Swedish agriculture stands in front of big changes the whole time. As a milking producer you have to adapt and develop the company to these changes and find the best solution. This potential is easy to find if you compare your company with other similar companies. Labour cost is the biggest cost in milking production after the cost for food. Today it is rather easy to measure how many hours per cow different system of cow houses needs, but we do not know so much about how many hours it takes to breed a calf. To learn more about the labour time with the calves during the first time after the calf was born, I made time studies on five different farms with calf hutches, automatic milk system, large calf boxes, and smaller calf boxes with teat buckets.

With a shifting world market and periodically profitability issues, Swedish farmers seekalternative ways to enhance their profitability. One interesting alternative to get a highervalue and enhance products is biodiesel, a way to improve the profitability on a farmscale.The diesel that is produced and sold, already have a mixture of 5% biodiesel, andthere is a possibility to add more biodiesel to it. By developing new engines severalengine-manufacturers now allow a mixture up to 100% biodiesel in their engines. Hencethere is a market for an increased production of biodiesel. The aim of this study were toinvestigate the possibilities and the problems related to farm-scale production ofbiodiesel, and to study the profit margin in the production.

Protecting the environment has with time grown to take a more central role in the society. Agriculture plays an important role in the society since this sector produces our food. More thorough research on how agriculture affects the environment is therefore motivated. This research can be used to improve the agricultural practice from an environmental point of view. This is something that both the farmers and the consumers can profit from. This study aims to form the basis for creating environmental indicators for use of nitrogen and energy on dairy farms. Twenty-three farmers in western Sweden have been interviewed about their farms, both organic and conventional. They produce milk with different intensity, defined as the amount of milk delivered (sold) per hectare of arable land.

To understand the motives, and perhaps more importantly the barriers, for farmers to convert from conventional to organic farming is of great interest for policy makers as well as for academics. In Sweden and in other EU countries, proposed targets of the area in organic farmland have failed to be reached in spite of different kinds of policy measures. Most studies agree that the average profitability seems to be comparable to or better in organic than in conventional farming. This would indicate that there must be other factors of importance which can explain the low particiapation rate. A higher perceived risk in organic farming with respect to yield and price is frequently brought up as a potential explanation within a qualitative framework.

The study explores collective action in Sweden between 1980 to 1995 using time-series data from the European Protest and Coercion Database. In spite of severe hardship during the crisis of the early 1990s, Swedish strike-rates declined. However, contention merely shifted from workplaces into the streets; there was indeed a protest movement against austerity, as shown by a series of large demonstrations, and some riots, between 1989 and 1993. Further analysis indicates this movement faded as it was increasingly chanelled into the electoral campaign of the labor pary; having won the 1994 election, the organised labor movement no longer had an interest in sustaining the protest movement against austerity..

The dependency of fossil fuels has to decrease in order to reduce emissions of green house gases. Wind turbines generate electricity with low environmental impact, but the local opinion in Sweden is sometimes an obstacle to new developments. The acceptance of nuclear power increases at the same time. Mining uranium is once again on the agenda and prospectors are currently drilling for uranium. This cross-sectional study deals with acceptance of wind farms and uranium drilling.

Syftet med min undersökning har varit att undersöka receptionen kring det ryska konstkollektivet Pussy Riot. Jag har försökt att finna svar på vad det är för omständigheter som ligger bakom uppmärksamheten som gruppen har fått internationellt och i Sverige. Detta har jag gjort genom att utgå från ett genusperspektiv med en speciell inriktning på feministisk konstteori. Med hjälp av internationella artiklar och svensk dagspress har jag gjort en övergripande analys av receptionen kring Pussy Riot och deras konst. Genom materialet har jag kunnat undersöka olika kontexter som Pussy Riots konst har skapat reception inom.

Syftet med min undersökning har varit att undersöka receptionen kring det ryska konstkollektivet Pussy Riot. Jag har försökt att finna svar på vad det är för omständigheter som ligger bakom uppmärksamheten som gruppen har fått internationellt och i Sverige. Detta har jag gjort genom att utgå från ett genusperspektiv med en speciell inriktning på feministisk konstteori. Med hjälp av internationella artiklar och svensk dagspress har jag gjort en övergripande analys av receptionen kring Pussy Riot och deras konst. Genom materialet har jag kunnat undersöka olika kontexter som Pussy Riots konst har skapat reception inom.

