Pseudopregnancy is a condition that is estimated to affect 40 % of all female dogs. Common symptoms are decreased activity level, weight gain, mammary enlargement, milk production, nesting behavior, anorexia and maternal behavior. The symptoms are displayed during metoestrus. Prolactin is one of the causes behind pseudopregnancy, but the full process is not yet known. Due to the fact that the condition affects that many bitches and often is recurrent, it is relevant to examine how the condition affects the bitch?s behavior and performance.

Sheep breeding contributes not only with wool, hides, meat and milk but also with openlandscapes. The sheep?s wool is a good raw material thanks to a lot of different qualities as itis water rejecting and easy to form. The wool production today is concentrated to specificplaces in the world which leads to environmental problems and a distorted market. InJämtland, a province in Sweden, there is right now a staking going on for local production andrefining of wool in a project called Ullforum.

Farmers are required to make sure that cattles basic needs are met, but still every year cases of neglect occur where the farmer has not complied within the animal welfare law and regulations. The aim of this study was to investigate how cattle are affected physically and behaviourally by neglect in the form of underfeeding, starvation and lack of sanitation, which animals are most vulnerable to the impact and what prospects they have to recover. The study was conducted as a literature study and the results show that these types of neglect have a large impact on the cattle welfare. Underfeeding and starvation causes physical changes leading to reduced milk production, reduced muscle mass, impaired immune function, poor reproductive performance and changes in rumen microflora leading to decreased number of microbes and pH change. Physical changes due to the lack of sanitation consist of increased vulnerability to hoof diseases and mastitis, burns, and increased sensitivity to temperature.

In a time where information overload is a fact, well formulated messages is required and communication is a big contributing element for building strong brands. In the north of Sweden, Norrmejerier is one of the big actors with dominance on the dairy factor market. Through making milk products that lands in the consumers refridgerators, they are not only working for economical interest but also for improving the nature of the north of Sweden. Through visual communication, Norrmejerier shows the consumers a beneficial view of the north of Sweden which corresponds to the populations own impression of their part of the country. This contributes to a feeling of belonging that makes strong and loyal consuments. The feeling of belonging is also reflected in Norrmejeriers commercial movies, that uses the consumers conscience to make costumers. By two group interviews and a semiotic analysis of Norrmejeriers commercial movies, this study aims to examine how Norrmejerier uses qualities of the north of Sweden when building their brand.

Sheep breeding contributes not only with wool, hides, meat and milk but also with openlandscapes. The sheep?s wool is a good raw material thanks to a lot of different qualities as itis water rejecting and easy to form. The wool production today is concentrated to specificplaces in the world which leads to environmental problems and a distorted market. InJämtland, a province in Sweden, there is right now a staking going on for local production andrefining of wool in a project called Ullforum.

The resting area is the most important place in the barn for the dairy cow, sometimes called the heart of the free stall system. Inadequate design of the lying area, and lack of or poor quality of bedding materials may reduce the hygiene of the stall. Poor management regarding the cleanliness of the resting area may lead to poor animal hygiene and increased bacterial growth. This in turn will lead to increased risk for environmental mastitis as well as impairing milk quality through contamination with spores. In this literature study the most commonly used bedding materials; straw, sawdust, wood shavings, clean sand, recycled sand, peat and recycled manure solids, are compared to one another with regards to their ability to resist bacterial growth. Effects of adding hydrated lime to bedding materials have also been studied. Most bacteria need humidity and prefer a quite high water activity to be able to grow.

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.

Tuberculosis is one of many infectious diseases in the world and is responsible for a large number of human deaths each year. The cause is Mycobacterium ssp included in the tuberculosis-complex, there among Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Infection with M. bovis causes bovine tuberculosis in cattle which in 90 % has a pulmonary location. Humans are infected mainly by milk from infected cows but also by close contact with coughing animals or by eating raw meat.

Tuberculosis is one of many infectious diseases in the world and is responsible for a large number of human deaths each year. The cause is Mycobacterium ssp included in the tuberculosis-complex, there among Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Infection with M. bovis causes bovine tuberculosis in cattle which in 90 % has a pulmonary location. Humans are infected mainly by milk from infected cows but also by close contact with coughing animals or by eating raw meat.

