**7. Future prospects of bovine protein livestock production impact on global food and nutrition security**

Future prospects could be considered to direct livestock production, particularly the production of beef and dairy cattle towards the breeding of more productive breeds of livestock globally. This is equally required in the low and medium income countries as it is already happening in the well developed higher income countries. The production of more ruminant feed such as improved perennial pasture production to serve as baseline feed for ruminants should be continually made a priority and the natural grazing lands should be continually renovated into improved pasture lands. There should be continuous development of vaccination and medication programmes to keep ruminants healthy and more productive. The promotion of semi-intensive ruminant production system could be encouraged particularly in the low and medium income nations, so as to lead to realistic, 'easy-to-adopt' farming management practices that have potential to mitigate green house gas (GHG) emission for sustainability and the attainment of global food security.

## **8. Conclusion**

Beef and milk sourced from cattle production was found to play a relevant role in global food security. Cattle meat and milk are found to be the most paramount in the supply of animal source protein in the diet of humans. They contain indispensable nutrients such as high quality proteins, essential and non-essential amino acids, highly bio-available iron and other mineral elements, poly unsaturated fatty acids that are needed for healthy living in humans, in children and pregnant women. Such nutrients may not be obtained in tangible quantities from the consumption of other ruminant livestock meat and milk. The beef and dairy cattle have high feed intake which is met based on the intake of fodder which are not in competition with the human diet.

This review work has shown that the global demand for bovine livestock food resources could only continue to be met through the raising of improved breeds of beef and dairy cattle world-wide. These animals should also be sustained not based on feeds that are in competition with human foods.

The specialized intensive system of production was adopted in the high income countries. However, varying ranges from the extensive to the semi-intensive were practiced within the medium and lower income countries. Despite the nutritional benefits derived from the consumption of bovine meat and milk, there is also the need to take cognizance of the reduction of any health risks in order to attain assured food safety.

There should also be the reduction of GHG emission from beef and dairy cattle production to meet up with the sustainability of the physical environment. There is need to put in place national and global development enabling policies needed to enhance and promote cattle farming practices for the attainment of global environment sustainability and food security now and in the future.

*Impact of Beef and Milk Sourced from Cattle Production on Global Food Security DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99322*
