Today, individual indoor stalls and individual outdoor paddocks are the most common way to house horses in Sweden. The way that we manage, house and feed the horses are not optimal for the species natural basic behavioural needs. However, the awareness of this grows in the context of research and the emergence of alternative housing systems. One of the alternatives to the traditional format in individual boxes is called group housing. Group housing systems allow horses to live in herds and they can choose how they want to distribute the hours of the day between movement, resting and foraging. The purpose of this study is to examine how frequently the young horses in a group housing system use the indoor Lying area.

Cattle have a species specific movement pattern when lying down and getting up. They need sufficient space for their heads to perform these movements normally. The aim of this study was to investigate the lying down and getting up behaviour of beef bulls at a Swedish farm operation. The hypothesis was that bulls older than 10 months (over approximately 400 kg) were disturbed by a horizontal front rail and that the time to lie down and get up differed from what can be regarded as normal based on earlier scientific studies. The bulls were Swedish Red and White (SRB), Swedish Friesian (SLB) or crossbreeds of these two, and were kept in a cubicle system with a stall front design where there was a horizontal rail 40 cm above the stall floor.

In the farrowing pens the amount of bedding material and the quality of the concrete floor has a huge impact on both the sow and the piglets. In this study imbedding of rubber flooring on the solid area in the farrowing pen was used to see if it had any effects on the sows lying behaviour when compared to concrete. Another important aspect was to evaluate if the rubber floorings had a high enough durability to resist the normal wear in a farrowing pen. Concrete flooring is assumed to have a higher thermally conductive effect then rubber which can affect the sow?s chance to cool down.

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.

The Animal Protection Agency was in 2006, commissioned by the Government to: Evaluate how free range animals in the winter, can be kept and managed with special emphasis to animal welfare. The Animal Protection Agency was closed later in 2006 and the commission moved to the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The keeping of free range out wintered cattle, certain basic requirement are needed: by regulation, cattle should have access to a lying hall or other building that gives protection against aversive weather and wind and should offer a dry and clean Lying area. There is a possibility for farmers that get an exemption from this regulation. But cases regarding farms which have had difficulties for this exemption has led to a discussion about if the animals can get the same protection in the nature which is comparable to a lying- hall.

A common problem in forestry is plant death caused by frost. The risk of frost is highest on wind protected, flat or low-Lying areas in the terrain. Here you often have regeneration problems with Norwegian spruce which is especially sensitive to spring frost. Swedish tree experiments have shown that the black spruce can be a suitable alternative on these areas, for example on moisture frost prone areas. The species originates from North America and its pioneer tree characteristics make it more frost hardy than Norwegian spruce.

The aim of the study was to find repetitive behavioral patterns pre calving that could be used as indications of calving in beef cattle. In the study sixteen Standing- and lying down sensors were attached to the leg of sixteen beef cows. Ten of the sixteen beef cows gave birth to calves during the trial period. From these ten cows, data from six cows were used to assess the sensors fitness for use as calving indicators. The analytical part of the experiment was divided into two parts, calculation of divergence of mean lying time within different time intervals, and the number of lying bouts.The first part consisted of optimization of an equation used to highlight divergence in mean lying time within eight different time intervals (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 hours).

If you keep cattle in a herd outside all year round on big varying grounds, their possibilityto perform their natural behaviour increases. This way of keeping cattle requires that youprovide them with their other needs, like shelter and a dry and clean resting place.According to the animal welfare authority´s regulations on livestock farming, only animalsthat are suited to stay outside during the cold season are allowed to be kept outside. Theyshould also have access to a shelter or another building that gives them protection from theweather and wind and provides a dry and clean resting place.Research has shown that as long as cattle do not get exposed to precipitation and wind theywill manage low temperature well. Some of the things that will affect how well the animalshandle different climates are the isolation ability of the fur, the animals´ body size and thefeed intake. A dry lying place that is both insulating and moisture absorbent is also of greatimportance.

Sleep is essential for all mammals and they all have different sleep patterns. Wild horses normally spend 2-8.5% of a 24-hour period in recumbent position while stabled horses lie down 11-20%. To fulfil the need of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep the horse must lie down with support against the ground for the head. The lying behavior can be affected by external stimuli such as age, food intake, bedding materials and if the horses feel safe or not. This study investigates the lying behavior of horses on different bedding materials; wood shavings and filled rubber mats (HIT SoftBed®).

SUMMARY By altering the longitudinal slopes of the cubicle floors the drainage could be improved. If the altered slopes also position the cows further back in the cubicles the effect could be cleaner lying surfaces. In result this would lead to lower labour requirements, cleaner cows, cleaner udders and a minimization of the risks of mastitis. However, if the altered slopes lead to that the cows position themselves more diagonally in the cubicles the positive effects could be reduced. The altered slopes could even have a negative influence on the animals? natural lying behaviour.

Peat litter is a soft material with high absorbency. About hundred years ago many farmers in Sweden used peat litter to their dairy cows. After the World War II the use of peat litter decreased and the farmers used more straw. Nowadays (year 2007), when it is harder to find straw and sawdust to buy, peat litter is advancing again. The purpose with this study is to investigate peat as a litter to dairy cows.

The aim of this literature review was to investigate whether the modern dairy cow has the time she needs to lie down and to sleep and what deprivation of these behaviors could lead to. Current research seems to agree on the fact that sleep is essential but there is no uniform explanation of the function of sleep, even though there are many theories. It is known that sleep has an important impact on the immune system and that sleep is increased in case of an infection. Sleep deprivation causes many negative effects including reduced function off the immune defense, increased metabolic activity, malnutrition and increased heart rate. It has also been found that deprivation of sleep could cause increased mortality.

The aim of this study was to compare activity, lying down and getting up behaviour, weight gain and cleanliness in heifers in cubicles versus on deep-litter. The study was conducted from autumn of 2005 until autumn of 2006 in a commercial organic dairy herd with 340 cows. In 2005 the farm rebuilt half of the young stock accommodation from deep-litter pens to cubicles. The experiment used 150 heifers of the breeds Swedish Red, Swedish Holstein and crossbreeds between these, all born on the farm. The animals were divided into three blocks based on breed and within each block they were sorted after increasing age. The youngest heifer in each block was randomly allocated to one of two groups, cubicle or deep-litter pen.

SUMMARY This pilot study tried to answer the question however the present animal welfare regulations for horses regarding lying hall area requirements are adequate for horses older than 24 months. The study was carried out at one of the largest stud farms for standard bred horses in Sweden. Mares in late pregnancy with an initial mean age of 10 years was used in a behaviour study. The influence of varying space per animal in a loose-housing system on behaviours like the horses' lying hall use, standing, resting, moving behaviour and threats was studied. The behaviour at three different horse densities ? 18 mares, 13 mares and 8 mares (7.4 m2, 10.3 m2 and 16.7 m2 per mare, respectively) ? was recorded by use of video.

In organic animal production, synthetic amino acids are not allowed. Therefore, a higher level of crude protein is needed in the diet to pigs, which lead to more nitrogen (N) excreted in the faeces and urine. N can be emitted to the air in the form of e.g. ammonia (NH3), which contributes to eutrophication and acidification and as nitrous oxide (N2O), which is a very potent greenhouse gas. The emission of N can be reduced by e.g.