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.

To produce fine fibre wool as a complement to lamb meat production, Merino and Svea sheep are currently being crossbred in the county of Jämtland. The aim of this study was to evaluate growth and wool quality of the first crossbred lambs. In addition, a literature study about nutritional effects on wool production has been carried out. The literature study showed that fine fibre wool should foremost be achieved through directed breeding. Nutritional requirements of the sheep at different stages of production should determine their feeding.

The thesis aims to investigate the farmer?s perception of currency hedging and interest rate bonds and to investigate the farm size of companies categorized by number of acres, has no effect on this. The work also aims to gain an insight into what active farmers consider to be important what to consider when they choosing a bank and a personal banker. The work is based on the survey and has been supplemented by a literature review on the subject. For the survey were selected out randomly 50 farmers with Agriculture and Rural Management education. The requirement of the farmers was that they should be farmers by profession, and also made sure that the farmers of various sizes came with. We got a total of 32 responses within the set response time we said, which was better response than we expected. When the final result came we ranged the farms in a size range. We found out that all farmers in the study diligently follow the market and are easy to assimilate new ideas, providing opportunities to profitability of their business with the different instruments that are available on both the financial level and farm level. The investigation revealed that the major in favor of having a personal banker. They think it´s good to have a special plug to turn to who has knowledge and experience of how the agriculture sector operates.

This essay is intended for veterinary nurses and its purpose is to contribute to an increased knowledge about the ferret and there by a better nursing care at clinics. The essay discuss in briefness origin and earlier use of the ferret but also anatomy, physiology and reproduction. The senses of the ferret, as vision and hearing, are described in connection with behaviour. The part of the essay where nursing care is described bring up procedures as handling when collecting blood, medical techniques and how the clinic best should be suited for these animals. The main part of the essay is based on literature studies but it also contains a study visit at Blå Stjärnans animal hospital in Göteborg. 23.

Dairy farms have during a long time been under pressure and this situation was aggravated during the spring and summer of 2009, when profitability declined to historically low levels. Lower milk price and relatively high input prices have caused Swedish dairy farms great liquidity concerns and profitability problems. For a long time, Denmark has been identified as a leading country for the agrarian development with a leading structural rationalization and willingness to grow. In 2009, it was shown that the Danish agriculture, which is generally more leveraged, has difficulties in maintaining profitability and when market price of land started to fall, the proportion of technically insolvent agricultural enterprises rose dramatically. In light of this prevailing situation, this study highlights differences between Denmark and Sweden with the hope to learn from each other.

Abstract The purpose of this work is to investigate children?s perception of Swedish birds. Through qualitative questions there were twelve children interviewed. I showed the pictures for the children of different animals that we discussed but with focus on birds. The children could partly distinguish which of the pictures that represented birds and who did not.

The Dairy business is changing a lot because of some scandals in the agricultural area for example the BSE crises in Great Britain. Because of the scandals the food industry and the farm association have created a certifying system; IP-Sigill Swedish standard system. We contacted Skånemejerier as they have been successful in the certifying area. They asked us if we wanted to do a study in the certifying area of dairy farmers. At Skånemejerier they gave us most of the literature in the area about certifying. The result of the study, is that we have taken up the most common remark?s. The most frequent remark is journal over routines in management of dairy cows on daily basis. Another remark of the study is that the frequency of the remarks decreases with greater production..

To be able to provide the growing human population with food, the productivity of the animals as well as land use needs to be improved and intensified. Hence, understanding the behavior of animals is crucial both for animal welfare and productivity as well as the management of the cattle. There are many factors affecting the grazing behavior of cattle in tropical conditions, such as human-animal interactions, herd management, breed, season and temperature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the grazing behavior of two tropical cattle breeds, Ankole and Boran cattle. Kenyan Boran belongs to a zebu type of cattle and is preferred to many other breeds due to the higher productive and reproductive capacity and adaptability to tropical conditions.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and analyze existing law concerning joint owner-ship in agriculture and forestry businesses. Joint ownership often arises through a succes-sion of ownership, therefore we will go through the most useful methods.Even if the owners of agriculture and forestry businesses are getting older, the numbers of succession of ownerships are still low. A succession of ownership is important to plan and its time is demanding. Often it takes three to five years for the completion of a succession of ownership. Therefore, owners must start their planning in time and think about what is to come of their business.

