Rental rates and land prices have gone through substantial changes the last two decades. The prices have both gone up and down since 1990 but from 1995 to 2008 land prices increased with 272 percent and rental rates with 61 percent. What factors that have the largest impact on rental rates and land prices are hard to determine but factors that may affect the price are the desire to live in the countryside and the expected profitability in agriculture. Prices of products and inputs are factors that affect the profitability in agriculture, but the profitability is also affected by agricultural policies. The economic for Swedish agriculture have changed several times over the last 20 years as a result of changing agricultural policies.The agricultural policies largely affect farmers behavior and decisions.

The contact company, LRF Konsult, is a consulting firm specialized in areas of law, real estate, finance and taxation. Discussions on the subject of agricultural improvement in the area of Lean, has primarily been driven by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, where LRF Konsult also participated. This thesis can be seen as a preliminary study of how Lean can work within agricultural enterprises.The thesis primarily focuses on the possibilities dairy farms have to improve operations. What practical benefits they can obtain through the implementation of Lean. And how an implementation could take place.By visits to two dairy companies, and through interviewing their respective business leaders, an image of the companies activity for improvement, in connection to this thesis was established.

Rental rates and land prices have gone through substantial changes the last two decades. The prices have both gone up and down since 1990 but from 1995 to 2008 land prices increased with 272 percent and rental rates with 61 percent. What factors that have the largest impact on rental rates and land prices are hard to determine but factors that may affect the price are the desire to live in the countryside and the expected profitability in agriculture. Prices of products and inputs are factors that affect the profitability in agriculture, but the profitability is also affected by agricultural policies. The economic for Swedish agriculture have changed several times over the last 20 years as a result of changing agricultural policies.The agricultural policies largely affect farmers behavior and decisions.

Rental rates and land prices have gone through substantial changes the last two decades. The prices have both gone up and down since 1990 but from 1995 to 2008 land prices increased with 272 percent and rental rates with 61 percent. What factors that have the largest impact on rental rates and land prices are hard to determine but factors that may affect the price are the desire to live in the countryside and the expected profitability in agriculture. Prices of products and inputs are factors that affect the profitability in agriculture, but the profitability is also affected by agricultural policies. The economic for Swedish agriculture have changed several times over the last 20 years as a result of changing agricultural policies.The agricultural policies largely affect farmers behavior and decisions.

People who invest capital in promising projects as a profession are called venture capitalists. They are constantly looking for new investment opportunities. Recently, media have observed a growing interest in forest land as capital investment. This is because several fund and investment company market the possibility of safe return through investment in woodland, both in Sweden and abroad. When an investment in forests is seen as an acceptable investment option, focus turns to nearby areas, namely agricultural land.

FYROM has a long tradition of producing wine. Wine production in FYROM is one of the greatest contributors of the agricultural share of their GDP. The aim of the thesis is to see if the wine production in FYROM has a comparative advantage compared to other countries that produce wine and if FYROM is able to sustain the advantage in the future. The countries chosen for comparison are Bulgaria, Croatia, France and Italy. The methods used in the thesis are the Balassa Index and Porter?s Diamond of National Advantage.

The hybrid larch (Larix x eurolepis Henry) is a fast growing tree species and was introduced in Sweden for about 50 years ago. The high growth and expected resistance to diseases are probably the main reasons of introducing the tree species into the Swedish forests. The purpose of this thesis was to document the production of hybrid larch planted in the Snogeholm landscape laboratory and to compare the production in the pure hybrid larch stand with the mixture together with pedunculate oak (Quercus robur). The data collection in Snogeholm since the establishment has been carried out by the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU). The fieldwork for the thesis was carried out in 3 stands, containing hybrid larch, pedunculate oak and a mixture of hybrid larch and pedunculate oak, in order to be able to compare the total stand production of the areas. The results show that the total production of hybrid larch in the mixed stand only is 35 % compared with the total production of hybrid larch in the pure stand. Therefore, the hypothesis that the total production of hybrid larch is equal to the planted mixture with pedunculate oak was rejected. The other hypothesis that the total production of a 2 hectare large stand containing a mixture of hybrid larch and pedunculate oak would be greater than the total production of two pure stands of 1 hectare containing hybrid larch and oak each was also rejected. In the studied case the total production was 45 % greater if hybrid larch and pedunculate oak was planted in pure stands. The results from the case-study only indicate that the total production of hybrid larch and oak under the investigated conditions can be higher when planting the two species in pure stands compared with a mixture of the two species.

