The Yara N-Tester is a handheld chlorophyll meter which can be used in several different crops as an aid to determine if there is a need of complementary fertilization with nitrogen (N) or not. If the crop requires more N the N-Tester will recommend an amount in kg per ha. The possibility to assess the need of N depends on the strong relation that exists between chlorophyll- and N-concentration in the leaves of plants. In the multiannual trial series ?Nitrogen to winter wheat at different soil conditions? measurements with the N-Tester was carried out at flag leaf emergence (GS 37). In this work the result of measurements, the NTesters ability to estimate the need of N in winter wheat, will be presented for the years 2008-2011.

1. Reaction on burial depth and nitrogen availability and placement in competition with a crop In this trial it was investigated how couch grass (Elymus repens) changes its ability to compete in stands of wheat and barley with different burial depth and different amounts and placement of nitrogen. More knowledge in this area can be valuable in the attempt to decrease the use of herbicides and still keep the weeds under control. The trial was carried out in the summer of 2004 as an outdoor pot experiment. The pots contained 15 litres of soil with a surface of 0,06 m2.

Large areas have been ditched in Sweden during the past 100 years to improve the forest production. Ditching and also maintenance of old ditches are operations having mainly negative effects on water quality, flora and fauna and changing characteristics of soil. The purpose of this study was to suggest a method for inventory of the need for ditching maintenance in old forest ditches that takes biodiversity, water protection and forest production into consideration. Inventory methods from five Swedish and Finnish forest companies, agencies and organisations were compared. Their employees were interviewed about their handling with ditches, forest production and nature conservation.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an unconventional model of agriculture expected to contribute to a more sustainable food supply and a sustainable landscape; the development of rural areas; a stronger relationship between producer and consumer and a healthier diet. This study, with a focus on food production and the link between the producer and consumer, describes the origin and current development of CSA in Sweden, including the prerequisites for CSA in a Swedish context. Organizations and entrepreneurs working with CSA and related projects are identified and interviewed. The notion of CSA in Sweden is still in its infancy, but a rapidly growing interest currently can be detected. The fact that the identified CSAs are found in different Swedish regions with variations in degree of urbanization and intensity of agriculture indicates that the prerequisites are there for the concept to grow, both in rural as well as urban areas.

A study was made on four environmental ponds in Sölvesborgs municipality. The reason forthis was to see if the ponds had fulfilled some of the questions that was mentioned in theproject ?Rädda Hanöbukten?. The questions were as following; do the environmental pondsdecrease the leakage of nitrogen and phosphorus into Hanöbukten, do the ponds decrease theuse of groundwater in Sölvesborgs Municipality and are there any restrictions on what thewater in the ponds is allowed to be used for. In order to answer these questions aquestionnaire was made and interviews were held.

Storm water causes a number of problems in our country, particularly in city environment with its surfaces of non-absorbing ground materials. At heavy rain falls there are floods due to lack of capacity in the drain system when meeting heavy water masses over a short time. When the drain system is overloaded huge water masses reach the recipient untreated and there causing disturbances in the aquatic ecosystem. Due to emissions from mainly traffic, industries and other human activities the storm water is polluted. Earlier the problem used to be solved technically, by increasing the capacity of the tubes and by construction of reservoirs to delay the floods peaks.

I have chosen to work with drag hose system and try to find an alternative to spread manure with a usually tank system, see if you can make a profit and what advantage and disadvantage the system has. The purpose whith the project has been to try to make a system that can spread manure at better occasions than farmers do today and above everything make a financial addition. Today it is just a heavy work and takes a lot of time. I have counted on investment costs and carefully examined what equipment you need. I have not the technical details in my project, I have just tried to understand how it is to spread manure with drag hose system today. What is drag hose system? You put a hose in your manuretank, connect it to a pump that is driven by a traktor or stationary engine. You place a hose that reach the field were you are going to spread.

Urban trees have very little in common with trees on natural sites, such as forests or pastures. Trees in urban environments are often planted in packed soil and in small volumes. This can lead to decreased availability of water and oxygen, as well as deteriorated ability for the soil to store nutritional elements. Also above ground the tree usually have limited space in cities. Regulations on free height over roads and cycle tracks demands high stems at an early stage of their development.

