Cattle have a species specific movement pattern when lying down and getting up. They need sufficient space for their heads to perform these movements normally. The aim of this study was to investigate the lying down and getting up behaviour of beef bulls at a Swedish farm operation. The hypothesis was that bulls older than 10 months (over approximately 400 kg) were disturbed by a horizontal front rail and that the time to lie down and get up differed from what can be regarded as normal based on earlier scientific studies. The bulls were Swedish Red and White (SRB), Swedish Friesian (SLB) or crossbreeds of these two, and were kept in a cubicle system with a stall front design where there was a horizontal rail 40 cm above the stall floor.

This thesis was performed as assignment from Fazer Food Services. The aim was to survey which food additives that were present in the products in the quotation list of one of their suppliers to the Education and Nursing segment. The aim also was to perform a theoretical analysis of these food additives and to make recommendations which food additives are acceptable and which should be excluded from the products in the future. The recommendations are not published in this report, for more information Fazer Food Services can be contacted. Food additives which have already been approved are regarded as safe according to the safety evaluation methods available at the time of approval.

This thesis was performed as assignment from Fazer Food Services. The aim was to survey which food additives that were present in the products in the quotation list of one of their suppliers to the Education and Nursing segment. The aim also was to perform a theoretical analysis of these food additives and to make recommendations which food additives are acceptable and which should be excluded from the products in the future. The recommendations are not published in this report, for more information Fazer Food Services can be contacted. Food additives which have already been approved are regarded as safe according to the safety evaluation methods available at the time of approval.

Among the Indigenous cattle breeds in Indonesia, the Bali cattle is the most preferred by small farmers. The Bali cattle is a beef breed, and is considered to have several advantageous characteristics and to be well adapted to the country?s harsh environmental tropical conditions with drought and rain. The main aim of this project was to phenotype of Bali cattle from different locations in order to identify and document diversity within the Bali cattle breed based on their observable characteristics, to compare cattle from different areas and production systems to see the effect of management on phenotype. In this study, 107 cows and bulls of the breed Bali cattle, from Kalimantan, Sumatra, Lombok and Bali were phenotyped.

During the summer of 2005 a number of steer producers in Skåne, Sweden, found that their animals graded less favourable according to the EUROP carcass grading system when slaughtered, than ordinary. The aim with this project was to determine factors that affects the production result in steer production and to find the reason to the lower classification. The project was initiated by Anita Persson, LRF, Skåne and was preformed with supervision from Ingemar Olsson, SLU, and Jens Fjelkner, Skånesemin. Ten producers of dairy steers located in Skåne was chosen for this study. The producers were interviewed to collect information about their steer production with respect to their planning and results.

Product development is a risky business; many products never yield profit, but it is also ne-cessary for a company?s survival in a competitive business where the costumers change their requests constantly. Consumer-led product development is developed from the wish to fill the consumer?s needs and expectations and thereby be more likely to succeed. Lindell?s Gårdsslakteri AB is a local slaughter and meat processor in Västergötland.

When beef calves are weaned abruptly at 5 to 6 months of age this triggers a strong stress reaction, since the animals have not yet untied the bonds to their mothers or stopped suckling. This is displayed as extensive vocalization and restlessness. Attempts to diminish the negative effects of weaning on sucking calves have been showing varying results. The study presented here emanates from the observation that when calves are weaned without human interference they are only prevented from suckling, but are still allowed to have social contacts with their mothers. The hypothesis was that calves weaned in two steps would be calmer, gain more weight, and be healthier than animals that were abruptly weaned. To investigate this, 15 calves where weaned in two stages (Group 2), by fitting the calves with nose tags that prevented them from suckling during 5 days prior to the separation of the cows and calves.

Food is widely consumed and in 2011 an average American devoured approximately one ton of food. The production of these goods requires large amounts of energy and contributes to 22-31 % of all greenhouse gas emissions occurring in Europe. More than one third of the produced food is discarded instead of consumed, and food waste make up about 30 % of the waste generated by households. 60 % of this food waste could be avoided if the eatables were handled in a better way.Avoidable food waste arises partly because residues from food are not taken care of, and because the food is not stored in a way that optimise its durability. Residues arises part- ly because of the contradictory and complex demands of everyday life and are, because of our busy lifestyle, difficult to avoid.