Cattle used for meat production can be held outside all year round and due to the legislation they should have access to shelters or other buildings for protection against the elements giving them a dry and clean bedding. There are different opinions concerning their need of protection and the question about necessity of shelters for cattle is of current interest due to a less profitable economy in meat production and the investment costs for shelters. The aim of this study was to acquire more knowledge about the natural behaviour of cattle concerning their use of shelters. The basis of the study was a series of questions regarding when animals choose to stay in shelters, if shelters were used less when they had access to protecting vegetation, how temperature and weather conditions affected the use of shelters and the influence of distance between shelter and feed. Behavioural studies was conducted at five different farms where six groups of suckler cows and heifers of following breeds and crossbreeds were observed; Aberdeen Angus, Charolais, Hereford, Scottish Highland Cattle, Simmental and the Swedish breeds SKB and SRB.

This study examined the factors influencing dairy farmers´ decisions to invest in automated milking systems (AMS). The problem studied involves uncertainty, information and complexity for dairy farmers in specific decision contexts. The frame of reference in the thesis combines contingency theory and decision theory and is used in a qualitative analysis of a set interview with dairy farmers who have recently bought an AMS and salespersons from Delaval, one of the AMS suppliers.The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of the decision making processes of dairy farmers, and in particular to identify which types of factors influence the outcome of an investment decision in the technological development of a farm.The study uses Thompsons` (1967) theory about the structure that organizations develop to handle the input of information. Thus, interest is focused on how a farm business structure handles information in the AMS decision, investigating the differences in information with Delaval?s "feed first principle" system and Lely?s "free cow traffic" system.The results of the qualitative interviews with the dairy farmers who bought an AMS show that there are three important factors that influence the outcome: employees, suppliers and the owner.

Laminitis has crippled horses through times and many cures have been used to treat it. Since the mechanism of the disease is yet not fully understood, treatments are only ways to alleviate the pain and at best, slow down the pathological process enough to make time for improvement. This paper is a retrospective study of 71 horses treated by a protocol at Hästsjukhuset Strömsholm. The protocol implies three visits at zero, five and fifteen weeks. At each the horse is evaluated and treated by a veterinarian.

An automatic milking (AM) system should be combined with some form of controlled cow traffic to minimize the time spend on fetching cows to milking and to increase the milking frequency. By restricting the hours spent on pasture per day you optimise the AM system use during pasture period. A reason for this is becuase cows do not return to the stable for milking during night which cause that the milking unit stands empty those hours. In organic production it is required that the cows should be able to graze a certain amount of daily dry matter (DM) intake on the pasture. In the county of Dalarna where the farm is located the yield of the pasture is about 3000 kg DM per grazing season and hectar.This means that the pasture area should be 14,25 hectare to 57 milking cows.

The trend in milk production is similar in Sweden and across the world; the farms are getting fewer but increasingly bigger. The costs for hiring workers are increasing, which results in more cows per animal keeper. Sensors can then be a great tool for keeping track of animals which need special attention. With a reported decreasing fertility, sensors that can detect oestrus even at low levels can be especially helpful in bigger herds to pinpoint the cows that may be in oestrus. The number of farms with dairy cows that install AMS, Automatic Milking Systems, are increasing, and that also increases the need for sensors to control milk quality and composition when there is no visual control of the milk by a milker before milking starts.For the sensor data to be useful you have to have software designed to analyze and interpret the data to get relevant information that the farmer can use.

Milk ejection in dairy cows can be inhibited if oxytocin is not released from the pituitary gland. The problem with inhibition of the milk let down is not new, but has recently regained interest. It is observed during different types of emotional stress, for example when cows are moved to an unfamiliar environment, during oestrus, changing from suckling to machine milking or when being milked for the first time. The aim of the study was to examine the extent of cows with disturbed milk ejection in Sweden. A survey was sent out to 1000 dairy farmers in order to collect data about herd size, housing systems and routines at calving and milking.