Several bulls in Sweden are culled because of lameness. Studies of beef bulls have shown that osteochondrosis is an important underlying cause of hind limb problems (Persson, 2003; Dutra, 1998). Osteochondrosis in horses, dogs, swine, poultry and man are well documentated in the literature, but there are few studies in cattle. The prevalence of osteochondrosis in dairy bulls in Sweden is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and localisation of osteochondrosis in the hindlimbs of dairy bulls. This study consists of 48 one-year-old bulls divided into four groups related to which farm they came from.

Escherichia (E) coli is one of the most common udder pathogens associated with acute clinical mastitis in Swedish dairy cows. The aim of this study is to review some of the existing literature on E coli mastitis from a Swedish perspective. The bacteria, its most important characteristics, and diagnostics under field conditions is covered, as well as what happens during infection, how E coli affects the cow and which consequences this have. Clinical symptoms associated with E coli mastitis are described and information on when these cases of mastitis usually occurs is given. Risk factors in the cow?s enviroment are described as well as the importance of the cow?s immune defence.

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.

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.

Research where personality in animals is studied is becoming more and more common. In this area there are different concepts like behavioural syndrome and animal personality and they usually talk about consistency in behaviour over time and situations. This consistent individual behaviour can be used as an indicator of how individuals can handle and adjust to new situations in the environment. Because of this, personality studies in animals are very important in animal welfare. In this study personality in dairy cattle in lose housing were studied.

Most of the beef production in Sweden has been integrated with milk production. Since the 1990:s, the number of dairy cows has decreased. A specialised beef production has developed in purpose to compensate for this decrease. The consumption of beef have increased in the last decade, but the Swedish production has no followed this trend. In 2004, the percentage of beef self-sufficiency in Sweden was 60 %.

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.

Claw diseases are common diseases in modern dairy production. They are painful for the cow and costly for the producer. Differences in the prevalence of claw disease depending on housing system have previously been observed. This raises the question if there are genotype by environment (GxE) interactions for claw diseases in different housing systems. To investigate this claw trimming records for Swedish Red dairy cattle (SR) and Swedish Holstein cows (SH) were retrieved from the Swedish Dairy Association.

Genetic defects are caused by mutations in major genes where the gene?s protein product has a large impact on the physiology of the animal. The synthesis of the protein can be altered by a change in the nucleotide sequence, which can lead to malformation and in many cases death.One of the main reasons of increase in many genetic defects is the use of few bulls in breeding programmes, causing a reduction of the genetic variation. Genetic defects cause suffering for the animal and influences the production by, for example, increased costs due to misscarriages, lost milk production and expenditure for medical treatment. Bovine Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency (BLAD) and Complex Vertebral Malformation (CVM) are two genetic defects that were widespread before the causative mutation was discovered.

The farm management system controlled traffic farming (CTF) aims to reduce soil compaction by restricting the field traffic from agricultural machinery to permanent traffic lanes. Literature and empirical findings show that soil compaction and field traffic from heavy machinery may affect crop growth negatively, reducing crop yields. If grass-clover leys are subject to heavy field traffic the botanic composition might be altered, providing a lower clover content in the forage. Clover as a silage feed is rich in protein providing good conditions for high yielding dairy cows. Grass-clover silage production is generally associated with intensive field traffic.

KRAV-certified organic dairy herds generally have a lower milk yield than conventional dairy herds. A high-level of milk yield requires a feeding regime with high amounts of concentrates, a factor known to contribute to the development of claw lesions (Bergsten, C. 2003). The aim of this study was to compare claw health between organic and conventional dairy herds in free and tie stall systems. The number of herds from different domestic animal health associations was chosen in proportion to the association´s total portion of Swedish dairy producing herds of each type, respectively.

Sustainable beef and milk consumption. The consumption of beef and dairy products in Sweden is high. A lot of greenhouse gases are emitted from the production of these products. The production of beef in Sweden has decreased but the import has increased. The number of dairy cows has decreased while beef-production with suckler-cows has increased in Sweden.

As the world´s population increases and people's living conditions are improving, larger areas are needed for houses as well as food production. This means that new areas are exploited and that people, livestock, blood sucking insects and wild animals are forced to live close together. In combination with the global warming, leading to extreme weather such as floods and storms, this allows both new and old pathogens to emerge. The number of "emerging infectious diseases", EIDs, has increased in recent years and many of them have their origin in poor, tropical countries. Moçambique is therefore considered to be a high risk area for EIDs. Schmallenberg virus, SBV, was discovered in 2011 as an "emerging infectious disease" in dairy cows in Germany.

Milk and milk consumption has been subject of discussion for a long time, and is still a hot topic. Recently, as study was published that observed a correlation between milk intake and increased risk of fractures and mortality. The authors proposed the milk?s content of D-galactose as the possible mechanism, since D-galactose is used indicated ageing in animal models. Therefore, this study aims to develop a method to determine the amount of galactose, glucose and lactose in milk and fermented milk and apply it on to dairy products on the Swedish market.

The objective of this thesis was to get more knowledge about how to design a dairy farm reducing the working hours and the work tasks whit high work load. I will try to reduce the working hours and the tasks whit high work load on my own farm witch I am about inherit. Today, the old stanchion barn has room for about 60 cows and 74 young cattle and need two men to run it every day. The total acre is 188 hectare, 100 hectare forest, 65 hectare farmlands and 23 hectare natural pasture. I have studied two solutions. In the first solution, I will use my old barn for young cattle and build a new barn for the cows.