Today?s farmers are constantly affected by the fluctuating world market prices on grain and thereby the price risk that comes with the price fluctuations. The volatile prices of grain increase the price risk within the business, which in turn affects the profitability of the business. The fluctuating prices together with the increased price risk within the farm business have opened up the market for hedging instruments. In this master thesis project, the aim is to identify the underlying end-values of 30 Swedish farmers? related to their choice of using hedging and the product; forward contract.

Leasing som finansieringsmetod för lantbruksmaskiner är ingen ny företeelse men har inte slagit igenom i Sverige på samma sätt som i en del andra länder. Intresset för leasing är svagt i Sverige varpå det är av intresse att undersöka hur lantbrukare resonerar kring finansieringsmetoder för investeringar. Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera om varför leasing inte används av lantbrukare i större utsträckning. Arbetet är uppbyggt på två delar, en teoretisk referensram där relevanta teorier och tidigare forskning beaktas, och en empirisk del där resultatet från beräkningar gällande leasing och finansiering av banklån presenteras. I det empiriska avsnittet redovisas fyra intervjuer med lantbrukare. Efter att val av metod, redovisas urval av respondenter och en beskrivning av hur intervjuerna har genomförts.

Ekonomibyggnader är en förutsättning för lantbruksproduktionen och underhåll bör således vara en central angelägenhet i ett lantbruksföretag. I perioder med sämre ekonomi, då företa-gare måste se över sina kostnader, är det möjligt att underhåll och investeringar får stå till-baka. Om underhållet på mjölkgårdens stallbyggnader och byggnadsinventarier negligeras kan det leda till att omfattande reparationer eller nyinvesteringar krävs för att kunna fortsätta produktionen. Sådana åtgärder är vanligtvis dyrare än förebyggande underhåll samtidigt som en förutsättning för att vara rationell som mjölkproducent är att hålla kostnaderna nere. Ge-nom att hålla kostnaderna nere idag och skjuta på underhållet kan de framtida kostnaderna öka vilket mjölkföretag eventuellt inte klarar av med marginalerna i mjölkbranschen. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad som påverkar mjölkföretagarens beslut att un-derhålla ladugård och ladugårdsinventarier samt öka förståelsen för den ekonomiska betydel-sen som underhåll medför i ett mjölkföretag.

The aim of this paper was to study incoming complaints to The County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland during 2011 and examine if it was possible to see a connection between warranted and unwarranted complaints and informer, animal species and type of inadequate. In Västra Götaland, a complaint is classified as warranted if the inspection leads to a reprimand, whether it regards what was reported or not. Data were collected during three weeks through The County Administrative Board´s record system Platina and a total of 456 complaints were studied. The parameter ?complainant? was categorized into four groups according to The County Administrative Boards own division; public with the subgroups anonymous and non-anonymous, animal health staff and others.

With the farming methods of the past century the agricultural landscape has changed. This has led to the fact that many habitats and species have been significantly reduced. Sweden is committed to the preservation of biodiversity through various conventions and laws. In the EU's Common Agricultural Policy there are currently agro-environmental schemes, which were created as an instrument for reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on nature and environment. Within this system any farmer who perform environmental measures are financially compensated for this.

People who invest capital in promising projects as a profession are called venture capitalists. They are constantly looking for new investment opportunities. Recently, media have observed a growing interest in forest land as capital investment. This is because several fund and investment company market the possibility of safe return through investment in woodland, both in Sweden and abroad. When an investment in forests is seen as an acceptable investment option, focus turns to nearby areas, namely agricultural land.

Sigill Quality Systems has been certifying beef since the autumn of 2006 using the brand name label Swedish Sigill. IP Sigill (the certifying system for integrated production) encompasses the values: animal ethics, food safety, free range and environmental concerns. Product quality is not yet one of these values, and there is a variation in the quality of Swedish beef. Swedish Sigill wanted to investigate the factors that influence product quality, review which of the present regulations that have an influence on product quality and formulate new regulations with the purpose of enhancing the product quality (sensorial, technological and nutritional quality). A survey of quality parameters and factors that influence product quality was done in order to establish a scientific foundation to work from.

