Traditionally risk-based measures have been used to assess animal welfare in legislation and certification schemes. With increased knowledge and research, debate today tends to focus on and advocate the use of animal-based measures. However this is not a panacea for welfare and the most sound conclusion should be that assessment of animal welfare needs both. The aim of this thesis is to identify the points that need to be taken into consideration to find the optimal balance in the use of input and outcome measures according to the aim of the assessment and how these should be applied when designing a certification scheme? To answer this, a comparison of the use of resource-based, management-based and animal-based measures in two certification schemes for dairy cow welfare, Freedom Food (UK) and Svenskt Sigill (SWE), was made.

There is two dairy farms in Sweden with ability to be opened on both long sides, one outside Hjo and the other one, Brandstadholm, north of Sjöbo. When there is no measures and results or not enough literature about natural ventilation and especially on this kind of air inlet, makes my tests very interesting not only on Alnarp, but among other companies. I would like to find out if there is any air movements direct on the cows, how high/low temperature, air humidity, light intensity and noise standard inside the barn. Does Brandstadholm fulfil the rules and regulations when it comes to climate inside the barn? Could this system become the new dairy barn instead of the conventional barns in Sweden? I am going to focus on the animals environment, after all they are the one who is going to spend the most of the time in the barn. I used five electrical loggers distributed inside the barn to measure the temperature and one of the loggers measured the air humidity, every 15th minute. One logger were placed on the outside which measured both temperature and air humidity.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sleep, photoperiod, milk yield and hormones connected to milk formation. Variations of prolactin (PRL) and Insulin-Like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in plasma were measured during two different light programs. The light programs consisted of either 24 hours of light (L24:D0) or four hours of light and 20 hours of darkness (L4:D20). Five cows of the Swedish Red breed were used in a cross-over experiment and each light program consisted of five days. Milk yield was measured at every milking and milk samples were analyzed with regard to fat, lactose and protein.

The fertility of dairy cows is of great importance in order to maintain high production. The decline in fertility of dairy cows the latest decades can have several explanations. The large emphasis on high yielding cows and the negative genetic correlation between milk production and fertility traits could be one of the main factors for impaired fertility. To find heats and inseminate the cow at the right time is crucial to receive high conception rate. Delaval has, in corporation with FOSS, developed Herd Navigator which is a management program that measure four biological parameters in the milk; progesterone, betahydroxybutyrate, lactate dehydrogenase and urea.

Neospora caninum is an intracellular parasite that was first recognized in dogs in 1984. The parasite is now one of the most commonly diagnosed infectious causes of abortion in cattle word wide. N. caninum is transmitted to cattle in two ways. They may be infected from eating food contaminated with oocysts from a definitive host or they may be infected in utero from an infected mother. The infection is transmitted efficiently from cow to her offspring and this can occur for generations.

The aim of this study was to investigate which elements that functioned in a positive way on the natural behaviors of dairy cattle among KRAV certificated and conventional farms. The study was based on reading of earlier research and completed by interviews with farmers, animal health inspectors and consumers. The results showed us that the KRAV certificated farms used only loose housing barns and that the cattle were allowed a pasturetime of five months, or more, in one year. Our interviews with the consumers confirmed that KRAV was a well known trademark. The conventional farms were more flexible in their choice of housing systems, and used both loose housing barns and barns with the cattle tethered.

The Swedish dairy sector is facing several challenges the coming years. One big challenge is how they will secure the access of their raw material milk in the future. The number of milk producers has decreased for an extended period of time, but was for a long time partly compensated by an increased productivity among the remaining milk producers. From year 2000 that trend was broken and also the quantity of milk produced started to fall quickly. Milko is a dairy company with members from Dalsland in the south to Jämtland in the north. During the first seven moths 2007, their number of members decreased by almost a fourth, from 1 272 to 974.

