In Sweden regulations stipulates that dairy cows are kept on pasture, or given the opportunity to spend time outside during a coherent period of between two to four months, depending on region. The transition out to pasture is a big change from the winter period in the stable, especially for the modern high yielding dairy cows. The let out to pasture includes a change in feed, environment, and new routines. There are indications that the milk somatic cell count (SCC) rises in a peak shortly after the let out. The purpose of this study was to see if peaks in the SCC could be observed after the let out, and to study the contribution of inflammatory cells (neutrophils) and if the milk composition are affected. The study included 35 cows that were kept in stable during the winter.

To reconstruct a building is a long-term investment for farmers and it is important that people with different qualifications are involved at an early stage for making the system adapted to the animals as well the animal keeper. Therefore, ethologists who can contribute with their expertise are needed to design the system and get it to function well for the animals.A Swedish farmer who planned to rebuild her stall for tied dairy cattle to a loose-housing system for recruitment heifers for milk production asked me as an ethologist to find a system which can be fit to her existing tie-stall barn for 30 dairy cows, considering the animal needs in terms of movement, social interactions and play behaviors, and to theoretically compare the system with other systems with respect to the behaviors mentioned.The theoretical comparison between different systems was made through a scientific literature review.In agreement with the animal keeper I set out to fit a system with feeding cubicles, a system with cubicles and a system with deep straw bedding to the barn. After measurements were taken and preliminary drawings were outlined it was found that only the feeding cubicle system was possible to fit to the barn.The space provided will limit the animals to perform some playing behaviors. To decrease aggressive interactions between animals even thought a limiting area it is possible to provide partitions between resources animals compete around to prevent that more than one animal can get success to the resource at a particular place at one time. To increase the animal movement in the system the water trays were moved to the outer wall instead of kept in contact with the stalls.Although this report provides guidelines for rebuilding, other competences regarding building construction and a pre-test of the suggested building solution according to Swedish legislation are needed before the rebuilding can start.The results are directed mainly to the owner of the barn, but the literature review can be used by other cattle farmers and might bring increased understanding of the possible effects of different building solution on the animals..

Animal welfare can be measured in several different ways; for example by using animal-based measurements. It has been shown that register data from the Swedish Official Milk Recording Scheme can be helpful when identifying herds at risk of having poor animal welfare, which led to a development of the advisory service of ?Ask the Cow? and the web report ?Animal Welfare Signals?. The aim of this project was to find out if register data from ?Animal Welfare Signals? can be used as a screening tool for detecting herds at risk of having poor animal welfare and in need of an ?Ask the Cow?.

Live-weight at different ages for Swedish Holsteins (SLB) and for the Swedish Red and White Breed (SRB), and the correlation to heart girth and height at withers. The aim of this investigation was to study the live-weight changes and mature weight for the Swedish Red and White Breed (SRB) and for Swedish Holsteins (SLB), and to estimate the correlations between body weight and body measurements such as heart girth and height at withers, respectively. The material used was from one of the experimental dairy herds (Jälla) of the Swedish University of Agricultural Science. It included recordings on 293 dairy cows with information from 7142 weight occasions and recordings on 275 dairy cows with information of 557 heart girth measurements and 560 measurements of height at withers. The registrations were done during 1993-2002. There was a large variation in live weight between cows in different ages and lactation stages.

Sustainability Reporting has emerged and transformed over the past decades as a voluntary practice by companies across industries that desire to show proof of good conduct and environmental; social; and economic responsibility. As industrial food production is one of the largest contributors to contemporary environmental problems, it might be expected that reporting within the industry would be both well established and well understood. Unfortunately, it is neither. In light of the food industry?s considerable environmental impact and the growing popularity of plant-based food as a more sustainable alternative to dairy products, this paper assesses and briefly discusses the Sustainability Reporting of two companies in the plant-based food and beverage industry. The research was designed to compare the practices of Europe-based Alpro and US-based SoDelicious, and this study has two major purposes: to describe the reporting of the case companies and to subsequently compare their practices to the other as well as to global reporting standards. The empirical study in this paper was conducted through content analysis.

The trend towards increasingly large farming units raises questions regarding how to better monitor production. Larger units make the impact from possible errors more severe, which increases the pressure on management supervision. To cope with management issues, prevent errors and handle increased demands on traceability and documentation, the Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) concept is making its way into various parts of agriculture. In sectors outside agriculture, RTLS are already being used successfully to track and locate items through nodes at different levels of accuracy, such as room level or the relative or absolute position. Empirical data can be received in real time from the nodes.