It?s been noted that cows held at the section of ruminant medicine and epidemiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (IME), used for the education of veterinary students, have a lower heart rate than what is considered normal for ruminants. In this investigation the heart rates of seven lactating cows were recorded continuously during the period around drying off. The first recording took place at the farm from where the cows were bought, and then their heart rate was monitored after their arrival at IME and further on until they were completely dried off. The results were then compared to the heart rate of seven already dried off cows from the same farm.

The study explores collective action in Sweden between 1980 to 1995 using time-series data from the European Protest and Coercion Database. In spite of severe hardship during the crisis of the early 1990s, Swedish strike-rates declined. However, contention merely shifted from workplaces into the streets; there was indeed a protest movement against austerity, as shown by a series of large demonstrations, and some riots, between 1989 and 1993. Further analysis indicates this movement faded as it was increasingly chanelled into the electoral campaign of the labor pary; having won the 1994 election, the organised labor movement no longer had an interest in sustaining the protest movement against austerity..

The impact of the distribution in the soil volume of two farm manures on the net mineralization and immobilization processes of nitrogen were studied in an incubation experiment. Cattle slurry and broiler litter were placed in the soil with three procedures for incorporation including placement on top of the soil (TOP), in the middle of the soil (MID) and mixed homogenously with the soil (MIX). During the two weeks of incubation, few significant differences in net mineralization were seen between TOP, MID and MIX. However, there was a tendency that MIX led to a larger net immobilization of N than placement at one point (TOP and MID). This is also the result in the literature.

This paper shortly describes the coronavirus family, bovine corona viruses (BCV) properties and two diseases that BCV causes, winter dysentery and calf diarrhoea. The purpose of the study was to compare different diagnostic methods to detect BCV. Different methods are discussed, PCR, ELISA, immunofluorescense and virus isolation. Investigations were made in three different herds with winter dysentery; one dairy cattle farm with about 100 cows of different ages, one testing station for bulls with about 150 bulls and another small dairy cattle farm with 26 cows and 20 replacement heifers and calves. Faeces and nasal swabs were analysed with PCR and ELISA. The result shows that PCR seems to be a reliable method for detecting BCV but that the ELISA test can not be used as a reliable diagnostic method to analyse samples from animals with winter dysentery..

The focus of the thesis is: how conditions for agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia today may form the basis for development of the agricultural sector towards conditions needed for future accession into the European Union. The method for investigating this question has been to look at newly available farm monitoring system (FMS) data from Macedonia. Also to look at the latest government policies created in the country for the agricultural sector and rural areas in relation to the requirements for EU accession. Articles and empirical studies published by other authors related to the questions which arise in this study have been reviewed and presented herein. Trade relations, trade patterns and national economic and agricultural trends are displayed to provide a background overview for the study of the agricultural sector.

Interest in alternative energies is high in Sweden today, particularly in the agricultural sector. According to the Swedish lantbruksbarometern (2009), almost all respondents consider the use of some form of alternative energy from the farm. While interest in alternative energies is large, attention to the alternative energy straw has fallen and is almost nowhere mentioned in the literature today. Three years ago, in the Lantbruksbarometern nearly 44% of the farmers would be willing to invest in straw as heating system on the farm. How do the farmers decide to invest in alternative energies? With this information a problem is presented for this paper.

To get a good economy on the dairy farms the fertility control of heifers and cows is a crucial factor. It is also important to know which key parameters that should be tracked. In this work well established routines for heat detection have to be applied. When the dairy farmers use technical aid in estrus control it is important not to forget that technical aids can not replace the human eye. Approximately 50 % of all opportunities to inseminate are missed because clear signs of estrus have not been displayed and/or recorded. The cattle fertility has been declining over recent years. During the same time the cow?s proceeds have increased, consequently applying a higher pressure on the cow and the manager.