The feed is a major cost in the dairy production and there is a constant interest in findingalternative cost-effective feedstuffs. Competitive dairy producers have to seek ways todecrease their production costs and the pursuit of cost-effective feed rations contributesto lower costs of production. An interesting group of protein concentrates are rapeseedproducts like ExPro (heat treated rapeseed) which have during the autumn 2008 andspring 2009 been very favourable compared to other protein feeds.This study focuses on the feedstuff products ExPro and Raps-Drank 60/40 (rapeseeddistillersgrain). The potential use of ExPro in dairy cow feed rations are also explored.ExPro is a well known feedstuff but Raps-Drank 60/40 is a relatively new product andnot known for many farmers.A field study on the use of rapeseed products was made on a limited number of dairyfarms. The main purpose was to study the management of the feedstuffs on the farms.The Farms were selected in cooperation with two local extension services.

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.

Actinomycosis is a rare, deep-seated infection of the jaw of cattle that include the progressive enlargement of bone structures. It is caused by Actinomyces bovis, a gram-positive rod found as a normal commensal of the alimentary canal in otherwise healthy animals. This paper shortly describes Actinomyces bovis and its ability to cause "lumpy jaw" or actinomycosis in cattle. It will describe its pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment and some clinical presentations. The incidence of symptomatic actinomycosis infection is quite low in Sweden today.

During natural conditions cattle live in large herds, which are divided into subgroups of 10-15 animals. Humans have held cattle for over 9000 years. Today we mostly have cows for milk and meat production during more or less intensive forms. Most of the Swedish cattle have the opportunity to graze during the summer time. This partly arises from the Swedish Animal Protection law which stipulates that cattle must have the option to be outside and graze, also partly because it makes it easier for the farmer.

During an investigation of animal welfare in animal production, the focus has for a long time been focused on the absence of stress, suffering and injuries, and positive emotions have not been prioritized. However, in recent years that has been drastically changed. The public interest have increased for buying animal products from animals that have had a decent life, which have led to that play, exploratory behavior and other positive behaviours has come to play a significant role in welfare assessment. The welfare of cattle is difficult to assess since there is currently no ancestors to study, it is thus difficult to determine which behaviors can be regarded as natural and thus positively related, acordingly the welfare of cattle have been forgotten and research on positive emotions of cattle have not been prioritized. The aim of this study was to observe which behavior growing cattle performe, and if there was any differences of which kind of behavior that was observed, if the cattle is keept on slatted floor or on a deep straw bedding. Furthermore, antoher purpose was to investigate if the observed behaviours indicate a positive, negative or natural welfare, and if it is possible to use the observed behaviours in a welfare assessment.

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.

Ticks and the diseases they transmit are of major importance throughout the world. In Uganda, cattle are the most important livestock from an economic point of view. Livestock keepers fear bi-directional transmission of tick-borne pathogens between their livestock and wild animals. This cross-sectional study was conducted to establish and compare the sero-prevalence of the tick-borne pathogen Babesia bigemina among randomly selected Ankole Long-horned cattle and European crossbred cattle on 30 farms in Kiruhura district, in two sub-counties near Lake Mburo National Park in South-western Uganda. Half of the farms were situated in close proximity to the park and thereby housed cattle with more frequent wildlife-livestock interface (Sanga), whereas the other half had less frequent contact (Kikatsi).

Nötcenter Viken is a Swedish nucleus herd for Dairy cattle. The goal for the farm is to select suitable mothers for the next top generation of bulls. Today the selection for udder health is based on a pedigree index and phenotype data. The pedigree index is based on the cow?s father and grandfathers breeding values.

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.

The objective of this study was to make an inventory and a potential analysis of the organic beef production in the region of Gävleborg, Sweden. A survey was conducted, where a questionaire was sent to all farmers in the region who had environmental subsidies concerning organic cropping systems in 2001. In total, there were 701 farmers, of which 46 % participated in the study. Three slaughter houses were interviewed to get their pictures of the development of organic beef production. The study shows that there are potentials and interests in the region to increase the production of organic beef.

Many of Europe?s day-living butterflies have shown decreasing populations during the last decades and many species are threatened. Many butterflies are dependent on managed semi-natural grasslands because of their richness in nectar sources and host plants for the butterfly larva. Swedish pastures are mostly managed through grazing. The number of cattle in Sweden have been decreasing while the number of sheep in the country increased by 30%.

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.

Almost for as long as there has been breeding on bovine species, there has been a wish to have a higher proportion of offspring of either one or the other gender. In Dairy cattle, heifers are more valuable, while in beef stock bulls are preferred. Semen is sorted based on the difference in DNA content between the X- and Y-chromosome in the genome of the sperm. X-chromosomes contain on average between 3,70 to 4,22% more genetic material than the Y-chromosome. Commercially it is the method of flow cytometry that is being used, which is always under improvement.