Meeker D L
The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA.
J Anim Sci. 1999 Feb;77(2):361-6. doi: 10.2527/1999.772361x.
Livestock industries are facing global competition and revolutionary changes. While facing this global competition, the similarities of many animal meat products require that they compete on a cost-of-production basis. Additional issues include the environmental impact of animal agriculture, the role of animal products in human nutrition, food safety and quality, biotechnology, animal welfare, and market access. Progressive producers are becoming more aware of the needs of their customers and are striving to improve product quality. Checkoff funds are used to finance promotion, research, and consumer information programs and are increasingly used to finance producer education. Industrialization trends in the livestock industries are changing the needs of constituencies, delivery mechanisms, and relationships with the people involved. Characteristics of closed operations include high production cost, outdated technology, smaller size, older operators, and lack of management focus. Successful operations tend to be growing in capacity, are system-oriented, maintain high throughput, keep accurate records, use outside consultants, and control production costs. Modern livestock production has lowered the cost of production by integrating new production and management technologies. In order for producers to be successful in the future, access to technology, capital, and timely information will be critical. Animal scientists have many common objectives with livestock industries. Their work in research, teaching, and extension is critical for continued progress. However, people in the industries sometimes have the perception that academic arrogance, discipline myopia, uncoordinated research, slow technology transfer, increasing research costs, and counter-productive tenure systems 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 communication skills, achieving more efficient research budgets, rapidly publishing results, reducing the cost of information distribution, developing flexible research agendas, retraining scientists, acquiring modern methods, and emphasizing critical thinking, communication, and teamwork when teaching.
畜牧业正面临全球竞争和革命性变革。在面对这种全球竞争时，许多动物肉类产品的相似性要求它们在生产成本的基础上展开竞争。其他问题包括畜牧业对环境的影响、动物产品在人类营养中的作用、食品安全与质量、生物技术、动物福利以及市场准入。进步的生产者越来越意识到客户的需求，并努力提高产品质量。检查费用于资助推广、研究和消费者信息项目，并且越来越多地用于资助生产者教育。畜牧业的工业化趋势正在改变选民的需求、交付机制以及与相关人员的关系。封闭式经营的特点包括高生产成本、过时的技术、规模较小、经营者年龄较大以及缺乏管理重点。成功的经营往往产能不断增长，以系统为导向，保持高产量，记录准确，聘请外部顾问并控制生产成本。现代畜牧业通过整合新的生产和管理技术降低了生产成本。为了使生产者在未来取得成功，获取技术、资本和及时的信息将至关重要。动物科学家与畜牧业有许多共同目标。他们在研究、教学和推广方面的工作对于持续进步至关重要。然而，业内人士有时认为学术傲慢、学科短视、研究不协调、技术转移缓慢、研究成本增加以及适得其反的终身教职制度使动物科学家无法像他们本可以做到的那样具有相关性和响应性。当动物科学家和学术部门寻求政治和资金支持时，来自行业的支持至关重要。这种支持可以通过开展综合系统研究、提高沟通技巧、实现更高效的研究预算、迅速发表研究成果、降低信息传播成本、制定灵活的研究议程、对科学家进行再培训、采用现代方法以及在教学中强调批判性思维、沟通和团队合作来实现。
