Ruminant livestock systems are an integral part of agricultural and rural communities globally which provide high quality nutritious food and a plethora of other socio-economic services. However, the impact that ruminant livestock systems can have on climate volatility, land use and biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and water scarcity and quality, calls into focus their future sustainability, especially considering rising global demand for nutritious food.

The hub-and-spoke network model, originating from transportation (e.g., airline systems), features a central hub for coordination and peripheral spokes for localized execution. It promotes efficiency in resource allocation, knowledge sharing, and scaling by reducing redundancies and enabling adaptability, as seen in supply chains.

Sustainable intensification strategies that provide productivity, resilience, and economic benefits while lowering dependency on external resources are becoming more important in global attempts to alter livestock systems under climate change (Eisler et al., 2014). In this regard, the hub-and-spoke Global Farm Platform (GFP) model offers a special global setting for combining agricultural practices, science, and policy across distinct agroecological zones (Figure 1) (Rivero et al., 2021, 2026; Lee et al., 2025).

Globally, rangeland grazing systems account for the majority of grazing lands (Reid et al., 2008) and more than half of the total land, with over 200 million people raising livestock in pastoral and agro-pastoral grazing systems. In Europe, a large proportion (59%) of these lands are classed as less favored areas (LFA—Article 2 of EU Council Directive No. 75/268/EEC) or areas of natural constraints [Article 32 of Regulation (EU) No. 1305/2013].

Agroecological research operates at the intersection of biophysical processes, management decisions, and institutional constraints, requiring approaches that move beyond traditional experimental paradigms to address real-world agricultural complexity. In many regions, these agroecosystems are structured around crop–livestock systems, where animals play a central role in mediating the flow of energy and nutrients across landscapes (Lemaire et al., 2014; Martin et al., 2016).

Livestock are crucial lifelines for millions of African farmers and pastoralists, providing food, income, manure, draft power and cultural value (Ibeagha-Awemu et al., 2026). In many communities, cattle, sheep and goats act as a “last-resort insurance” in drought years (Younas and Yaqoob, 2005; Kanwal et al., 2020). However, African livestock systems face mounting pressures.

On August 6th the Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a meeting to consider its version of the Farm Bill. Chairman Boozman (R-AR) released a revised version of the bill ahead of the meeting that makes changes related to E-15 and nutrition policy. The Chairman is working to build bipartisan support, which will be needed to advance the bill out of committee.

There is increasing interest in reducing environmental impacts of grazing ruminants. Recently, the use of high-water-content forages to produce dilute urine, thereby mitigating nitrogen concentrations in excreta and reducing impacts on groundwater, has been encouraged in temperate grazing systems.

Early weaning phase is the most critical challenge in piglet development, as the associated stress often impairs production performance. Therefore, mitigating this stress and enhancing growth are the primary goals immediately after weaning.

Maintaining adequate hydration is a concern for cat owners and veterinarians, given that many cats are fed low-moisture dry diets and that dietary moisture contributes to their hydration. In this study, we recorded the water intake and drinking behavior of healthy colony and client-owned cats fed three diets with different moisture contents (100% dry, 50% dry and 50% wet, and 100% wet).

Disease resilience is the ability of an animal to maintain performance or to recover quickly when exposed to disease and is a viable target for pig breeding programs to improve productivity and animal welfare and reduce the use of antibiotics. However, disease resilience is difficult to select for in pig nucleus breeding programs and requires indicator traits that can be measured on animals without exposure to disease.

Growth performance, carcass composition, and meat quality are key traits in the Iberian pig industry. Genomic tools enable a more comprehensive and accurate identification of genetic markers to improve selection for these traits. In this study, a genome-wide association analysis was performed in over 500 Iberian pigs, identifying 165 genetic markers associated with loin and ham yield, meat tenderness, and fatty acid composition.

How much grass or silage a sheep eats each day is important for both farm profitability and climate impact, but measuring individual feed intake is expensive and time-consuming. In this study, we tested whether we can “read” an ewe’s daily feed intake from a short-term measurement of the gases she breathes out.

Modern beef production increasingly rewards animals that grow at a consistent and predictable rate. In this study, we evaluated whether growth variability in American Angus cattle has a genetic component and whether it could be considered in breeding programs.

The oil extracted from black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae has recently emerged as a sustainable and innovative feed ingredient. Conventional fats are often included in the diets of dairy cows, but some of them are associated with negative environmental impact, such as those derived from oil palm cultivation.

Feedlot cattle are fed high-grain diets and typically experience fluctuations in daily feed intake that may increase liver abscess prevalence. Liver abscesses result from bacterial infection, but the interaction between feedlot management practices and bacterial prevalence and concentrations in the liver and the gastrointestinal tract are poorly understood.

Iron deficiency is one of the most common issues in newborn piglets and can impair growth and overall health before and after weaning. This study evaluated how different iron injection frequencies (no, one, or two injections of 200 mg iron) during the suckling period influenced pre- and post-weaning growth, hemoglobin levels, antioxidant status, and whole-body iron retention in piglets from two sire lines.

This study reexamines the mechanism of rigor mortis, a characteristic phenomenon observed during postmortem changes in skeletal muscle of livestock and poultry, by focusing on the influence of imidazole dipeptides, which are abundantly present in skeletal muscle tissue. Previous studies on rigor mortis have largely overlooked the presence of low-molecular-weight compounds other than calcium and magnesium.

The goal of this research study was to quantify net energy (NE) content of diets ranging in crude protein (CP) content from 85% and 160% of American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) model guidelines while simultaneously decreasing nitrogen-free extract (NFE) in diets fed to adult, male cats.

Cattle grazing grass monocultures often face declining forage quality in mid to late summer, which can reduce animal performance and lead to uneven grazing near water and feeding areas. This study tested whether adding a moderate amount of a commercial tannin extract to a daily protein supplement could change how beef cows forage across the landscape and how their metabolism responds while grazing smooth bromegrass pastures.