To turn the dairy heifers out on pasture is the most natural way for the cattle to get feed. At the same time it is cheap and if it is right treated a feed of high nutritive value. The problem today is to get dairy heifers to grow enough when they are grazing at natural pasture for the entire summer. Therefore, the opinions differ whether pasture is a resource or a problem. The increasing interest of pasture production is due to the fact that you can receive grants for preserving valuable natural assets and cultural landscape elements in the pasture land. A high grazing pressure is necessary to preserve an open landscape and a great variety of species. In the same time the heifers have to supply their nutritive needs in order to grow and be large enough to show heat and be pregnant in right time to calve with a sufficient body size and at an economically right age. This paper includes a literature review on natural pasture, pasture production, and growth of dairy heifers together with own interviews with dairy farmers about their point of view to the pasture husbandry on the farms, how they plan for pasture, look after natural pasture, treatment areas and take care of the calves and heifers. The results indicate that the time it takes and the demanded work are the biggest factors to how and why the farmers do as they do..

The decrease in the number of dairy farms in Sweden has been ongoing for a longer period of time. But the fact is that this has previously not had any big effects on total amount of milk produced in Sweden. The main reason is that the remaining dairy farms get larger. However, during the past year, there has been a decrease in the total amount of produced milk, because the decrease is faster than the increase within the farms that are left. During the same period of time the supply of milk on the global market also has decreased. In spite of the fact that the global supply have decreased and the fact that the milk price increases, there are dairy farmers in Sweden who chose to exit the market.

My purpose with this study was to find out if it is possible to buy a farm today for a person who want to start a farm but has very little own capital. In old study?s they have come to the conclusion that you will need at least 20 % own capital to succeed to management the farm. But in the last year the cost for arable land approxley has increased with 30 % in Sweden and the crops have doubled in price. So it would be interesting to see if the banks have a new vision on the need of the own capital when you buy a farm. I have chosen two different farms who was for sale in Östergötland, one dairy farm and the other farm was a plant farm.

Good feeding practices are a basic aspect of good calf health. During the calf's first few months the calf is fed with purchased milk replacer or raw milk straight from the cow. On all farms, it will be a surplus of milk that may not be delivered to the dairy for various reasons. Milk that may not be supplied to the dairy includes colostrum and milk with unnormal properties, including milk from cows suffering from mastitis. This study investigated the possibility of improving the milk by pasteurization in order to secure its use as feed for calves and thereby obtain an improved calf health.

Time studies in dairy production are an essential tool when deciding about level of mechanisation and automatisation both in investment situation and improving efficiency in existing operations. In previous investigations such studies have been carried out during normal barn conditions during winter. Since there is a compulsory to have dairy cows grazing 3 to 5 months during summer time in Sweden time studies during this season is important to have a full picture of needed working time. During grazing season time studies was carried out at 14 dairy farms representing herd sizes from 66 to 450 dairy cows of which 6 farms with AMS. 8 farms were the same as studied during winter season.

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: Whole fat versus low-fat dairy products for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. A systematic review.Author: Josefine Lindqvist, Robin Järnmark, Mathilde OhlinSupervisor: Mette AxelsenExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: 2014-04-09BackgroundResearch indicates that dairy products seems to have a protective impact on the incidence of cardiovascular disease regardless fat content. Paradoxically the Nordic nutrition recommendations recommend an exchange of full fat dairy product to low-fat dairy products.ObjectiveThe aim of this review is to investigate whether the variation in fat content of dairy products have any bearing on the onset of cardiovascular disease. With regard to common risk markers for cardiovascular disease the outcome measures hypertension, hyperlipidemia and weight gain is examined.Search strategyThe searches were made in the databases Medline (23/1-14) and Scopus (6/2-14).Selection criteriaRestrictions: Human Studies, Adults, Randomized Controlled Trials, English.Data collection and analysisTwo RCTs were included. Validation of the separate studies was performed with SBU's review template for individual studies and GRADE was used for summarizing the evidence of outcome measuresMain resultsThe two included studies examined the outcome measures blood pressure, weight and blood lipids.