The structural rationalization of the agricultural sector in Sweden has led to many expansive, professional companies orientated towards growth. The agricultural sector is a very capital-intense sector and is characterized by the need for large sums of capital in form of buildings, inventory and arable land. The capital need is especially large for companies who have an ambition of growth and development of the company in the near future. The study is built upon six cases that all can be categorized as large agricultural farms with a turnover exceeding 20 million Swedish crowns. The companies are located in the middle and in the south of Sweden and are in the sector of primary production with focus on dairy-, pork-, egg-, chicken-, beef-, vegetables- and grain production as well as in the business of refining milk towards consumers. The study aims to identify the motives and driving forces that lies behind the growth of a farm-based company. The agricultural companies' motive for growth is studied based on which factors that influence the ambition to grow and to what extent these factors accord to the picture given by earlier research of small companies outside the agricultural sector.

The Swedish agricultural sector is currently experiencing substantial structural changes, where the number of agricultural enterprises continuously decreases and the average farm size increases. In order to maintain competitiveness, it is important to be aware and adapt to changes concerning the surroundings of the company (Johnson et al., 2011). Agricultural commodity prices sharply fluctuate on the global market in recent years, affecting the profitability of farmers. High volatility market requires tools to reduce price variations and increases the need of decision-making (Bouder & Beth, 2003). Farm-based grain handling facilities increases the sale options regarding agricultural commodities; a flexible strategy to get additional compensation for the storing the grain produced on the farm (Edling, 2002; Edwards, 2013).

The Swedish consumption of lamb a increasing, and today we yearly eat a kilo of lamb per person each year. As a consequence the Swedish degree of self production according to lamb is steadily decreasing, and is today about 39 %.Today Swedish Meats is now cooperating with the Swedish lamb breeders organisation to raise that percentage. At the same time the European Union presents a new agricultural reform, the MTR (Mid Term Review). The shape of this new reform is not yet fully known, but the general policy has been more or less outlined. The new reform is split into three propositions: the farm model, the regional model and the mixed model.

In all types of learning situations, it is important to find each student where they are at the moment in knowledge. I have reflections about  what animal experience students have with them when they begin their education. This thesis is about what home environment and in home environment acquried animal experience student at agricultural college have. This work is based on data collected through questionnaire survey done in two agricultural colleges in middle Sweden in the spring of 2007. Questions were divided into four blocks, historical data such as on the environment in which pupils are growing up, animal habit, why they read on agricultural school and future data on what plans students have for future education and careers.

The agricultural sector accounts for about 13 percent of the total load of greenhouse gas emissions from Sweden (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2007). The Swedish objective to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions with 40 percentage units to the year of 2020, based upon the year of 1990, might imply stricter regulations for Swedish farmers. A regulation or other forms of economic incentives is probably necessary to reduce the emissions originating from the agricultural sector. This study aims to investigate the economic and managerial impact on two agricultural firms with differing production system given that a constraint on green house gas emissions is introduced. Gases included in this study are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

This diploma work addresses the question of how much energy is spent whenmanufacturing the components of a building as well as of how much energy is used inthe production of a building. The object of the studies is BioCentrum at the SwedishUniversity of Agricultural Sciences in Ultuna just outside the city of Uppsala. The aimof the work was to investigate how much energy was consumed when manufacturingand production in relation to the management, how many years the production wasrepresented. It was also a study in how mature the construction industry is to answerhow much energy was consumed in manufacturing.In order to get these answers a question form was developed and sent to thesuppliers to BioCentrum. In this form they were to respond to the quantity suppliedto BioCentrum and the amount of energy was spent when manufacturing thecomponents.

Over the course of the past the agricultural sector has been characterized by radical market changes. Changing market conditions have forced owners of agricultural and forestry businesses to make further investments. This increase in investments has led to a greater need for external capital, which has increased the relationship between banks and owners of agricultural and forestry businesses. The financial sector is characterized by strong rivalry, which forces banks to create strategic positions in the financial market. Since agricultural and forestry businesses are generally seen as secure customers by banks, due to high property and land values, the competition between banks with agricultural and forestry businesses as customers has amplified.

The purpose of this report was to compare two different options for expanding of an existing pig farm. For the time being there are low prices within the agricultural market of pig production, and it is interesting to see if it is worth expanding or not. The two different options this report is based on are: expanding from a herd with 50 sows in breeding gilt production to a herd with 100 sows in breeding gilt production (option 1), or expanding to a herd with 140 sows in breeding gilt production (option 2). The number of pregnant gilts produced per year will stay the same for both alternatives; about 300 pregnant gilts per year. The rest of the breeding gilts will be sold at a weight of 25 kg. The pigs that are not sold as breeding gilts (e.g. castrates, and female pigs that are too small or that have disorders) will be kept on the farm as growing-finishing pigs until 120 kg of live weight, and then sold to the slaughter house. By using the existing buildings, even after the expanding, the investment costs, and thereby costs for housing, were kept as low as possible.