An automatic milking (AM) system should be combined with some form of controlled cow traffic to minimize the time spend on fetching cows to milking and to increase the milking frequency. By restricting the hours spent on pasture per day you optimise the AM system use during pasture period. A reason for this is becuase cows do not return to the stable for milking during night which cause that the milking unit stands empty those hours. In organic production it is required that the cows should be able to graze a certain amount of daily dry matter (DM) intake on the pasture. In the county of Dalarna where the farm is located the yield of the pasture is about 3000 kg DM per grazing season and hectar.This means that the pasture area should be 14,25 hectare to 57 milking cows.

ABSTRACT For hundreds of years there has been a tradition with tethered dairy cows in Sweden. The last decades the old fashioned way to hold cows have been questioned and the number of dairy cows in loose housing has been increasing. Last year (2004) 19 percent in total of all farms with milk production in Sweden had their cows in loose housing. Because of EU-legislation concerning all organic production no farms are allowed to build tie stalls any more and after 2010 all organic dairy cows are supposed to live in loose-housing systems. The aim of the thesis was mainly to find out the number of farms with tethered organic dairy cows and if they will continue after the year 2010. Furthermore the purpose was to study if there are any regional differences, how countries similar to Sweden interpret the EU-decision about tethered cows and differences in buildings between organic and conventional farms and the reasons to them.

Safe retrieval of nutrients from human excreta to fertilize crops in order to gain adequate yields will increase food security and sustainability in agriculture areas with nutrient-poor fields. Safe and nutritious food will meet the dietary needs of the individual which promotes public health and the ability of an active life. Human excreta should be considered as a resource instead of being assumed as waste. Human faeces and urine is excellent fertilizers which may close the nutrient loop if utilized properly. However, sanitation of the excreta is required to prevent disease transmission by reducing the content of gastrointestinal pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. The objective of this study was to in small scale evaluate the sanitation in a combined liquid compost and urea treatment by monitor the inactivation of bacteria and viruses at the combination three start temperatures, 45, 40 and 35 °C, and three additions of urea, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 % and reference, 0 % urea addition.

Important issues for the local authorities are what to do with the sludge produced insewagetreatment plants. The tax for landfill leads to higher costs with 250 SEK/ton. On the 31December 2004 it will be forbidden to landfill sludge.In Sweden the yearly production of sludge is 240 000 tons, counted as DS. The phosphorouscontent is 3 % in sludge. The total yearly production of sludge gives 6000 tons of phosphorous.

Because of the increasing trends in energy consumption and increased environmental awareness, greater focus has been placed on improvement and development of renewable energy sources. An already proven and accepted method is biogas production from anaerobic digestion at municipal wastewater treatment plants.In the waste water treatment process solid material and dissolved pollutants are separated from the water, forming a sludge. The sludge is separated from the process and stabilized during anaerobic digestion or aerobic aeration. Most often, mesophilic anaerobic digestion is used. Because of degradation by microorganisms, biogas with a high content of methane is formed during the digestion.

The possibility for plants to utilize phosphorus in soil is a prerequisite for conducting agricultural production, both small scale and professional. Spreading of phosphorus fertilizers and manure is therefore seen as a necessity in today's agriculture in order to achieve high yield. Manure management, livestock farming and manure storage could contribute to the eutrophication of lakes and rivers. For instance, when the ground becomes saturated, phosphorus leakage could be seen in surface runoff or in point sources resulting from inadequate manure storage management.In the municipality of Växjö there is still many bodies of water that do not reach the Swedish environmental water quality standard of "good ecological status". This thesis has therefore analyzed the manure management and storage on agricultural farms which may have contributed to eutrophication in the municipality.The method for this thesis was a literature study, a questionnaire survey with 820 receivers and a summary of issued inspection reports from 2013.The results highlight the ways in which agriculture may have contributed to the eutrophication of lakes and streams in the municipality of Växjö.

The background to the work bases on the consumers view around Swedish and foreign meat products, and how the attitude around the meat products is pursued in the shops. The consumers request high meat quality and security . Many consumers value local produced and ecological meat products but the price is too high. We have done verbal interviews with consumers on three different shops, where we asked questions and had dialogues around Swedish meat products where the consumers have told us their arguments and opinions about Swedish and foreign meat. The result shows that the majority of consumers consider that it is important to know that meat is produce in Sweden.