The Effects of dietary biotin supplementation on hoof health in Swedish dairy cows - a controlled cohort field study. The aim of the present degree project was to investigate the effects of biotin supplementation on hoof health in dairy cows. The experiment was performed as a controlled cohort study in three commercial farms in western Sweden from January 2002 to October 2002. The cows were all housed in cubicle systems with transponder concentrate feeding systems. Within each farm the cows were allocated to either biotin or control treatment. The biotin groups received 20 mg of biotin per cow and day, starting 14 days before expected calving.

Milkability or ease of milking, has higher importance today for Swedish dairy cattle producers after the introduction of milking parlours and automatic milking systems. Milkability is the cow?s ability to quickly milk out and be completely milked. There are several measures of milkability available. Today the farmer measures the traits subjectively in relation to the conformation scoring of the cow 30-270 days after her first calving.

In modern dairy production the milking frequency is increased in some herds due to introducing of automatic milking systems or the farmers decision to milk high producing dairy cows more than two times a day. With more frequent milkings the milk yield increases while the content of fat and protein decreases. However, how the composition of protein is influenced is not fully evaluated. The purpose of this study was therefore to see if a higher milking frequency had any impact on the milk production and especially on the protein composition. This study was conducted as a half udder experiment.

Clinical signs of hypocalcaemia in dairy cows are easily recognized, and a rapid response to treatment generally confirms the diagnosis in the field. However, clinical signs of other disorders in cows, such as toxemia, calving paralysis, or muscoskeletal injury, may mimic those associated with hypocalcaemia. Therefore, making a diagnosis of hypocalcaemia on the basis of clinical signs alone may be difficult. In ambulatory veterinary practices, cow-side tests are useful to make the diagnosis and prognosis easier. Kruuse?s Kalcium Test is a cow-side test based on the principle that calcium ions are necessary for coagulation of blood, and that chelation with EDTA prevent coagulation.

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.

The economic conditions for Swedish dairy farmers are constantly changing. The numbers of producers are declining and the economic conditions for dairy production are weakening debilitating. To improve the economic situation for a farm a hired contractor is a possible solution since previous studies show that machinery cooperation may be beneficial for the farmers. The aim of this study is to examine the possibility for farmers to cut costs by hiring a contractor for harvesting silage. A comparison between using own machinery and hire a contractor is the starting point of this study. Another aim is to discuss the farmer?s decision process when achieving today?s situation and to determinate what factors affect their decisions. The study is based on cases selected from four farms that today have chosen not to or only to some extent, hire a contractor for harvesting silage.

Milk fever, or parturient paresis, is the second most common disease in Swedish dairy cows. The disorder is associated with the onset of lactation when some cows are unable to meet the metabolic demands of calcium to support milk production and therefore develop a state of hypocalcaemia. Clinical hypocalcaemia (milk fever) may lead to coma and death in severe cases but subclinical hypocalcaemia has also been shown to have negative effects on e.g. feed intake and production and to increase the susceptibility of the cow to develop secondary diseases. The nutritional strategy applied precalving is of great importance in preventing milk fever and e.g.

Milk fat is an important feature in many different milk products and other foodstuffs and it is often crucial for the dairy plants that the milk fat is stable for different manufacturing processes. Lipolysis is the enzymatic degradation of fat and is the one of the causes for an elevated amount of free fatty acids (FFA) in milk. Further, the change in fatty acid (FA) composition in milk can affect the stability of the product and also the manufacturing process. Both internal and external factors, at farm level or at the dairy plants can affect both FA composition and content of FFA. Milking frequency (MF=number of milkings per cow and day) and the composition of feed are two examples of factors generally performed at farm level. The objective of the present study was to evaluate how FA composition of milk and amount of FFA are influenced by two different ingredients supplemented to concentrate.

Organic layers and broilers will according to (EEG) no 2092/91 be fed 100 % organic feeds in year 2012, which is expected to present problems associated with the specific protein requirements of poultry. This document aims at describing the feedstuffs that possibly may constitute a part of the solution to these problems. Peas, field beans, naked oats, canola, hempseed and sunflower come out as interesting feedstuffs. Biproducts from the milling and dairy industry together with marine protein supplements may be brought to the fore, provided that the demand for organic products will rise further..