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 grain market is facing substantial changes. Tradionally, cereal has been a supply-led market i.e. supply conditions have had a major impact on price level or indirectly, through market interventions implemented through the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). Just a few years ago, Sweden and the EU were not affected so strongly by world market prices for cereals. EU was a surplus-area and to a substantial degree a local market.

The aim of this work was to find out what potential contaminants from roads, residential area and businesses within Svedens industrial area that can affect groundwater quality and quantity. Data collection was from SGU, VISS, internal material from Gävleborg county Administrative Board and Gävle municipality archive. GIS software ArcGIS was used to create the map images in the work. The studied area is located approximately ten kilometers west of Gävle city and consists of the esker Valboåsen, which is a glacifluvial deposit that in its central parts consist of coarse material that is overlaid by sand, clay and silt. North of esker Valboåsen there are the river Gavleån which has an inflow to the groundwater in the esker. This inflow represents the largest part of the groundwater recharge.

Low stumps represent on their own up to 80% of the dead wood remaining on clear cuts and therefore supply suitable habitat for saproxylic insects i.e. insects depending on dead wood for their survival. Recent stump harvesting activities threaten this substrate of ecological importance and increase the anthropogenic negative impacts on these species. Because of technical and environmental reasons (nutrient leakage, erosion) guidelines for stump harvesting recommend to retain stumps standing in wet parts of clear cuts. However, stumps in wet positions might not be a satisfactory substrate for saproxylic insects and therefore might not be as much used as stumps in dry positions.

The eutrophication of inshore seas, lakes and watercourses is mainly due to leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus (P) from agriculture. Many efforts are made to reduce the lea-kage of phosphorus in Sweden and the Baltic Sea countries. Phosphorus is also a finite resource and the mining of good quality raw material gets more and more difficult. Se-dimentation dams in combination with filters is one relatively new method to separate P from run-off and drainage water from agricultural land. This study was a part of an IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute?s project which tests the capacity and func-tion for separation of phosphorus in four phosphorus filters.

The competition for Norway spruce pulp wood in Central Sweden increases, forcing the supply-structure of Holmen to face two important challenges. Firstly, it is of the outmost strategically importance to secure the long-term supply of Norway spruce pulp wood to the industries. Secondly, Holmen desires to increase the obtainable volume of Norway spruce pulp wood. This would enable the company to choose volumes in the lower price-segments and thereby decrease the dependency of costly marginal volumes. As this work shows, one part in managing these challenges could be to lower the quality standards concerning root rot (Heterobasidium annosum). Facts presented in the work shows that: 1. Technically, the TMP-industry of Braviken can handle a much more rotted pulp wood than that used today, although the cost of refinement increases.

The Republic of Moldova, situated in eastern Europe and a former part of the Soviet Union, is now experiencing a phase of transition in both society and landscape. They have hardly any fossil depots and are currently dependent on Russian gas, with 97% of their energy needs imported. The new elected government wants to move towards the EU and this is generally seen as the way to grow and reduce poverty. Security in the energy sector is important and one tool is to increase the use of renewable energy sources. Through interviews, texts, and visits I have studied the implementation of renewable energies (RE) in Moldova through a society development perspective. The study has aimed to investigate the sociotechnical complexity of this subject and to discuss the potentials and way of dealing with the subject in the specific cultural context of Moldova.

Few rectory gardens are today remaining in their former design and the cultural heritage that they represent are disappearing. Since 1987-88 the parishes are no longer bound to keep housing for their priests, which means that they, for economical reasons, are starting to sell their rectories. With this in mind, a group of people, growing up in rectories in Småland and Öland between the 1930th and 1950th, formed an interest group to save the memory of their rectory gardens. On the basis of their memories, they have written a couple of descriptions of the rectories, which describe the gardens content, design and the life they once lived there. With this compilation of the 14 rectory gardens I want to keep the memory of them and create a ground for future work in this field. Historically the rectory gardens played an important roll as patterns and examples in the countryside.

A common goal in practical forest management is to maximize the yield, measured in economical terms. When a forest stand is thinned a so called inoptimality loss can arise due to non-optimal decisions. This means that the selected management schedule results in a lower net present value than the optimal one which lowers the profitability for the forest owner. Holmen Skog uses the term tract which means an aggregation of stands made before a management action. A tract should be delineated in different tract parts in connection with pre-thinning planning if there is different bearing capacity within the tract, different thinning grades should be used or if the tract contains a weaker part that should not be thinned.