Botanically diverse pastures are commonly used in New Zealand to reduce the ruminant environmental impact by reducing the methane production from the rumen digestion. In order to evaluate the effects diverse pasture species have on the milk fatty acid profile seventy-two lactating Friesian-Jersey crossbred dairy cows were used in a randomised block design with two replicates of six treatments. Six different pasture mixtures were fed at a daily allowance of approximately 15 kg DM/cow/day. The mixtures were categorised as either a simple or a diverse pasture. The simple mixtures all contained white clover with the addition of either a standard diploid perennial ryegrass (RG), a diploid high sugar ryegrass (HS) or tall fescue (TF).

Background: As Porter?s diamond (1990) suggested, the business environment highly influences firms? strategies. Today, most of the companies have to decide their strategy depending from a worldwide business environment. Yet, strategy researches and the growing importance of marketing for business success also show that customer dimension must be taken into consideration. On some markets and in certain industries, the offer is much higher than the demand and then, companies need to attract customers.

The aim of this study was to investigate which elements that functioned in a positive way on the natural behaviors of dairy cattle among KRAV certificated and conventional farms. The study was based on reading of earlier research and completed by interviews with farmers, animal health inspectors and consumers. The results showed us that the KRAV certificated farms used only loose housing barns and that the cattle were allowed a pasturetime of five months, or more, in one year. Our interviews with the consumers confirmed that KRAV was a well known trademark. The conventional farms were more flexible in their choice of housing systems, and used both loose housing barns and barns with the cattle tethered.

In a time when milk producing farm businesses face decline in profitability it is of great importance to examine how the situation can be improved. This thesis is a study off efficiency in milk producing farm businesses represented by Swedish, Dutch and German farms. The aim of this study is to investigate whether any differences exist between companies in these countries. Moreover, the study includes a mapping of a number of factors that determine how efficient milk production can be managed. This mapping is based on a literature review on prior efficiency studies followed by qualitative interviews with milk production advisors as well as a questionnaire sent out to dairy farmers in Sweden.

Mastitis in dairy cows is an emerging and challenging disease in the tropics, including India. Nation-wide reports suggest that the incidence of clinical mastitis varies from 3.94% to 23.25%, and for subclinical mastitis from 15.78% to 81.60%. In Assam, a northeastern province of India, dairy is an essential part of the mixed farming system that exists in the state, but the milk yield is far below domestic standards. In 2009-2010, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and local associates started to develop a training program for local farmers in Assam, in order to enhance the informal bovine dairy sector in and around Guwahati, India. The project continued until mid-2013.

The aim of this literature review was to investigate whether the modern dairy cow has the time she needs to lie down and to sleep and what deprivation of these behaviors could lead to. Current research seems to agree on the fact that sleep is essential but there is no uniform explanation of the function of sleep, even though there are many theories. It is known that sleep has an important impact on the immune system and that sleep is increased in case of an infection. Sleep deprivation causes many negative effects including reduced function off the immune defense, increased metabolic activity, malnutrition and increased heart rate. It has also been found that deprivation of sleep could cause increased mortality.

Mellanchefer sitter idag på en position där de är tvungna att förhålla sig till ett stort antal faktorer som påverkar dem i deras arbete. Deras situation passar därför alldeles utmärkt för att undersöka aspekter som har med begreppet handlingsutrymme att göra. Vi har med hjälp av Tetra Pak Dairy & Beverage Systems AB tagit reda på vilka faktorer som påverkar deras mellanchefers handlingsutrymme. Detta gjordes genom att inledningsvis identifiera ett antal övergripande ämnesområden som ansågs påverka handlingsutrymmet i hög grad. Ämnesområdena fick sedan ligga till grund för de kvalitativa intervjuer vi använde oss av för att få in vårt empiriska material.

Protecting the environment has with time grown to take a more central role in the society. Agriculture plays an important role in the society since this sector produces our food. More thorough research on how agriculture affects the environment is therefore motivated. This research can be used to improve the agricultural practice from an environmental point of view. This is something that both the farmers and the consumers can profit from. This study aims to form the basis for creating environmental indicators for use of nitrogen and energy on dairy farms. Twenty-three farmers in western Sweden have been interviewed about their farms, both organic and conventional. They produce milk with different intensity, defined as the amount of milk delivered (sold) per hectare of arable land.