From Sensors to Sustainability: Integrating Welfare, Management, and Climate Resilience in Small Ruminant Farm Systems

TL;DR

This review explores how precision technologies and climate adaptation strategies can improve small ruminant welfare and sustainability in livestock farming.

Contribution

The paper integrates welfare, management, and climate resilience through precision livestock farming technologies for small ruminants.

Findings

High temperatures negatively affect small ruminant health, reproduction, and productivity.

Precision technologies like sensors can detect early signs of stress and improve welfare monitoring.

Combining climate adaptation and digital tools supports ethical and sustainable livestock systems.

Abstract

Due to the increase in global demand for animal-derived products, it is essential to make livestock production more ethical and sustainable. This review focuses on the welfare of small ruminants in the context of climate change and heat stress. High temperatures negatively impact animals’ health, reproduction, and productivity. Precision livestock farming technologies, including sensors and automated systems, can detect in real time early signs of stress or disease and milk quality, allowing faster responses for predicting animal welfare. However, considering that animal responses to heat are complex, future models should include several environmental and physiological factors, such as wind, solar radiation, and body temperature measured with wearable or contact-free sensors. Integrating these data into automated systems could enable continuous monitoring and support timely interventions, such as nutritional adjustments or cooling strategies. Overall, combining climate adaptation, welfare management, and advanced digital tools offers a pathway toward more ethical, sustainable, and resilient livestock production systems.

In recent years, animal welfare has become a high priority in livestock production systems owing to the pressure to balance environmental sustainability, productivity, and ethics as demand continues to grow. This review presents the latest advances in small ruminant welfare, with emphasis on the effects of climate change, the main new innovative managerial and husbandry methods, and the use of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies. In the first part, this review will examine how climate change is already re-shaping environmental and physiological conditions for farmed sheep and goats, with rising heat stress and negative impacts on both productive and reproductive performance. Secondly, more recent advances in small ruminant management will be presented, including improved housing systems, nutritional strategies, and behavioral monitoring, aimed at enhancing animal resilience and performance. Finally, particular focus will be given to the use of PLF tools for assessing milk quality and monitoring animal welfare. Evidence suggests that real-time monitoring technologies and sensor systems can accurately capture physiological and production parameters and provide an early sign of stress or health issues. Overall, the findings suggest that an integrated approach, combining climate adaptation strategies, welfare management, and the integration of precision technologies can serve as a key driver toward more ethical, sustainable, and resilient livestock production systems.

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