This paper explores the development of livestock production in Indonesia, with a focus on issues of autonomy. It maintains that the effort to develop livestock production is strongly related to decisions made by institutions in various fields and sectors in a given area or region. The opportunity to develop animal production results from interactions between commodity, sectoral and location factors as well as between the proper use of human resources and related factors in development such as technology, socioeconomic conditions and variations in ecosystems within a particular area. The author claims that the partial development approach that has been employed in livestock development in Indonesia so far has widened socio-economic gaps between farming communities, and has contributed to the existing institutional competition and institutional imbalance. He argues that the development of livestock production should be sustained by appropriate policy, infrastructure, capital and investment, appropriate technology and the participation of stakeholders. The author suggests that the direction and objectives of livestock industry development should be guided by a national initiative in the form of a macro-policy to be adjusted and implemented at the local level.