monitoring the sessions “Managing Enteric Methane: Financial & Environmental ROI” and “Monetizing Environmentally Sustainable Livestock Farming: Leveraging Carbon Trading” that will discuss the financial and environmental returns on investment from managing enteric methane- and livestock-related emissions. The industry must evaluate solutions for value beyond those tied to early stage carbon markets and closer to operational resilience.
Lux Take
Innovations are clearly needed to overcome evolving challenges in livestock production; however, to achieve success, these innovations must be agile, connect to strong markets, and simultaneously tie back to core values. This is especially the case when market challenges erode available resources. Join me at the event to identify innovations that can strike this balance.
Want to discuss more? Reach out to start the conversation.
