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.

The purpose with this literature study was to investigate the possibilities for improvement of forage protein in dairy cows with focus on feeding strategies and conservation of forage protein. The utilization of forage protein in dairy cows is often not that efficient as it could be. The feed crude protein consists of both true proteins and non protein nitrogen. The digestion of proteins in the rumen depends on the protein degradation rate and the ability of the microbes to synthesize microbial protein. The microbes need a balance between carbohydrates that provide them with energy and proteins that are degradable in the rumen.

The choice of harvest date for leys is one of the most important factors affecting the size and quality of the harvest. An early harvest gives a high nutritive value while a late harvest gives larger quantity. Today?s aim to produce high nutritive leys gives early harvest dates both in primary growth and regrowth in northern part of Sweden. The consequence is a growth in the autumn, a "third harvest".The aim of this master thesis was to study the effects of different harvesting systems and their effect on size, feed quality, wintering and economy for conditions in the northern part of Sweden.

Kenya is considered to be a developing country. This means that basic needs such as nutrition are not met for an extended period of time (www, Sida 1, 2012). Approximately half of the population is living under the poverty line (www, CIA 1, 2012). Agriculture is the largest sector in the country, employing 75% of the population. These are thereby directly dependent on the sufficiency of outputs received.

The choice of harvest date for leys is one of the most important factors affecting the size and quality of the harvest. An early harvest gives a high nutritive value while a late harvest gives larger quantity. Today?s aim to produce high nutritive leys gives early harvest dates both in primary growth and regrowth in northern part of Sweden. The consequence is a growth in the autumn, a "third harvest".The aim of this master thesis was to study the effects of different harvesting systems and their effect on size, feed quality, wintering and economy for conditions in the northern part of Sweden.

Silage is today a common feed for different animals. A general way of storing silage is in bunker silos covered with polyethylene film. The covering and uncovering is labour intensive and it is often difficult to get the silo properly sealed. Because of these reasons many American farmers leave their silos uncovered and accept the losses accompanied. One purpose of this study was therefore to examine if it sometimes can be justified to leave bunker silos uncovered.

Milk fever, or parturient paresis, is the second most common disease in Swedish dairy cows. The disorder is associated with the onset of lactation when some cows are unable to meet the metabolic demands of calcium to support milk production and therefore develop a state of hypocalcaemia. Clinical hypocalcaemia (milk fever) may lead to coma and death in severe cases but subclinical hypocalcaemia has also been shown to have negative effects on e.g. feed intake and production and to increase the susceptibility of the cow to develop secondary diseases. The nutritional strategy applied precalving is of great importance in preventing milk fever and e.g.

Infection with intestinal parasites can in many cases be the reason for decreased performance or production. The gastro-intestinal nematode, Ostertagia ostertagi, and the lungworm, Dictyocaulus viviparus, are the most pathogenic nematodes of cattle and severe infection can lead to death. They have both a direct lifecycle and on the pasture the parasites spread as freeliving worms. The parasites are mainly a problem for the first season grazers. They have not developed immunity against the parasites and are therefor more sensitive to parasite infections.

This study consists of a literature study and a survey in Tamil Nadu, India. The aim of the study was to get an understanding of horse feeding in tropical climates and what kind of feeding related problems that could occur because of the fodder. Information and data were collected from eight different stables and from Tamil Nadu University of Agriculture in the region of Tamil Nadu in March-April 2009. The horses in Tamil Nadu were given rice straw, unknown grass, Cynodon dactylon, lucerne, maize, Pennisetum glaucum x Pennisetum purpureum hybrid and Chloris gayana as roughage. As concentrates, the horses were given wheat bran, oats, barley, soybean meal, maize, carrots, coconut cake, peanut cake, horse gram and chick pea.

With the increasing costs in concentrate the importance in producing ensilage with a high quality is becoming more and more important. To succeed with this goal it is of importance not only to harvest in the right period, but also to be able to store the ensilage without a decrease in quality and nutrional values. To maintain a good ensilage the covering of the ensilage must be carefully made. An unsuccessful covering causes mould to grow in the ensilage, which both increases the work load and also increases the amount of feed which is wasted. A bigger amount of spoiled feed also increases the risk of feeding spoiled feed to the cattle.

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.

In Kenya, many families subsist on agriculture and of the country's around 40 million residents 70% work in the agricultural sector. 50 % of the country's gross domestic production (GDP) comes from farming, and thus the country is largely dependent on income from this sector. Kenya's population has tripled in recent decades, which have led to that food availability is a growing problem. To ensure food security, it is important that the return from crops increases. The aim of this study is to evaluate what impact the use of fertilizers and improved seeds has for farmer?s economic situation and income generation.