This essay deals with the weak and unstable urbanization process of the town Falkenberg. The aim has been to explore how a new town could be established just a kilometre away from the town (Old) Falkenberg and what kind of meaning the town had in relationship to the towns Halmstad and Varberg. This was made through the study of the political situation in Denmark and Sweden during the 15th century and through a comparison of the town churches. The archaeological material of Falkenberg is very small and thus I had to trust the available historical literature about the town.Not much of the oldest history of the town is known, but a conflict between the landed aristocratic family Thott and the king Kristian I in Denmark has been interpreted as a reason to the establishing of the town. In conclusion the survey showed that the king probably established New Falkenberg in purpose to limit the trading possibilities of Thott and to, at the same time, increase his own power in the district.

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore and describe the pupils' thoughts on seed and its development into seedling. Twenty nine Swedish pupils at the age of 7 and 10 years old were interviewed about their knowledge of seeds.It turned out that pupils often have so-called everyday belief to describe the natural science phenomenon by connecting their explanations to phenomena in everyday life to which they are familiar. To describe the process of seed developing into seedling is something that most of the pupils believe to be difficult and this resulted mostly in the answer ?it is growing.? Children have some knowledge about what seeds need in order to germinate but they do not mention the importance of oxygen as a component of seed to be able to germinate and grow. They mean instead that it is sufficient with soil, water and sun.The older pupils, however, are more often than the younger pupils able to connect their reflections to a more scientifically correct description based on terms belonging to the phenomena, though these terms sometimes are wrongly used.

Livestock animals affect their environment in a number of different ways, mostly through grazing and trampling. This study focused on the effects of Gotland pony grazing on forest structure and diversity, and the impact on ground cover. To compare the fenced and grazed area with a reference area outside the enclosure a number of transects were used. The study showed that there was no significant difference in height structure and diversity between the compared sites; however, there were a significantly higher proportion of damaged trees inside the enclosure. The ground cover variables showed a higher amount of bare soil, plant litter and wood-rush (Luzula sp.) inside the enclosure whilst grass was more frequent in the reference area.

Our greatest interest within crop farming is to grow sugarbeets, that?s why we want to write about something new in this sector. We heard that a new concept had come to Sweden so we wanted to find out everything about this machine. This new technique was a self-propelled cleaning loader for sugarbeets. This machine is supposed to replace a loader and a cleaning machine when the sugarbeets is going to be loaded, cleaned and delivered to the sugerbeet factory. The cleaning loader picks up the sugarbeets with rollers from the pile, which is placed close to the road.

In my work I have chosen to examine the profitability for small scale production of hemp briquettes. My study also includes a review of which briquette technique that is the most common one among small scale producers. The reason that I have chosen this subject is because of the discussions about climate and energy that we face almost every day. I also think the subject is extra interesting in these days when the grain prizes are at a historic high level. In order for me to achieve a reliable report, a hemp and briquette producer has given me the actual data from his farm. In that way I have been able to make my calculations from a concrete perspective.

This is a project about how you grow timothy seed and red clover seed successfully. The main part is about economic analyse to see if it is any economy by growing leyseed. There are lots of things to be aware of to get all the costs in your economic analyze. Timothy Timothy seed is planted on 4400 hectares in Sweden. It is possible to grow timothy seed in the south part of Sweden. Timothy is very sensitive for dry weather in spring and in the beginning to summer. Timothy gives acceptable harvest of seed for about three years. Red clover Red clover is also sensitive for dry weather and is suitable to grow in the south part of Sweden.

Oilseed rape is an important crop in Sweden and is grown on about 90000 ha today. The interest in oil seed pro-duction is increasing because of growing demand and high prices for oil seed both in Sweden and Europe. However, an increased intensity in the oil seed production can bring higher risk of yield losses due to fungal diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate what different fungi are associated with oilseed rape under field conditions and if their incidence is correlated to crop establishment problems. This study was carried out in three parts: 1) investigations on fungal community structure in roots and rhizosphere soils from young spring- and winter rape plants sampled in failed respectively good establishment patches in four fields, 2) investigations on the pathogenicity of fungi isolated from oilseed rape in controlled environment and 3) investigations on the effect of different fungicide seed treatments on germination and early plant development in a field soil naturally infested with damping off- and Verticillium wilt pathogens. The studies on community structure using a combined approach of standard fungal isolation techniques and DNA based methods revealed a high fungal diversity in three out of four studied fields of spring rape and winter rape. For some unknown reason, very few fungal species were identified from the fourth field.