The aim of the study was to investigate feeding routines, management, health and level of activity of riding horses in Sweden. This was obtained by a survey requesting information from owners who kept horses at a non-professional level. Owners to approximately 500 horses were contacted and the usable response of the survey was 56 %. The dominating breed in the study was Swedish warmblood (38 %). Fiftytwo percent of the horses were geldings, 45 % were mares and 3 % were stallions.

During recent years the use of TMR (total mixed rations) has increased in Swedish lamb production. For many years TMR has been used for cattle and hence the information and knowledge is vast, while the knowledge concerning sheep and TMR is more limited. The aim of this thesis is to present an overview of the scientific knowledge on the subject, and also to compile practical experience from sheep farmers using TMR. The thesis begins with a literature review where different aspects relevant to the usage of TMR are dealt with. It is concluded that there are differences between sheep and cattle that must be taken into account.

Horses are made to eat mainly roughage and it is essential for optimal health to offer them an appropriate amount of roughage with good hygienic and nutritional qualities. To produce good hay at the right time and be able to keep the hygienic quality until next summer is a problem. This has the effect that horse owners today choose haylage and silage to a larger extent. Science in this area is scarce, i.e. if the change from hay to silage has any effect on the horse.

The market risk premium is one of the most important parameters in finance. Its value and the ways to calculate a risk premium for the market is a widely debated subject. This thesis examines numerous ways of calculating a risk premium for the Swedish market with regard to how good an estimation they make of a real risk premium. Estimations based on historical periods ranging from 20 to 85 years is calculated as well as a premium based on forward-looking estimates. The real risk premium is solved out for a selection of companies and an index with the help of CAPM.

Today, our cows experience a harder pressure to achieve higher milk yield. To manage this challenge the animal needs first class feeding and treatment. An important aspect of the feeding is to fulfil the need from the cows of especially fiber; and fiber with a sufficient proportion of long particles. Both too much and too little fiber is bad for the wellbeing of the cow, and she might get diseases like acidosis. Many models for feed management have been developed to secure that the animal gets enough of e.g. fiber with a sufficient proportion of long particles.

A totally mixed ration (TMR) is a mixture of all the necessary feed components for the cow. She will eat the exact same feed in every bite which will make the rumen pH more stable and always supply her with a constant proportion between roughage and concentrate. This will make it possible for the cow to eat more dry matter (DM) a day because the fibre requirements are fulfilled. If a part of the concentrate is given separated from the mixture it is called partly mixed rations (PMR) and is almost always used when using an automatic milking system (AMS). When using TMR and PMR it is important to have a high hygiene, be accurate when mixing the feed and to look after cows in a good and strict way. The aim of this study was to document different farms with PMR in an AMS to see which routines they have and how they are managing their production.

For the company to work well, it is necessary with a good economy, a high qualitative production and a well working system concerning the environment: the whole cycle on the farm needs to be working. At the same time, debaters about the environmental impacts are also requiring higher demands for the dairy farmers and therefore also the management programs. Management programs for feed evaluation calculations have been more developed over the years. Big amounts have been invested in the new feeding system with NorFor, but no one seems to have asked the dairy farmers what they themselves want to spend their money on, and what they need help with. For the dairy farmers it is necessary that the whole company is controlled in the right way, and much more than just feed evaluation is included in this.

This thesis consists of four case studies. The objective is to find out how to get a well functioning cow traffic in an automatic milking system. Different technical and building solutions are analysed and some adjustments are proposed for the DeLaval herd management software. Case study 1: Lactation chart comparison from traditional cow traffic and Feed First? cow traffic Case study 2: Farm A - a study of the precedence passage and the cow traffic Case study 3: Farm B ? an overview of the farm and their way of working Case study 4: Key factors ? how can we judge how well a VMS farm is working? Case study 1: Lactation chart comparison from traditional cow traffic and Feed First? cow traffic In this survey data is analysed from before and after rebuilding to Feed First? cow traffic. Lactation graphs are compared between traditional cow traffic and Feed First? cow traffic.

ABB Surge Arrestors in Ludvika have for a long time had a problem to keep the moisture at a steady state in the production of their ZnO-powder, that is used to produce varistors.Some black-box models of the spray drying process have been designed and evaluated to find a solution for the problem. After evaluating the collected data it has been found that variations in the supply voltage causes control difficulties for the operator. A cascade control system was designed, consisting of three PI control loops designed with lambda tuning. The disturbance in the supply voltagewas used as a Feed forward in the control system.At the end of the project the control system was installed, and tests were made to verify the functionality of the regulator. It was shown that most of the variations in the moisture of the powder could be eliminated using small resources, through purchase of a process controller and four power meters.

The control of indoor temperature must be able to handle large time constants and both measureable disturbances like outdoor temperature, and non-measurable disturbances, like waste heat from appliances. Due to cheaper microcontrollers (small computers with designated tasks) with better performance, more advanced and computation-demanding methods for control can be used.In this thesis, Generalized Predictive Control (GPC) has been implemented and tested on a theoretically derived model of a house. GPC states that a model of the system is estimated in every sample, and the control is carried out simultaneously, based on predictions of the model. Disturbances like solar radiation can be estimated and used in the control as well. The control signals are determined by quadratic programming, which makes it possible to consider conditions, for example limitations on the control signals.GPC requires a number of parameters to be defined, like model order and control signal penalty, but is relatively robust for variations in them.

Today it is common to have adult horses stabled for most of the day. This limits the horses? ability to perform some of their natural behaviors such as foraging and movement. The purpose of this review was to compare the feral horses? diurnal rhythm and time budget with stabled horses.

Vaccination of fish can be assumed to cause pain. This study was designed to see if we can minimize the suffering of fish following vaccination. Fishes are cold-blooded animals and thus more primitive than warm-blooded animals. Despite this, many organs, e.g. the nervous system, have the same basic structure as that of other vertebrates. The fibre system for conducting pain is more diffuse than in humans.

It is possible to affect the feed costs in different ways. By steeping or fermentation the digestibility of the feed is improved for the animals with a natural process in the wet feeding system Steeping means that the feed is soaked some hours before feeding. This process activatesenzymes and improves the digestibility of for example phosphorus in the feed and make it more accessible to the animal. Wet feeding can be fermented or not. Fermentationmeans that the feed has been soaked for a certain length of time so that a biological process is started.

The aim of this literature study was to analyze how milk urea concentration is working as a measure of the nitrogen supply to rumen microbes and indicator of the environmental load. Questions included in this literature study were how to improve the dairy cattle nitrogen efficiency and what correlations there are between milk urea, nitrogen efficiency and crude protein content in the feed. Effects on the reproduction from high ration protein content are also addressed. Dairy cattle are today fed with large proportions of protein which could lead to high expenditure of feed and environmental pollutions. The nitrogen can be lost to the environment by different pathways; leaching, denitrification or by emission to the air.

The aim of this literature study was to analyze how milk urea concentration is working as a measure of the nitrogen supply to rumen microbes and indicator of the environmental load. Questions included in this literature study were how to improve the dairy cattle nitrogen efficiency and what correlations there are between milk urea, nitrogen efficiency and crude protein content in the feed. Effects on the reproduction from high ration protein content are also addressed. Dairy cattle are today fed with large proportions of protein which could lead to high expenditure of feed and environmental pollutions. The nitrogen can be lost to the environment by different pathways; leaching, denitrification or by emission to the air.