At present indoor tethering of dairy cows is still common but is not predicted to take part of modern dairy production. When conducting scientific studies of cattle it is generally necessary to tether the animals to maintain a controlled environment. Studies confirm that tethering and confinements of cattle severely affects the development of stereotypies in cattle. The feeding regime and feeding level have an immense affect on the stereotypi level in cattle. The aim of this experiment was to study dairy heifers that had never been tethered before the start of the experiment, to evaluate the affect of tethering on the development of stereotypies and the impact of the feeding regime on the behavior of the animals. Sixteen dairy heifers were tethered in a tie stall and divided in two groups with different treatments. Heifers in treatment E were fed restrictedly with silage and treatment EH was fed with the same amount of silage but also straw ad libitum.

To succeed, and make money at your animal production you need to feed your animals with high quality fodder. Other condition to succeed is that you keep your production costs at a minimum. To be able to produce baled silage at a low cost it?s very important that the bales have a high density. Density is measured in kg dry matter (DM) per cubic meter. The purpose with this report was to learn more about making silage in round bales and to how much the bale density varies between different brands of round balers.

Energy is an essential part of the society and for a sustainable future we need to use the energy resources in a sustainable way. The forest is Sweden?s most important resource for renewable energy and a higher production combined with shorter rotation periods (time from planting to clear cutting) can increase the access to energy. The tree genus poplar (Populus spp.) is interesting as energy resource as it has both high production and short rotation period. But browsing ungulates are a major threat to the establishment of poplar plants and therefore the poplar plantations need to be fenced in today. To use fences is expensive and time consuming; this makes it interesting to find more cost-effective solutions where there is no need to fence. The aim with this study was to look at the ungulates? occupation rate and browsing pressure in poplar plantations without fence.

To produce milk of good standard the feed for the animals kept for milk production is an important part in the work of quality. This makes it important to feed them with good forage, especially when feeding with silage. The process of making silage is very complex and requires a careful handling to be successful. The fundamental idea is to create an anaerobic environment in the herbage to favour the desirable micro-organisms, in this case the lactic acid bacteria. This environment is created by careful handlings were the importance is to pack the crop well and cover it as soon as possible to exclude oxygen.

Beef production in Sweden has traditionally been about rearing of dairy calves to slaughter. With reduced number of dairy cows and accordingly less dairy calves for slaughter, there has been a need for new forms of beef production in Sweden. In Västerbotten there are good conditions for beef production with a high feeding level of roughage due to favourable climate. The aim of this thesis is to, through interviews with ten farmers with beef production in Västerbotten, study what and with how much they feed their animals and link the results to production level. The thesis begins with a literature review where the general feeding standards and feeding recommendations for beef cows and growing cattle are examined.

Sammanfattning Ensilerat vallfoder är ett av de absolut viktigaste fodermedlen för att förmå korna att producera en stor mängd högkvalitativ mjölk. En hake är dock att ensilaget ska vara av god kvalitet och med bästa möjliga näringsvärde, samtidigt som man även vill ha volymmängder. För att få detta gäller det att skörda vid rätt tidpunkt, vilket kan vara svårt att veta när det infaller. Till detta finns ett hjälpmedel som kallas skördetidsprognos. Detta går ut på att man klipper prover i vallen upp till tre gånger innan första skörden för att analysera gräset och därigenom kunna avgöra när bästa tiden är för att skörda för att få den mest optimala kombinationen av mängd och näringsvärde. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur bra hjälpmedel jordbrukare i norra Sverige tycker att skördetidsprognosen är för att få en ökad kvalitet på ensilaget, samt att jämföra variationen i näringsvärde och mängd biomassa inom och mellan olika fält.

Feed intake in dairy cows is regulated by a variety of factors influencing hunger and satiety. One of the regulation systems includes the short chain fatty acids produced during feed degradation in the rumen. Starch can be digested either in the rumen where short chain fatty acids are produced or in the small intestine where glucose is the end product. Since glucose does not have the same effect on satiety that short chain fatty acids have, the site of starch digestion might be an important factor that affects feed intake and milk production. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of site of starch digestion on feeding behaviour (feed intake, consumption time, and eating frequency) and milk production. Because feeding behaviour is closely connected to the cows? environment, the study also included observations of behaviour. Three different feed rations were compared.

The purpose of this study was to examine vitamin A and E in equine nutrition and especially in relation to forages. A literature review was conducted to examine factors that influence the level of vitamins present in forage, the vitamin A and E requirement of horses, and the absorption of vitamin A and E in horses. The influence of DM level on alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene content in ensiled forage was investigated in a controlled ensiling study using baled silage and haylage. The results from the ensiling study were combined with data of vitamin A and E concentrations collected from literature. Calculations were done to theoretically establish how well the vitamin content in ensiled forage can cover the maintenance requirements of vitamin A and E in horses.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect on growth of foals on two different diets, either a forage-based diet or a diet containing approx. 40 % concentrate. The report also includes a review of the pertinent literature on the effects of diet on mares? milk and growth of horses. The hypothesis of the study was that a forage based diet will result in a similar growth pattern as a diet including more concentrates if the diets contain the same amount of energy, crude protein, lysine, calcium and phosphorous.

During the summer of 2005 a number of steer producers in Skåne, Sweden, found that their animals graded less favourable according to the EUROP carcass grading system when slaughtered, than ordinary. The aim with this project was to determine factors that affects the production result in steer production and to find the reason to the lower classification. The project was initiated by Anita Persson, LRF, Skåne and was preformed with supervision from Ingemar Olsson, SLU, and Jens Fjelkner, Skånesemin. Ten producers of dairy steers located in Skåne was chosen for this study. The producers were interviewed to collect information about their steer production with respect to their planning and results.

With an increasing production of biogas follows an increased amount of digestate. This could potentially be a valuable source of fertiliser with the destruction of weed seeds as a possible advantage. However, there have been some concerns regarding the product still containing viable seeds of weed. In this Bsc thesis the results of previous research on the fate of weed seeds in biogas production is summarized. It is also a comparison of research on the effect of similar processes such as silage, compost or animal passage on seeds. The purpose of this is to evaluate risks of spreading viable seeds, potentially problematic species and perhaps to find out how to eliminate the risks. The literature review revealed that previous research mainly indicates low risks regarding many of the tested weed species, but not all studies show the same result, therefore extended research on the subject is desirable.

The evaluation of the function of the feeding of sheep herds is suggested to involve the work effort, the fulfilment of the nutrient needs of the sheep and the feed waste. Mechanisation of the feeding can be very simple or include high degrees of mechanisation. Three different farms, representing different levels of mechanisation are presented. Descriptions and analysis of the feeding systems including mechanisation, work effort and estimations of the feed waste are made on each farm. The herd with the most advanced feed mechanisation included a rolling feed band and mix wagon. The other farms were partly or little mechanised including ad lib feeding from big bales and manual distribution of hay and concentrates. The most mechanised farm was able to feed a large herd of sheep at a low work effort and little feed waste. However, the investment in machinery has to be weighed against the improved efficiency.

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.

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.

The purpose of this study was to find out if motion movements, e.g. number of lying bouts and lying time with a registered activity monitoring sensor can detect an impending calving and thereby be used as a measure and an indicator for an upcoming calving. For this, automatically step sensors were used and were attached to one of the cows? hind leg. The sensor registered the individual step and movement activity of the cow.