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".

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.

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: Does low fat dairy products reduce blood pressure?Author: Emma Bergman and Naman LimaniSupervisor: Lena HulthénExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 26, 2014Background: It is estimated that at least a third of the population in Sweden have a high blood pressure with genetics, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity as the main contributing causes. High blood pressure is one of the greatest risk factors to develop cardiovascular diseases, which is the leading cause of death worldwide. Milk is a nutritional food product and previous research suggests that low fat dairy products may have blood pressure lowering effect.Objective: The aim was to examine the scientific basis of how low fat dairy products affect blood pressure.Search strategy: Twelve searches were conducted on PubMed and Scopus, where the chosen search terms were combined to produce a broad search as possible in the particular area. The search terms used were dairy, dairy products, milk, blood pressure and hypertension.Selection criteria: Studies on normotensive or hypertensive individuals who received low fat dairy products were included.

Cows affected by mastitis caused by Klebsiella (K.) pneumoniae often become seriously ill. In some cases herdproblems may occur. Contaminated bedding material is considered to be one of the most common risk factors for klebsiella mastitis. In a recently performed study in USA it was found, however, that more than 80 % of healthy, lactating dairy cows excreted K. pneumoniae in faeces.

The purpose of these theses is to show the financial economical situation during the change from conventional dairy production to ecological production. The thesis is accomplished by collecting information from literature and interviews where needed. The target group of these theses is dairy producers who will transform their production from conventional dairy production to certified ecological dairy production. The theses emphasise on the economic situation during the adjustment years. For this I have studied a presently producing dairy farm.

The animal welfare act in Sweden states that dairy cows need to have at least a dim light present at night, but there are no recommendations for what intensity the light should have. It is unknown how cows perceive and react to low light intensities and earlier studies on this topic are limited. Red light as night light has also been suggested, based on the cows? inability to perceive red light. This have however been questioned. The aim with this study was to investigate how four different light intensities affect dairy cows behavior.

Background: Mastitis in dairy cattle is a common ailment worldwide. A cause of mastitis can be bacteria such as Escherichia coli. Mastitis is not a deadly ailment and sometimes the dairy cows show no symptoms but if certain virulence genes are present in the bacteria that cause the mastitis, the bacteria can be transmitted to humans and cause severe diseases. The potential presence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in particular would be a major concern for human health.Aim: The aim for this study was to analyze the presence of virulence genes known to be present in E.coli strains isolated from dairy cows with mastitis in Sweden.Method: A Qiagen BIO ROBOT EZ1 was used to purify DNA from 90 bacterial cultures. A panel of virulence genes were amplified and biotinylated from the purified DNA by PCR and an E.coli based DNA microarray was used to detect presumed virulence genes in E.coli.Result: There were no samples that had all the genes traditionally used to classify E.coli as EHEC or potential EHEC.

Water is an essential factor for both people and animals, and access to water is therefore of great importance. The water access also largely determines the availability of food for people and feed for animals. The aim of this study was to survey the affect of water access on milk production from dairy animals. The study included nineteen farm visits that were made in the Nyando district in Kenya between February and Mars 2011. Farm visits included interviews with questions about for example number of dairy animals, milk production, water access, feed and water routines.

Milk yield levels in dairy cows are influenced by many factors such as nutrition, breed, health status, management and environment. This study was conducted among small scale farmers in Zambia, where the climate can be dry for up to six months per year and cause a lack of green pasture for livestock and on-farm produced feed. The purpose of this study was to identify management factors that can influence milk yield at small scale dairy farms in Zambia, and present advice that could improve productivity, without the need of expensive investments. The study included semi-structured questionnaires presented to the farmers (n=29) including questions about cattle management and milk production. Testing of somatic cell count (SCC) with DCC (DeLaval Cell Counter) from herd milk samples (n=56) and observation of housing and animal body condition on-farm was also made.