Commonly held dietary guidelines discourage full-fat dairy consumption due its to high levels of saturated fatty acids, which are believed to aversely influence cardiovascular disease risk. Cardiovascular diseases cause more than one third of deaths in the developed world. With dairy often providing a large part of energy and nutrients in Western diets, research into its effects on human health is warranted. Several recent studies have suggested a protective role of dairy in the development of cardiometabolic disease. However, many of these have used imprecise methods of dietary assessment, based on questionnaires or interviews. Biomarkers are emerging as a means of evaluating diet in a more objective way. Currently used dairy fat biomarkers are minor fatty acid constituents of dairy that preferably are unique to dairy and not influenced by endogenous metabolism.

The Dairy business is changing a lot because of some scandals in the agricultural area for example the BSE crises in Great Britain. Because of the scandals the food industry and the farm association have created a certifying system; IP-Sigill Swedish standard system. We contacted Skånemejerier as they have been successful in the certifying area. They asked us if we wanted to do a study in the certifying area of dairy farmers. At Skånemejerier they gave us most of the literature in the area about certifying. The result of the study, is that we have taken up the most common remark?s. The most frequent remark is journal over routines in management of dairy cows on daily basis. Another remark of the study is that the frequency of the remarks decreases with greater production..

In this final thesis a study about welfare indicators in the Swedish milk production has been carried out. The system Swedish Animal Welfare Monitoring Scheme developed by the Swedish Dairy Association has been used as a base and the EU project WELFARE QUALITY® has also been used as a source of information. Focus groups have been used as a qualitative investigating method. This included four focus groups, two with farm auditors from the two different dairies and two with dairy farmers. This method was chosen because in this way one can study how a conversation about a given subject takes form in a respectable way.

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.

Farmers? main reason for crossbreeding dairy cows is that they have seen a decline in functional traits, especially in the Holstein breed. Throughout crossbreeding, the farmers can combine functional and production traits of different dairy breeds and utilize the heterosis effects which emerge when two or more breeds are crossed. Results from different studies with Holstein crossed with Jersey, Brown Swiss, Normande and Scandinavian Red have shown that the crosses had higher fertility, longer productive life, had fewer stillborn calves and had easier calvings than purebred Holstein. The Holstein crosses have shown very good results and sometimes even better than the purebred Holstein for fat production, which gave higher amount of energy corrected milk (ECM) and higher income for the farmers.

The aim of this literature review is to give an overview of the differences between pure- and crossbreeding systems. Crossbreeding is a mating system with individuals of different lines or breeds. It is one of several breeding strategies in dairy production used to increase the economic profit. The use of crossbreeding increases due to changes in the dairy market and an increase of inbreeding among purebred Holstein. The main benefit of crossbreeding is heterosis, which is the improvement in genetic level in a hybrid offspring above the average of the parent breeds.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the kind of treatment strategies used by Swedish Veterinarians with cattle practice when treating calves with symptoms of pneumonia. A questionnaire, consisting of seven questions, was sent to one hundred veterinarians who have had practice with cattle and are employed by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The survey was answered by a total of 73% of the Veterinarians. Of the respondents, 73 % use Penicillins as their first choice of drug for treating calves with symptoms of pneumonia, and as their second choice 64 % use Tetracycline. Supplementary treatment such as NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and/or SAID (steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) are used by 97.5 % of the respondents.

The objective of this thesis was to get more knowledge before an alternation of generations. In theses I have chose to make two drawings, one for dairy cows and one for cattle rearing. The drawings are made for a future alternation of generations at my parental home in the province Dalarna. The results are made out of educational visits at different farms and literature investigations. Those dairy farms who I visited had different milking system at each farm and the cattle farm I visited had beef production. The farms are placed in the middle and south of Sweden. At 1998 the Swedish Board of Agriculture decided to change the stall breadth and stall length and the result of this is that many farmers had to rebuild their cattle- and dairy buildings or end farming..

Earlier studies have shown that musculoskeletal disorders among animal keepers are more frequent than in other occupations. Most of the farms have expanded and the farmers who used to work alone have suddenly become a work manager with several employers. There are only a few studies made on the work environment in dairy farms. Our study is based on a questionnaire and is a part of a project called large dairy herds. The study is based on data from the persons who milk most of the time. The questions they had to answer were about the work environment, musculoskeletal disorders and the psychosocial environment. The results of the survey are presented in diagrams and figures. It was common that the dairy producer themselves answered the questionnaire.

Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV) is a common cause of respiratory disease among young cattle. The virus causes severe losses; the herd mortality rate can sometimes be as high as 20 %. In this study the avidity (i.e the antigen binding force) of BRSV specific antibodies was measured to see if there was a difference between antibodies produced during an acute phase of infection and antibodies produced by earlier infected animals. A commercially available ELISA-testkit against BRSV-specific antibodies was used and an incubation step with 6M urea was added. The effect of the urea is that it breaks the weak bonds between antibodies and antigen while the stronger bonds remain intact. Four different groups of animals were included in this study; seven calves that were naturally infected, three acutely infected calves with known time of infection, five cows that were seropositive during several years and four experimentally infected calves that had been a part of a vaccine trial. The results of this study showed that antibodies produced during the acute phase of an infection had a low avidity and that the avidity increased with time after infection.

Sleep is a vital part of life. Even so a lot of the mechanics regarding sleep is unknown. The dairy cattle of today live a stressful life, as their high milk yields forces them to eat large amounts of feed and spend a great portion of the day ruminating. Do they have time to get enough sleep? Which factors affecting the need of sleep in dairy cattle are largely un-known.

Major changes within the agricultural politics today have forced the dairy production to scaleup, in order to compete on a global market. This has resulted in a reduction in the number ofsmaller dairy farms in Sweden, from about 40000 to just over 4000 over the last 30 years. Thepurpose of this study Svenska mjölkbönder, snart ett minne blott? ? Markbygdensmjölkbönder i tankar om mjölkproduktionens nuvarande situation och framtidsutsikter, is topresent the opinions of dairy farmers in Sweden, regarding the Swedish dairy industry and therelation to their own dairy production. A secondary purpose is to problematize how theconsequences of pastures and cultural landscapes influences human society as dairy farms andgrazing animals are becoming fewer.

The dairy market will change importantly in the coming years. The quota system, which has regulated the European dairy production, will disappear in 2015 and the European dairy market will then be importantly affected by the volatility characterizing the dynamic of world prices. Besides this, the global demand of dairy products is expected to increase due to the growing world population. Farmers in countries such as the U.S. and New Zealand, when compared to Swedish farmers, show greater familiarity and experience with risk management tools.

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.

For the company to work well, it is necessary with a good economy, a high qualitative production and a well working system concerning the environment: the whole cycle on the farm needs to be working. At the same time, debaters about the environmental impacts are also requiring higher demands for the dairy farmers and therefore also the management programs. Management programs for feed evaluation calculations have been more developed over the years. Big amounts have been invested in the new feeding system with NorFor, but no one seems to have asked the dairy farmers what they themselves want to spend their money on, and what they need help with. For the dairy farmers it is necessary that the whole company is controlled in the right way, and much more than just feed evaluation is included in this.