Addressing the Vulnerability of Grazing and Confined Ruminant Livestock in Climate Change, including the Role of Digital Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

Extensive livestock production plays an important role in global food security and sustainability because of the ability of ruminant animals to convert forage plants, crop residues, downgraded grains and other agricultural by-products into high quality food protein. In a variable and changing climate, the agroecological systems under which livestock are produced are threatened by the higher likelihood of episodic severe natural weather conditions, that are difficult to predict and respond to in a timely manner. In particular, extreme rain, wind and temperature events create challenges in meeting the production and welfare objectives set by livestock producers, and also in protecting the natural resource base where animals are held. To address these types of challenges, the agricultural industry is beginning to rely more on digital information-based system of management to plan for and respond to adverse weather events. These systems offer hope that the extreme events will be detected, monitored and managed at a scale that will result in improved outcomes for livestock, both in confinement and extensive grazing systems. This special issue will investigate the underlying vulnerability of ruminant livestock production and the role of emerging digital technologies to enable adaptation to variable and changing climates.

Dr. Dean T. Thomas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Ruminant nutrition, pasture
• nutritive value
• feeding value
• simulation modelling
• biophysical modelling
• grazing behaviour
• animal telemetry