What are the livestock industries doing, and what do they need from us?

Livestock industries are facing global competition and revolutionary change s. While facing this global competition, the similarities of many animal me at products require that they compete on a cost-of-production basis. Additi onal issues include the environmental impact of animal agriculture, the rol e of animal products in human nutrition, food safety and quality, biotechno logy, animal welfare, and market access. Progressive producers are becoming more aware of the needs of their customers and are striving to improve pro duct quality. Checkoff funds are used to finance promotion, research, and c onsumer information programs and are increasingly used to finance producer education. Industrialization trends in the livestock industries are changin g the needs of constituencies, delivery mechanisms, and relationships with the people involved. Characteristics of closed operations include high prod uction cost, outdated technology, smaller size, older operators, and lack o f management focus. Successful operations tend to be growing in capacity, a re system-oriented, maintain high throughput, keep accurate records, use ou tside consultants, and control production costs. Modern livestock productio n has lowered the cost of production by integrating new production and mana gement technologies. In order for producers to be successful in the future, access to technology, capital, and timely information will be critical. An imal scientists have many common objectives with livestock industries. Thei r work in research, teaching, and extension is critical for continued progr ess. However, people in the industries sometimes have the perception that a cademic arrogance, discipline myopia, uncoordinated research, slow technolo gy transfer, increasing research costs, and counter-productive tenure syste ms prevent animal scientists from being as relevant and responsive as they could be. Support from the industries is essential as animal scientists and academic departments seek political and funding support. This support can be attained by including integrated systems research, improving communicati on skills, achieving more efficient research budgets, rapidly publishing re sults, reducing the cost of information distribution, developing flexible r esearch agendas, retraining scientists, acquiring modern methods, and empha sizing critical thinking, communication, and teamwork when teaching.