Aquaponics is a food production system consisting of a consecutive cultivation of plants and aquatic animals, fish or shellfish, in recirculating water. The plants feed on the nutritious effluents from the fish tank and bacteria converts ammonia from the fish tank into nitrate that is absorbed by the plants. The plants receive nutrition and the fish gain purified water. The environmental impact of the production of fish meal and fish oil used in conventional fish feed includes a large consumption of fossil fuels with subsequent carbon dioxide emission. The aquaponic system can be made environmentally sustainable and self-supporting if supplemented with a vermicompost/vermiculture for the production of worm protein as a fish feed. Vegetable waste from the hydroponic part of the system can be reused as worm feed in the compost and the protein rich worms can be harvested, dried and grinded and brought back to the aquaculture as fish feed. As a first step in this direction, I have investigated the effect of recycling of vegetable waste in vermicomposts on the growth and number of earthworms (this was evaluated after harvesting). The hypotheses were that earthworms can be cultivated in the vegetable waste and that by adding manure to the vermicompost it is possible to obtain a nutrient content adequate to support a continuous worm harvest, in other words create a vermiculture. Eisenia fetida and Dendrobaena veneta were grown in 20 L bins containing peat mixed with either poultry or cattle manure. The proportions were 70% peat and 30 % manure. Discarded plant parts from lettuce cultivation was added to the vermicomposts (35 g per week) and water was supplied with 0.8 L per week.

Trakealkollaps är relativt ovanligt förekommande hos hästar men är något vanligare hos småvuxna ponnyraser. Sjukdomen har ett progressivt förlopp och är ofta långt framskriden innan respirationssymtom som missljud, hosta och dyspné uppkommer. De tillgängliga behandlingsalternativen ger sällan tillfredsställande resultat och prognosen vid höggradig kollaps med grava symtom får anses som dålig. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka om och i så fall i vilken grad trakealkollaps påverkar hästens användbarhet, detta gjordes genom att undersöka om det fanns någon skillnad i arbetstolerans och lungfunktion mellan en grupp friska shetlandsponnyer och en grupp shetlandsponnyer med trakealkollaps. Den friska gruppen bestod av tio ponnyer och gruppen med kollaps av fyra ponnyer, varav tre hade trakealkollaps av grad 3 och en av grad 2.

Stureholm Manor and garden is a relatively young farming unit on clay soil in the north western part of Skåne, a province in Southern Sweden. Since the middle of the 19th century the landscape has been actively cultivated and has been transformed from oak forrest into farmingland of high efficiency. The industrial era during the 19th and 20th centuries meant new posssibilites for cultivation of these clay soils. With equipment like steam ploughs and the possibility to obtain fertilizers, the harvest increased considerably. This increased prosperity provided estate Stureholm with a beatuiful corps de logi, a manor. The trends prevailing in Europe around the turn of the century 1800-1900 against the growing industrialism, was turned into a artisan movement known as Arts and Craft. The Swedish followers idealized our Swedish history and they took the turn of a national romantic movement that later turned into neoclassicism.

Burnt alun shale and lime is the residual product that was formed when alun shale was used as fuel to convert limestone to quick lime. The material contains arsenic, vanadium, molybdenum, cadmium, nickel, lead, and uranium among other elements. The aim of this paper is to examine the uptake of trace elements in vegetables grown on burnt alun shale and lime to determine whether or not the surrounding environment and humans are exposed to these elements by eating plant products. A cultivation trial was carried out where onion, carrot, and lettuce were grown on three mounds of burnt alun shale and lime in the Falköping area in Sweden. The treatments were burnt alun shale and lime mixed with peat, only burnt alun shale and lime, and a reference soil. The reference plots were natural soil mixed with peat adjacent to the mounds.

Fossil fuels are affecting our climate negatively and there is a limited amount of them in the world, which leads to the importance of finding alternative fuels. One alternative is biogas, which is produced though a digestion process of different organic materials in a biogasreactor. Organic substrate that comes from farms has the biggest potential to increase the production of biogas in Sweden. Primarily crops from farms, but also waste products like manure are of great importance.Today there is a calculated theoretical potential for biogasproduction of 14TWh per year, which is around ten times larger than Sweden?s production today.

There are records of lowering of the water level in a lot of the Swedish lakes from the middleof the 1700th century. The aim was gaining more areable land to meet the needs of more foodto support the expanding population. In areas with top soil which contents of clay or loam asin the southwest of Scania in southern Sweden this was proven to be a successful wayexpanding the total outcome of the harvest.The studied area in the northeast of Scania, though, consists of morain with a lot of mires -much less nutritious conditions. When the water level is lowered the atmosphere gets accessto the peat. The dissolving of the organic matter that has been suppressed by the lack ofoxygene below water level continues.