Sammansättningen och kvalitén på mjölken som produceras är betalningsgrundande och därmed är det viktigt ur en ekonomisk synvinkel att producera mjölk som håller en hög standard. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att undersöka om samband finns mellan typ av digivning respektive avvänjning och mjölkens sammansättning. Fokus ligger på mjölkfettet samt fettsyrorna. De produktionssystem som tas upp är begränsad digivning och artificiell uppfödning. Begränsad digivning innebär att avkomman får gå med moderdjuret vissa timmar av dygnet fram till en senare avvänjning jämfört med artificiell uppfödning där avkomman skiljs från moderdjuret strax efter förlossningen.

A growing population together with a change in food habits to a more diverse diet containing more animal products such as meat and milk makes the possibility to produce and sell products of cattle a growing market. And at the same time there is an ongoing debate about global warming, where raising cattle is questioned due to their high production of enteric methane. To be able to raise animals in a more environmental friendly way and at the same time improve productivity in a developing country such as Vietnam would be favorable. The use of feed additives with high electron affinity could decrease the methane production and at the same time improve the gross energy digested. Nitrate and Sulfur are both good electron acceptors, but due to its toxic effects the use of nitrate in feed has been neglected.

Soft rubber flooring have gained in popularity over the last years. Rubber flooring al-lows cow to move more freely without slipping and improves claw and leg health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of a stepwise introduktion of soft flooring on cow`s placement in cow houses with robotic milking. A case study was carried out in a herd in northern Sweden with 41 cows. Observations were made every 15 minutes between 09.00 and 16.00 concering cow placement in cu-bicles, in cubicle alley, in feeding alley and in feeding alley with the head through feed-ing gate. One observation period was carried out per flooring alternativ: 1) all concrete slatted floor, 2) rubber slatted floor in feeding alley and concrete slatted floor in cubicle alley and 3) rubber slatted floors in feeding alley and solid rubber floors in cubicle alley. The study showed that 6 %-units fewer cows lay in the cubicles when the feeding alley surface was slatted rubber.

This project is based on my fathers farm which lays outside Löberöd, twenty kilometres south of Eslöv in Skåne. While my family for some time have thought about building a new milkingstable with AMS(Automatic milking system) I decided to compare the AMS with a conventional milkingstable. We are abit concerned about how many cows we should have in the new stable. Because of that I calculated with two different number of cows. I have compared three different types of milking stables: One alternative is 180 cows milked in a double eigth hearing bone milking stable. The second alternative is 128 cows milked with two DeLaval VMS-robots. The third alternative is 171 cows milked with three DeLaval VMS-robots. One salesman from DeLaval and one salesman from A-betong helped me to get marketprices on the milkingrobots, building, ventilation and prices on all the concrete. In all the costs labour is included. The rest of the costs are calculated in a softwareprogram called K-data 03 which is a program with predicted costs. The calulations from the program showed that the price in the milkingpit system was 51 000 sek per cow.

Denna studie utgör en del av projektet ?Mera mjölk i tankarna? vilket drivs av Växa Sverige i samarbete med, LRF Västerbotten, Norrmejerier och LRF konsult för att utveckla och stärka mjölkföretagen i Norrbotten och Västerbotten. Syftet med denna delstudie var att undersöka vilka produktionsfaktorer som har stor betydelse för att uppnå en god ekonomi och lönsamhet i ett mjölkföretag. Därför studerades samband mellan biologiska produktionsnyckeltal och ekonomisk data från 18 mjölkföretag, belägna i Västerbotten och Norrbottens län. Arbetet innefattar dels en litteraturstudie och dels en sammanställning samt analys av resultat från data som erhållits av en produktionsrådgivare och en ekonomirådgivare i samband med gårdsbesök.

Automatic rumination measuring can be applied as a health indicator in dairy farming but is also highly desirable for research purposes. This study aimed to validate the technical functionality of the product RuminActTM, which employ acoustics to monitor rumination duration. The time budget of high yielding cows was studied and possible differences in rumination time between 13 rations were interpreted. Further the study examined what affects daily rumination and rumination efficiency. The validation was performed with direct observations that were compared to the automatically recorded rumination durations.