Today, high-yielding leys of good quality are a must for Swedish dairy and beef enterprises if they are to become profitable. Thus, it is of interest to evaluate the quality of the recently released high-yielding Festulolium hybrids ((Festulolium braunii (K.Rich.) A.Camus). The aim of this project was to determine at what phenological stage three different Festulolium hybrids should be cut in order to get the highest nutritional value. The hybrids studied were Hykor, Perun and Paulita. In the study I also investigated if leaf proportion of the crop could be useful for predictions of the crop content of metabolizable energy. The cultivars were grown in plots within a variety trial with ryegrasses.

Food consumption generates externalities such as carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. The principal issue is that emissions are not covered by the "polluter pays principle". For this reason, new policy instruments need to be tested and implemented to correct the externalities. In food production, beef and dairy production has the largest environmental impact in terms of carbon emissions. As food is a necessity, simply reducing production will not solve the problem.

Persistent pink in beef patties and hamburgers is a problem in the meat industry that has been known for a few decades. It is a costly problem as it can give rejections of food by consumers. Studies around the world have tried to solve the problem but it still remains a mystery. There are many different theories of what is causing the red colour. Some of the most likly theories are reducing hemocromes, high microbiological loads, contamination of nitrite or organic/non organic substanses, DFD meat etc.

The corn plant came to Europe with Christopher Columbus in the 14th century and have ever since bin cropped here, but corn haven?t bin very common in Scandinavia until recently. The mainly use for this crop silage but even corn for grain is cropped in Europe. Corn for grain is a common part of feed in beef and chicken farming. In Sweden corn for grain is pretty rare but almost 1000 hectares are used for this crop, Lantmännen Sverige is the biggest buyer of corn at the moment.

Av det nötkött som produceras i Sverige råder det stor variation ur kvalitetssynpunkt. Konsumenten kan idag inte garanteras ett nötkött med önskade egenskaper vid varje inköpstillfälle, trots att köttet kommer från samma typ av styckningsdetalj. För att kunna konkurrera med den ökade importen av nötkött och för att kunna erbjuda konsumenten ett nötkött med förbättrad och jämn ätkvalitet finns nu ett gemensamt intresse inom den svenska köttbranschen att bedöma marmoreringsgraden av svenskt nötkött. Köttets marmorering utgörs av det intramuskulära fettet som visat sig ha positiv effekt på köttets sensoriska egenskaper. Studiens syfte var att kartlägga internationella erfarenheter och tillvägagångssätt för marmoreringsbedömning på nötkött samt att belysa det svenska slakteriledets perspektiv inför en ny svensk kvalitetsklassificering avseende nötköttets marmoreringsgrad. Denna studie kan ses som en delstudie i branschorganisationen Svenskt kötts projekt vars mål är att skapa ett system för klassificering av nötkött avseende köttets grad av marmorering för att möta konsumenters önskemål och för att stärka kvaliteten på svenskt nötkött. Utifrån litteraturen har fyra internationella klassificeringssystem studerats där marmoreringsbedömning utgör ett viktigt kvalitetsattribut vid klassificering av slaktkroppen.

This master thesis is about the collaboration between the custom dairy heifer grower and thedairy producer.The custom dairy heifer grower is a rather unusual strategy of reproductive management inSweden compared to other countries like U.S. and Denmark where the specialization withindairy production gone much further. In these countries the research also has reached muchfurther within this type of industry. However in Sweden there has been research made in thearea of collaboration, but then only within collaborations in the industries of crop production,dairy production and pork meat.The down going trend of profitability within dairy production together with poor profitabilityin the beef industry could partly remedy if more collaborations around heifer contractingwould arise. But since the industry still is of a rare kind in Sweden the knowledge about howthese types of collaborative arrangements works and their contracts are put together is poor.By that the aim of this master thesis is formulated as follows: "how is usually thecollaborative arrangement between the dairy producer and custom dairy heifer growerdesigned".

In many developing countries, among them Vietnam, contamination of agricultural land is a major issue that has public health implications. A fast growing population, rapid urbanization and industrialization have led to air and water emissions of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), such as cadmium (Cd). Earlier studies have shown that individuals with low iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) status absorb larger quantities of Cd than those of adequate nutritional status. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the Fe and Zn intake from the foods consumed by women (15-45 years) in selected households in two agricultural villag-es in the Red River delta in Vietnam. In one of the villages the residents were involved in metal (mainly Fe) recycling activity, whereas in the other village the residents had agricul-tural production as main source of income. Interviews, followed by food intake calcula-tions, were performed.