Water is an essential factor for both people and animals, and access to water is therefore of great importance. The water access also largely determines the availability of food for people and feed for animals. The aim of this study was to survey the affect of water access on milk production from dairy animals. The study included nineteen farm visits that were made in the Nyando district in Kenya between February and Mars 2011. Farm visits included interviews with questions about for example number of dairy animals, milk production, water access, feed and water routines.

Today the milk production per cow is increasing but the milk delivered by the Swedish farmer contains less amounts of fat and protein than earlier. The contents have decreased since 1993. In average the milk contain 4,2 percent fat and 3,4 percent protein. Earlier the fat content in milk was important. Nowadays the dairy?s attention has turned to the milk?s valuable proteins, principally the caseins, which have a considerable nutritional value and are important for several dairy products like cheese and yoghurt.

The aim of this study was to examine if the predictions of the herbage quality in the software Grazemore Decision Support System (DSS) gives a reliable ground for milk production in the north of Scandinavia. Pasture samples from one research farm (Umeå) and one organic farm (Nordingrå) was analysed on crude protein and organic matter digestibility. The results were statistically compared to the predicted values. Measured and predicted herbage mass was compared and a control if the predictions of milk production improved if the predicted input were replaced by the values from the analysis, was made. The concentration of crude protein was underestimated by the model on both farms and the relationship between actual and predicted values was poor. Mean Prediction Error (MPE) was 24% and 31% respectively.

Milk and milk consumption has been subject of discussion for a long time, and is still a hot topic. Recently, as study was published that observed a correlation between milk intake and increased risk of fractures and mortality. The authors proposed the milk?s content of D-galactose as the possible mechanism, since D-galactose is used indicated ageing in animal models. Therefore, this study aims to develop a method to determine the amount of galactose, glucose and lactose in milk and fermented milk and apply it on to dairy products on the Swedish market.

Protein is an important component in various milk products and has a crucial role in the final quality. Excluding non-protein nitrogen, bovine milk contains about 3.3% protein whereas about 80% of this fraction consists of casein. There are four major members in the casein family: ?s1-casein, ?s2- casein, ?-casein and ?-casein. Proteolytic enzymes are the cause of degradation of the economically important milk proteins.

Mastitis, an inflammation of the udder mainly caused by a bacterial infection, induces an increase in the somatic cell count (SCC) in milk and is consequently one of several factors affecting SCC in milk. In this literature review it is investigated whether SCC; on udder quarter, cow composite or bulk tank milk level, can be used as a quality marker with focus on milk composition in terms of the content of fat, lactose, total protein, casein and whey protein. According to this literature review the relation between SCC and milk composition is not reliable either on udder quarter, cow composite or bulk tank milk level. SCC was related to lactose, casein and whey protein on udder quarter level; lactose and whey protein on cow composite level and lactose on bulk tank milk level.

The study was carried out at the Kungsängen Research Centre, Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, Uppsala. The technical development in dairy production has resulted in a housing system where feeding and milking is done automatically without human contact, a so called automatic milking system. The motives for utilising an automatic milking system, is to increase the animal welfare and to decrease the need for manual labour. However, the system does involve a change for the animals, among the effects is the deprival or the diminishment of a chance for synchronous behaviour and the animals have to agree among themselves in which order they use the feeding stations and the milking unit itself. How and if this affects the animals well-being and production is yet to be solved. A possible way to form an opinion on this, is to study the animals ranking order along with hormone profiles and production. The purpose of this work was to study the effect of low- vs.

Concentration of protein in bovine milk is one of the most significant milk quality parameters, to a large extent determining the price for milk to the producer. Mastitis is a common disease among dairy cows, negatively affecting not only Milk yield but also milk protein composition. Milk from mastitic cows tends to have lower cheese yield, negatively affected processability properties and sensory quality, due to changed protein quality and composition. Poorer milk protein quality would have an economically negative impact on dairy industry. Only few studies have investigated the short term effects of mastitis on milk protein composition.

During the last decades the fertility of dairy cows has declined in the same rate as the Milk yield has increased. This is a result of the negative genetic correlation between Milk yield and fertility, failure to show estrous signs and metabolic problems in the cow. The purpose of this review was to investigate the function of metabolites and hormones as markers for disturbances in fertility, health and production in the dairy cow. There are several metabolites that are suggested to indicate the cow?s energy balance.

Worldwide consumption of cheese has increased over the years. The average Swede consumes somewhere around 20 kilograms of cheese per year, which is an increase of a 100 % over the past 50 years. One of the most popular kinds of cheese during the past decades is mozzarella, due to its? use as pizza cheese. Flavor and consistency differ between the traditional kind, made out of buffalo?s milk, and the industrially made kind, made out of cow?s milk.

The main part of the goats in the world is located in developing countries, whereas active breeding programs are mainly restricted to Northern America and Europe. Goat milk can be processed to several products and goat cheese is the main product. An organized breeding program is carried out in France and Norway but is not present in Sweden. Important selection traits for milk producing goats include milk, protein and fat yield along with protein and fat content. Functional traits have been more important the past years and they have large economic importance for the farmers.

In most countries, the dairy industry focuses on the volume of milk produced instead of its composition. This results in a high content of water and a lower proportion of fat and protein. A high proportion of water is not desirable when processing the milk into various dairy products like cheese, cream and milk powder. High water content also increases the costs for transport and storage, and also an unnecessary, albeit marginal, strains on the world?s water reservoir.

In some herds it has been observed that extremely short teats have become a problem; with a negative influence on the milking performance. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate to what degree the quality of the teats and the milk in cows with short teats is affected as compared with cows with normal teat length and furthermore if the milking performance could be improved by using a liner adapted to short teats. This study was divided in two parts. In the first part, it was examined if there were any differences between short teats and teats with normal length with reference to the milking performance, udder emptying, teat treatment, milk quality, and udder health. 11 pairs of cows were used and in each pair of cows one cow had teats shorter than 40 mm while the other cow had teats longer than 50 mm.

In Kenya the Maasai pastoralists have based their livelihoods on dairy production and the production goal is to maintain a sufficient milk supply throughout the year. The pastoral dairy production has two vital characteristics; breeding and milking. Traditionally, breeding is the men?s responsibility, while milking is the duty of women. Depending on this partition of chores between men and women, they also have different management routines, ambitions and strategies regarding the milk production.

Investment costs for eight different type housing systems for dairy cows has been calculated in order to compare the building costs as a function of herd size, shelter type and automatization. A commercial calculation programme for building was used and complemented with prices of equipments specific for dairy cow building. Herd sizes were 120, 250 and 400 cows. The milking equipments were automatic milking system (AMS), parallel parlour with 32 stalls (2x16) and rotary parlour with 24 stalls. Shelter was either insulated equipped with automatic cable driven scrapers on solid alleys, automatic feed wagon on rails, or uninsulated with manual manure handling and a tractor driven mobile mixer wagon on a drive-through feeding table. Building cost per cow or per kg milk was calculated using an average life time and 6 % interest rate and annual Milk yield is 9 500 kg/cow and year. Structure effect 3-4 % higher for an insulated structure than in an uninsulated for 400 and 120 herd respectively. This is much lower compared to what is normally argued.