ABSTRACT
Within this topic, there are two broad conceptual areas. These are (1) precision livestock farming (PLF) which focuses on individual animal management and the opportunities to be gained over herd-or flock-based management and (2) precision pasture/rangeland management, which is primarily concerned with the management of landscape spatial and temporal variability whilst considering the influence that animals bring to these systems. These concepts can be mapped across the various livestock industries from highly intensive pork and poultry to extensive rangeland grazing systems (Fig. 1). There is a significant body of literature already developed around the intensive animal industries with several leading publications summarising, and journal special issues reporting on PLF in this context (Wathes et al., 2008; Halachmi and Guarino, 2016; Berckmans, 2008, 2014; Banhazi et al., 2012). In comparison, there is far less literature concerning the
application of PA to extensively grazed livestock (Laca, 2009; Bocquier et al., 2014) and less again considering grasslands (Schellberg and Verbruggen, 2014). The conceptual thinking, research and commercial technologies around PA as applied to grazing animal and pasture management are generally less well developed than intensive animal PLF and will be the focus of this chapter. There are however numerous technologies evolving in the intensive industries which have application into the extensive grazing systems, these will be considered along the way. This is particularly the case when considering individual animal monitoring and management.
