Today, there are more than 12 000-14 000 farms worldwide using an automatic milking system (AMS). Studies have shown that transition to AMS affects the udder health of cows adversely, recognized primarily as elevated somatic cell counts. There are several reasons for this, for example the greater variation in milking frequency seen in AMS. On one hand, short milking intervals may lead to bad teat condition of the cows due to the stress the milking procedure exposes the teats to. Too long milking intervals, on the other hand, seem to predispose for milk leakage, which is, in turn, a risk factor for the development of mastitis.

In Sweden, there has been a continuous increase in the volume of housing construction for dairy cattle. Since 2004, the number of new, rebuilt and extended dairy cow houses undergoing preliminary inspection by the authorities has grown. The livestock farms have mostly focused on cow units instead of calf and heifer sheds; which has led to a need for information in this area. The purpose of the study was to improve advisors? knowledge about bovine building construction and function; to enable them to provide more qualified advice to conventional and organic milk producers who sustain larger herds.

The use of transrectal ultrasonography of the uterus is a fairly new method for early pregnancy diagnosis. In the present study 40 cows and 10 heifers were examined 16, 19, 22 and 25 days after artificial insemination to decide on what day an accurate pregnancy diagnosis could be made under field conditions. A 5 and 7,5 MHz transducer were used in all examinations in order to determine wheter one of them was better for the present purpose. The animals were also examined for clinical signs of oestrus. The results shows that an accurate pregnancy diagnosis "not pregnant" was easier to make on day 22 than on day 25 since most of the not pregnant cows then were in heat.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det fanns olika personlighetstyper hos mjölkkor av raserna SRB och SLB och om dessa personlighetstyper skilde sig mellan ras, ålder och vilken sida djuren stått på i lösdriften. Korna observerades i tre olika testmiljöer för att se huruvida konsistenta de var i deras beteenden: ostörda i lösdriften, vid mjölkning och med ett främmande objekt i lösdriften. Beteenden som studerades var normala beteenden, sociala beteenden, tramp och sparkningar vid mjölkning och interaktioner med det främmande objektet. Tolv beteendevariabler användes i en PCA (principal component analysis) och visade två komponenter som tillsammans kunde förklara 51,2 % av den totala variansen. Den första komponenten speglade aggression och extraversion, som ingår i medgörlighet och extraversion i den mänskliga femfaktorsmodellen.

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.

Ethiopia is the country with most livestock per capita on the continent of Africa. There are 34.5 million cattle that are used for drought, meat- and milkproduction and 85% of the population rely on agriculture for their survival in some way. Milk is produced in four main systems, through pastoralism in the lowlands, in mixed crop-livestock systems in the highlands, in and near big cities with only one or two cows, and in intensive farming systems. There are 17 cattle breeds in Ethiopia and some of them are more suitable for milk production than others. Several environmental and economic problems arise from livestock holding in the country, for example overgrazing, low production due to feed shortage, low quality of the avaible feed and non-existing breeding programs.

In Kenya the Maasai pastoralists have based their livelihoods on dairy production and the production goal is to maintain a sufficient milk supply throughout the year. The pastoral dairy production has two vital characteristics; breeding and milking. Traditionally, breeding is the men?s responsibility, while milking is the duty of women. Depending on this partition of chores between men and women, they also have different management routines, ambitions and strategies regarding the milk production.

Purpose There are almost infinite numbers of ways to build dairy farms in Sweden. When building a new free stall barn you have the possibility to affect both working environment and animal welfare for many years to come. The construction costs are influenced by which type of barn that is built and what functions it contains, for example one can predict that automatic milking systems are more expensive to integrate than milking parlours. But what is the real cost of today for the construction of free stall barns with milking centres and how is it affected by construction methods and functions? Is the labour time influenced by the building costs? These are some of the questions this report will try to answer.

The Healthcheck is an evaluation of the 2003 years reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). When the Healthcheck of CAP is decided, most likely in the beginning of 2009, there will be a discussion about how CAP will appear in the next budget period 2013. One main question in the Healthcheck is how the farm support will be designed. A suggestion that has arised is if todays addition amount for dairy- and beef production should be transferred to the fundamental farm support. In this exam theses calculations has been done in created typical farms in every Swedish support region for cereals-, dairy- and beef production.

Phytoestrogens are secondary metabolites produced by plants. Among the plants that make phytoestrogens are soya, red clover and some types of grass. The name phytoestrogen is a collective term for compounds such as genistein, daidzein, biochanin A and formononetin. These compounds are similar to oestradiol-17? in their chemical structure.

The fast developments in information and data technology during the recent years have accentuated the need for the business manager to interpret and act on information from the surrounding environment. Today we know little about what information is really used in the unique decision-making. Further, little is known about how information should be designed to fit people with a more intuitive approach to interpreting information. This study is therefore about the difference between peoples approach to interpreting information and how information should be designed to fit those with a more intuitive approach to interpreting information. The application is made to dairy farms in Sweden. The literature review describes the strategic leadership, the decision-making process and the intuitive and the analytic thinking.

The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how a company selling commodity products works to create interest and loyalty among customers and how to stand out relative to competition. Based upon present theories within marketing communication, a comparison is made with actual market information to understand how well the theory can predict reality. The study is applied to the dairy industry with the company Valio as the bench mark. In total four persons have been interviewed, marketing manager and category manager at Valio Sweden, and also project manager and art director from their advertising agency. The qualitative data obtained has been compared to predications given by theory.

India is home to every sixth person in the world, some 30 million dogs and a quarter of the total world cattle population. A vast majority of Indians are Hindus, and even though the Hindu religion proclaims love, nurturing and worshipping of animals, sometimes the same religion constitutes an obstacle for animal welfare in practice. This paper investigates the significance of historic and religious symbols to the way animals are perceived in modern Indian society, as well as the different social factors which underlie attitudes to animals. The concept of karma, as well as that of good versus bad deaths, is probably the foundation of the general Hindu reluctance to euthanasia in any form. Although in theory all species are generally regarded as equal in Hinduism, in practice there seems to be a differentiation; for cultural, religious, medical and financial reasons.

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.

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.