333 at the Eurotier presentation

Media from 13 countries met in Frankfurt for the presentation of Eurotier 2024. Dr. Lothar Hövelmann, Director General of the DLG, opened the press conference with the topic “Current challenges and trends in animal husbandry worldwide: Farmers' perspective”.

The presentation addressed the sector's main concerns: the war in Ukraine and climate change with the consequent volatility in the raw materials market, the social debate on agriculture, legislative pressure, diseases such as ASF, and the growing demand for sustainability. He commented that in spite of everything, the agriculture/livestock sectors' situation in general is better than his own spirits, especially for swine. He presented data on the sector, such as the evolution of world meat production, where the growth of chicken stands out above that of other species.

In a survey, 69% of pig producers responded that they had planned investments in the next 12 months. Investments are mainly divided into three main areas: animal welfare, heat control, and construction or digitalization.

Ines Rathke, Project Manager of EuroTier, presented the fair's new features and announced the winners of the Innovation Award EnergyDecentral.

Finally, Dr. Heinz Bernhardt, Technical University of Munich and Chairman of the DLG EuroTier 2024 Innovation Commission, spoke about innovations and trends in animal production and announced the winners of the EuroTier Innovation Award and the Animal Welfare Award.

He highlighted the emergence of AI, pointing out that the challenge for the future is to detect what is useful and what is not. In addition to AI, automation and the incorporation of robots are on an upward trend, due to labor shortages. Both AI and robotics need available, structured, and quality data and that will be the real challenge. In terms of welfare, he highlighted the difficult balance between providing real welfare and complying with legislation to obtain a specific seal.