Globally, dairy and meat production has become an extremely competitive industry. The world milk production is predicted to grow significantly by 2020 with the emergence of new consumers in developing countries. Yet, there is still intense competition for the industry to attract and retain consumers in the more established markets.

Consumers continue to demand safe, high quality milk and meat products at competitive prices compared to other high protein food alternatives. To ensure the sustainability of both dairy and beef industries, producers must endeavour to seek new technologies to improve production efficiency whilst lowering the cost of production to produce a quality product.

This edited collection of papers is taken from a seminar that brought together some of the world's leading authorities in the field of ruminant nutrition and production. The fundamental theme is to re-examine the current trends in productivity within the dairy and beef industries, and to identify nutritional and managerial means to improve competitiveness. The papers also consider the importance of animal health together with novel strategies for disease control.