Digital Transformation of Business Systems of Small-Scale Livestock Farms

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify approaches to the digital transformation of business systems in small-scale livestock farming. The article identifies and systematizes the challenges facing small-scale livestock farming development: in relation to the production and commercial cycle (resource, operational (production), and sales issues), by the nature of the underlying causes (external and internal), and by the scale of the problem (systemic and specific). Furthermore, we believe it is appropriate to highlight not only the challenges inherent in livestock farming itself but also those associated with livestock product processing, as these challenges are interrelated, share similar origins, and have potential interrelated solutions. To address these challenges, we propose a cooperative ecosystem of small-scale livestock farming that takes into account both industry-specific factors such as market size, level of infrastructure development, and the presence of competition, as well as the specific development of cooperative relations in the digital environment. We also suggest using the specialized category of "cooperative ecosystem" instead of the universal and broad term "business system". A cooperative digital ecosystem should be scientifically constructed as an independent entity and an evolutionary continuation of the implementation of cooperative ideas in livestock farming on a digital basis (business systems → cooperative ecosystem).