One of the most serious and economically important defects caused by clostridia in milk products is the late blowing of semi-hard cheeses.Clostridia occur naturally in soil and can contaminate milk through crops contaminated by dung and soil followed by a less successful silage process, that give them opportunity to grow unaerobically. When anaerobic conditions occur, such as storage of semi-hard cheese, they ferment lactic acid to butyric acid and the gases CO2 and H2.At the fusion of Arla and MD Foods, a series of changes were conducted on the MPN method for lactic acid fermentation for clostridia in milk. These changes resulted in an increased accuracy due to an increased number of test tubes and the change of media from MRCM to BBB, Bryant & Burkey Broth, that was thought to be more selective for Cl. tyrobutyricum, the organism mostly found in hard cheese. When the number of dairy farmers that were given quality reduction fines increased, the new method was suspected and a validation was conducted.The validation included inoculation of different clostridia and bacillus strains into BBB substrate and enzymatic testing of positive samples with Rapid ID 32A.

SammanfattningMajsensilage blir allt vanligare i svenska foderstater och då är det viktigt att ha ett branäringsinnehåll och en god hygienisk kvalitet. Det kan uppnås genom att skörda vid rätttidpunkt samt att motverka värmegång i ensilaget efter öppning av silon med hjälp avtillsatsmedel vid skörd. Syftet med detta projekt var att studera effekt av mognadsstadium vidskörd och tillsatsmedel på näringsinnehåll, hygienisk kvalitet och lagringsstabilitet hosmajsensilage lagrat under olika tidsperioder.Under försöket skördades majsen vid tre olika mognadsstadier R4 degmognad (28 % ts), R5dentmognad (37 % ts) och R6 fysiologisk mognad (41 % ts) och lagrades i 28 respektive 110dagar. Vid ensilering av grönmassa, som lagrades i 28 dagar, tillsattes två ensileringsmedel,Kofasil Majs N (saltpreparat med natriumbenzoat och kaliumsorbat, 2 liter/ton grönmassa,Addcon Europe GmbH, Bonn, Tyskland) och ProMyr® XR680, (syrapreparat med myrsyra,propionsyra och formiat i lösning, 4 liter/ton grönmassa, Perstorp AB, Perstorp, Sverige),vilka jämfördes med en obehandlad kontroll. Vid 110 dagars lagring provades ytterligare etttillsatsmedel, Kofasil Life ?M? (bakteriepreparat med heterofermentativa mjölksyrabakterienLactobacillus buchneri, 1*105cfu/g grönmassa, Addcon Europe, GmbH, Bonn, Tyskland).Tillsatsmedlens doseringar är rekommenderade doser från tillverkarna.

Majsensilage blir allt vanligare i svenska foderstater och då är det viktigt att ha ett bra näringsinnehåll och en god hygienisk kvalitet. Det kan uppnås genom att skörda vid rätt tidpunkt samt att motverka värmegång i ensilaget efter öppning av silon med hjälp av tillsatsmedel vid skörd. Syftet med detta projekt var att studera effekt av mognadsstadium vid skörd och tillsatsmedel på näringsinnehåll, hygienisk kvalitet och lagringsstabilitet hos majsensilage lagrat under olika tidsperioder.Under försöket skördades majsen vid tre olika mognadsstadier R4 degmognad (28 % ts), R5 dentmognad (37 % ts) och R6 fysiologisk mognad (41 % ts) och lagrades i 28 respektive 110 dagar. Vid ensilering av grönmassa, som lagrades i 28 dagar, tillsattes två ensileringsmedel, Kofasil Majs N (saltpreparat med natriumbenzoat och kaliumsorbat, 2 liter/ton grönmassa, Addcon Europe GmbH, Bonn, Tyskland) och ProMyr® XR680, (syrapreparat med myrsyra, propionsyra och formiat i lösning, 4 liter/ton grönmassa, Perstorp AB, Perstorp, Sverige), vilka jämfördes med en obehandlad kontroll. Vid 110 dagars lagring provades ytterligare ett tillsatsmedel, Kofasil Life ?M? (bakteriepreparat med heterofermentativa mjölksyrabakterien Lactobacillus buchneri, 1*105cfu/g grönmassa, Addcon Europe, GmbH, Bonn, Tyskland).