An automatic milking (AM) system should be combined with some form of controlled cow traffic to minimize the time spend on fetching Cows to milking and to increase the milking frequency. By restricting the hours spent on pasture per day you optimise the AM system use during pasture period. A reason for this is becuase Cows do not return to the stable for milking during night which cause that the milking unit stands empty those hours. In organic production it is required that the Cows should be able to graze a certain amount of daily dry matter (DM) intake on the pasture. In the county of Dalarna where the farm is located the yield of the pasture is about 3000 kg DM per grazing season and hectar.This means that the pasture area should be 14,25 hectare to 57 milking Cows.

Soft rubber flooring have gained in popularity over the last years. Rubber flooring al-lows cow to move more freely without slipping and improves claw and leg health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of a stepwise introduktion of soft flooring on cow`s placement in cow houses with robotic milking. A case study was carried out in a herd in northern Sweden with 41 Cows. Observations were made every 15 minutes between 09.00 and 16.00 concering cow placement in cu-bicles, in cubicle alley, in feeding alley and in feeding alley with the head through feed-ing gate. One observation period was carried out per flooring alternativ: 1) all concrete slatted floor, 2) rubber slatted floor in feeding alley and concrete slatted floor in cubicle alley and 3) rubber slatted floors in feeding alley and solid rubber floors in cubicle alley. The study showed that 6 %-units fewer Cows lay in the cubicles when the feeding alley surface was slatted rubber.

This study investigated the effects of rubber alley flooring on cow locomotion, claw and leg health, production, cleanliness, grooming behaviour and cow exclusion rate in a free stall herd. The study was conducted in a new dairy house with a rotary milking system, with a matched group of Cows on traditional scraped concrete alleys used for comparison. All claws were trimmed and lesions recorded at the beginning and end of the 4-month study. Locomotion, claw and leg health, behaviour and hygiene were observed and scored at regular intervals during the study. The results showed that Cows on rubber alley floors displayed significantly (p.

Information regarding Cows grazing behaviour and time spent grazing can be of great interest to dairy farmers, since this information can indicate how well suited the pasture is to the Cows. Feed intake at pasture is however challenging to measure. Automated systems for monitoring the behaviour of Cows within dairy production have become increasingly important and relatively common. The aim of this study was to validate an activity measuring device (HOBO® G Logger Pendant Data Logger, USA), a triaxial accelerometer that registers the cow?s head positions during grazing, in order to see if Cows? grazing behaviour on pasture could be distinguished from their non grazing behaviour.

Today a trend can be seen towards fewer dairy farms and increasing number of Cows per farm. Larger farms set a higher demand of more labour efficient milking systems. The time to enter and exit milking rotary platforms is crucial to maintain a high cow throughput. This study is a project initiated by DeLaval in order to evaluate the cow throughput and cow behaviour during entry and exit in two types of parallel external rotaries with different bail designs. The two rotaries compared were DeLaval parallel rotary PR2100 and PR3100HD.

Habituation to an automatic milking system (AMS) for Cows in their first lactation differs from habituation to other milking systems. In AMS the Cows are supposed to visit the milking station (MS) voluntarily. The milking takes place individually during the whole day, except when the milking system is cleaned. Milking is carried out without any human survey. The aim of the study was to describe the cow?s introduction in AMS in their first lactation.

The aim for this study was to investigate if it is less stressful for cow and calves in loose housing systems when separation is made so they can see and touch each other (Physical Contact-PC) instead of just hearing each other (Hearing Contact-HC). The behavior of eight cow- calf pairs (n=4 pairs per treatment) on an ecological dairy farm with cubicle housing were studied for four hours directly after separation and four hours the day after separation. The first four Cows that gave birth were used for treatment PC, and the following four Cows that gave birth were used for treatment HC. The only selection criteria used was that both cow and calf were healthy. Separation took place 3-4 days after birth and the calves were put separately in two different pens while the mothers were let loose into the cubicle system.

Six Cows were subjected to an intravenous glucose tolerance test (GTT) to evaluate the amount of glucose that is needed to stimulate the release of insulin from pancreas. Four of the Cows were in early lactation and two were non-lactating and not pregnant. Series of blood-samples were collected to analyze the concentration of insulin and glucose in the blood. The Cows were given lower levels of glucose than have been used in earlier glucose tolerance tests. The levels of glucose given were 7,5 mg/kg BW, 15 mg/kg BW, 30 mg/kg BW and 50 mg/kg BW.

Milk ejection in dairy Cows can be inhibited if oxytocin is not released from the pituitary gland. The problem with inhibition of the milk let down is not new, but has recently regained interest. It is observed during different types of emotional stress, for example when Cows are moved to an unfamiliar environment, during oestrus, changing from suckling to machine milking or when being milked for the first time. The aim of the study was to examine the extent of Cows with disturbed milk ejection in Sweden. A survey was sent out to 1000 dairy farmers in order to collect data about herd size, housing systems and routines at calving and milking.

To be a farmer and have suckler Cows is a difficult combination especially considering the economy. Because of the increased feed costs, the margins have become tighter. The meat price from beef cattle has increased a little when this text is written (spring, 2008), but not so much that it covers the cost for feed etc. I have a small suckler cow production on approximately 30 Cows and 2 bulls plus followers as a part-time business. The herd is tied in the old dairy stable built in the late seventies.

Today dairy farmers in Sweden are obligated to have lights turned on during night time in addition to the mandatory daylight inlet. This presents a cost for the production but many argue that it can be economically beneficial, especially in loose housing of dairy Cows. In loose housing and even more so in herds with automatic milking, well functioning cow traffic during all hours of the day is crucial to optimise production. In order to keep the cow traffic flowing, lights may be an important management tool. It is also perceived among farmers with tied up stall that night light decreases the incidents of Cows accidental stepping on their own or neighbours udders.

This study investigates a farm in Dalarna which includes 16 ha of farmland and 1, 7 ha of pasture. The purpose is to find out if it is possible to start an animal production in Dalarna. The study is set only to compare spring lamb production with nurse cow production. There are two buildings on the farm that can be used for this purpose. One is an old Cowshed, and the other is an unused silo for silage with a roof on top. Both of the buildings are compared to every alternative in the calculations.

Heat stress negatively influences the performance of dairy cattle such as lactation and reproduction. Heat stress can cause production losses as well as welfare problems. Years of research have shown that heat stress is a huge problem for dairy cattle in both the tropics and temperate zones but no such research have so far been done in northern European countries. It seems like shade is an important tool when improving pasture conditions and therefore deserves more attention. The aim with this study was to investigate whether there is a need of providing shade for grazing dairy Cows during the summer in Sweden. Two groups of lactating Swedish Red dairy Cows (n=15 per group) were kept on pasture.

Automatic milking systems (AMS) have been in commercial use since 1992 and have since 1998 increased a lot. The objective of this study has been to examine the development of udder health on farms converting to AMS. The study also included a comparison of how udder health developed depending on how farms handled Cows with mastitis. This was because farms choose to either milk Cows with mastitis in a separate barn or in the milking robot. Other studies on udder health on commercial farms have shown that somatic cell count increases both among individual Cows and in the bulk milk when converting to an AMS. No differences between before and after converting to AMS in the proportion of Cows treated for mastitis can be found in the literature.

When I got the opportunity to write this examination did I want to write about something that I both was interest in and also can use in the future. I think it?s going to be difficult to carry on the milk production with only 28 Cows. I wanted to investigate the possibility to increase the herd of Cows. I also wanted to compare this cost with a new cow house the Cows where milked with a robot.