The cattle production in the world has been questioned in Sweden due to its negative impacts on the environment. The use of imported soya bean meal as a protein feed for Swedish cattle results in the cutting of rainforest and an extensive use of pesticides in the countries were the soya beans are produced. As a consequence, the environmental impacts caused by cattle production increases. A production of protein feeds in Sweden would decrease the transportations and the cutting of rainforest. For organic beef producers the possibility to produce home-grown protein feeds is important since organic protein feeds can be difficult to obtain in another way.

Stress is commonly found in society today. This paper aims to examine how work performance, cooperation and team spirit are maintained in demanding work environments. By studying two departments in a public hospital that practises addiction care, our findings suggest the following: If the experienced stress is mainly connected to challenge stressors, it has a positive effect on work performance. By organising work through mechanistic and organic structure, the handling of qualitative and quantitative stress is facilitated. As a consequence, first and foremost cooperation can be maintained, but also work performance and team spirit.

In this essay I have tried to present the ideas and thoughts of the Swedish author Rolf Edberg (1912-1997), journalist, ambassador and county governor. By many regarded as an environment philosopher and the introducer of deep ecology into Sweden. The essay emphasizes Edberg as a modern renaissance man of important knowledge with a rhetorical force to present and generalize the problems the planet Earth is meeting. The paper compares him with Henry Thoreau but also finds a close but perhaps unintended relationship with the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel although Edberg himself claimed to be a Darwinist at heart.The essay stresses on four characteristic features in his authorship namely 1) a holistic view of nature and man, rejecting dualism for monism; 2) a cosmic relationship within the whole universe and also between organic and inorganic matter; 3) the planet Earth is in a crisis due to an uneven and unjust distribution of the resources of the Earth, the nuclear weapon threat and the overpopulation; 4) the evolution and not the religion has the answer to our existential questions..

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.

With the prospect of future construction on the Skutskär Pulp Mill property, Stora Enso Fine Paper has initiated an investigation of soil contaminants and a risk assessment of these contaminants. A soil and groundwater investigation has therefore been conducted on an open area of about 16 000 square meters, situated between the current wood room and digester house. To be able to integrate this study into an investigation for the whole industrial property, the study has been carried out as a phase 2 study according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency?s Methods of Inventories of Contaminated sites (MIFO).The site investigation has involved soil and groundwater sampling, together with the analysis of heavy metals and organic contaminants. The degree of hazard posed by the contaminants, the level of contamination, the potential for migration of the contaminants, as well as the degree to which protection of human health and the environment is required in the area, have been weighed together for an overall risk assessment of the area with regard to human health and the environment.The investigated area was built up by filling in the coastal waters.

The aim of this essay is to give the reader an idea of how the European agricultural policies have developed, in regard of sustainable development, since Sweden became a member in the union 1995. The main aspect that?s been investigated is the issues regarding sustainable development and how the issues regarding the ecological farming methods have been dealt with. My research questions are:- How has the European environment- and agricultural politics changed since Swedenjoined the union in 1995?- What consequences have the changes had for ecological farming?The answers to the stated questions are that there have been several treaties in the field of environmental development of the agricultural policy, starting with the Maastricht treaty and ends up with the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming.

Corn is an important food and feed crop in the world, in Sweden it?s up till now grown on limited acreages mainly for silage. But I think it can get more important if you can grow it also for grain, because it?s a good animal feed for example, for life stock-, pigsand poultry. On of corns advantage is that it can produce the same amount of dry matter as for example wheat, barley and rise but with 25% less water. I will examine if it possible to grow corn for grain production in the south of Sweden.

The release of green house gases and the environmental impacts humans have on the environment are huge and might cause irreversible changes to our earth. Meat is considered to have large impacts on the environment, especially beef meat and therefore there have lately been considerable discussions on the sustainable level of meat consumption and production. The main goal with this thesis is to study sustainable meat production and meat consumption in the county of Dalarna in Sweden. Indicators for sustainable meat production and meat consumption were developed and applied on three cases. Interviews were carried out with a municipality in the region that represents the consumer and three beef farmers that represents the producers.