With the farming methods of the past century the agricultural landscape has changed. This has led to the fact that many habitats and species have been significantly reduced. Sweden is committed to the preservation of biodiversity through various conventions and laws. In the EU's Common Agricultural Policy there are currently agro-environmental schemes, which were created as an instrument for reducing the negative impacts of agriculture on nature and environment. Within this system any farmer who perform environmental measures are financially compensated for this.

Establishing a reference interval for plasma fibrinogen in foals Fibrinogen concentrations were analysed in EDTA preserved blood plasma samples from 34 thoroughbred foals born in 2001 and 2002 at one stud farm. The foals were between 0 and 240 days old at the time of the sampling, and there were 19 fillies and 12 stallions in the group. The foals were examined for clinical symptoms of disease and their body temperature was measured before blood was sampled from the jugular vein. From totally 156 blood samples, 31 were selected as originating from clinically healthy foals, and used to determine a reference range for thoroughbred foals. Samples originating from foals showing clinical symptoms of disease or an abnormal body temperature at the time of sampling, were classified as coming from unhealthy animals.

På grund av dålig lönsamhet har många lantbruk tvingats diversifiera sin verksamhet till att inkludera andra verksamhetsområden än det traditionella lantbruket. Det absolut vanligaste området är agrikulturell turism eller även kallad lantgårdsturism som innebär att lantgårdsfamiljen öppnar upp sitt hem för turister. Turism är som verksamhet väldigt skilt från att driva lantbruksverksamhet vilket leder till att många aktörer kan finna denna övergång problematisk. Våra teoretiska och empiriska fynd talar för att marknadsstrategi och kommunikation är områden där dessa aktörer ofta saknar kunskap. Därför har vi i denna uppsats valt att fokusera på hur aktörer inom denna bransch kan samordna och marknadsfora sin verksamhet.Wannborga på Öland AB utgör fallstudieobjektet i denna uppsats vilka kompletteras med ytterligare referensobjekt.

The purpose of this candidate thesis is to obtain an overall picture of how many prohibitions against owning or taking care of animals that were announced in Sweden in the years 2006-2008 and on what basis these judicial decisions were taken. What is the situation for the person behind the judicial decisions? Is there a so-called risk category where preventive actions to solve the problem can be taken at an earlier stage?The first Swedish animal welfare legislation came into force in 1944. Previously there was a law of 1857 that only prohibited the maltreatment of farm animals. In 1988 the existing animal welfare law was revised into an in principle new law (1988:534).As early as in the Royal Majesty?s government bill (1944:43) to the 1944 animal welfare legislation, there was a proposal that issued prohibition for those having been convicted of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Allanblackia is a genus of trees that grows in the rainforests of West, Central and Eastern Africa. Its big fruits contain seeds very rich in oil which has been used by local communities for cooking and making soaps. The native stands are threatened by overexploitation and the demand for the oil is much greater than the supply. Domestication programs, aiming at introducing the trees to small holder agroforestry systems, have been started for some of the species. The main aim of this study was to investigate the soil requirements of Allanblackia stuhlmannii in terms of chemical and physical parameters, as revealed by the soil conditions in native stands. Another aim was to see if these varied along an altitudinal transect.

The European Union provide 27 % of total volume raw milk produced in the world. This number is steadily decreasing due to that the world milk production increase is more rapid than EU production growth. The growing middle-class change the demand for food, a higher standard of living increase the demand of milk products as well as other various animal products. Since 1984 the EU milk quota has limited the supply from EU, but the quota will expire April 1st 2015. The European Milk Board expect that the removal of quotas will make the farm gate price decline.

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.

In Sweden, there has been a continuous increase in the volume of housing construction for dairy cattle. Since 2004, the number of new, rebuilt and extended dairy cow houses undergoing preliminary inspection by the authorities has grown. The livestock farms have mostly focused on cow units instead of calf and heifer sheds; which has led to a need for information in this area. The purpose of the study was to improve advisors? knowledge about bovine building construction and function; to enable them to provide more qualified advice to conventional and organic milk producers who sustain larger herds.