A few years ago, Ontario brought in Nutrient Management Regulations. I took all the courses. Essentially, if a farmer is going to expand their number of livestock, they need the acres to spread the manure, ensuring the right amount of nutrient (or manure) application per acre.
Technically, an industrial broiler barn only needs an acre or less to be built and to house 10, 000+ chickens. And therefore expansion to 3 chicken barns for example, would appear to be simple. But with the Nutrient Management regulations, a chicken farm must show that they have the acreage to spread all the manure generated from their operation.
I suggest that it works the other way around as well. If a crop farmer is going to expand their number of acres in production, they must have access to enough manure to ensure the necessary fertility of the soil for the given crop. Animals are an important part of the equation in sustainable agriculture. Not only do livestock farmers need land for manure spreading, but crop farmers need livestock for soil fertility.
In Agriculture 3.0, animals are always part of the whole farm system.
