The research at the Beijer Laboratory for Animal Science (BLAS) aims to make better use of data automatically collected at high-tech farms so that management and breeding of future generations of dairy cows may be as efficient as possible.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Digital dermatitis is a leading cause of lameness in dairy cattle, it is an animal welfare problem and leads to economic losses for the farmers. The etiology of the disease is still under debate.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
human population. However, this must not be at the expense of reduced animal health and deteriorated animal welfare. Infection with parasitic worms of ruminants is a major constraint on an efficient pasture-based livestock production.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Is it possible to keep dairy cows and their calves together in automatic milking systems? What are the effects on milk yield, calf growth, health and fertility? In this research project, we study how calves can be integrated into such systems.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Animal welfare at slaughter has recently caught increased public attention and slaughterhouse businesses face the challenge of potentially high costs for animal welfare improvements. However, scientific evidence on the overall economic effects of improved animal welfare at slaughter is scarce. The aims of this project are to identify strategies to improve animal welfare at slaughter and to investigate the economic incentives for slaughterhouse businesses to improve animal welfare. The project is interdisciplinary, combining animal science, veterinary medicine and economics with economic modelling, epidemiology, on-site observations and economic simulation studies, to assess costs and benefits related to improved animal welfare at slaughter.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The overall objective of this project is to minimize the need for human-edible feed in dairy production and at the same time reduce enteric methane emission, with maintained good animal health and performance.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Grazing can be a cheap way of feeding and, as the growing season gets longer, the possibility for increased use of this resource in northern areas is improving. There are however not many studies or data on grazing for dairy cows in northern Sweden.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
This project aims to improve feed efficiency (FE) in dairy production by introducing new technology and digitalization (analysis of large data) and thereby develop new practical methods to include FE in dairy cattle genetic improvement, feeding and managements. The results of the project will significantly improve sustainability, profitability and decrease the environmental footprint of the value chain. We will evaluate modern and highly accurate on-line technologies for determining gas exchanges and FE of dairy cows.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The goal with this project was to make it possible for Swedish dairy farms to replace imported, soy based protein feed with on farm processed concentrate based on home-grown or regionally grown Swedish protein sources as field beans, peas and rapeseed.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The purpose of the project is to investigate whether cows who have the capacity to consume large amounts of roughage have different microflora in the rumen than low-capacity cows, and if the composition of the microorganisms and methane formation is associated with the passage rate.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
A major challenge of our time is to reduce antimicrobial resistance. Accomplishing this necessitates decreasing and reconciling the use of antibiotics in livestock, which can be achieved by preventive management.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
In this three year long project, “The role of small-scale dairy cattle production in a sustainable and robust Swedish food supply”, we will map small-scale dairy herds in Sweden, and identify opportunities and obstacles for these herds to continuing producing sustainable dairy products in the future.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The main objective of the project is to develop improved prediction methods of mastitis in dairy cows. This will be achieved by combining state-of-the-art mathematical / statistical methods with access to large amounts of online data.
In this European project we will study animal health and welfare, milk quality, environmental impacts etc in farms that use compost pack bedding and “cow gardens” in their barns for dairy cows.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Why does a dairy cow stay in her herd for such a short time? There is evidence that we place too much value on heifers. This project will develop an objective method for comparing cows and heifers.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
It is only when the cow has calved and starts producing milk that she gives an income to the milk producer and it is after the second lactation the income covers the cow's rearing costs.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The aim of the project is to provide solutions for using unprocessed or nutritionally upgraded forest by-products as ruminant feed during forage shortage crises.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The aim of the project is to investigate how much extensive mechanical processing of silage can increase the forage intake in dairy cows and hereby reduce the requirement for concentrates.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The taste and smell of milk can sometimes be disrupted. One of the problems is when the milk has the scent and taste of blueberries. This can affect the quality of an entire milk silo at the dairy and the quality of the products made of it.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The aim is to improve milking technology and milking routines to ensure that the udder is emptied as well as possible with good udder health and animal welfare.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The project investigates the biological conditions for separating a ley crop into two vertical strata fractions with different nutritional quality at mowing.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Previous research on potty training in cows, has shown that calves can associate a place with urination early on. We want to take this research further and extend training to both urination and defecation as well as solutions that are long-term sustainable and practically applicable under commercial conditions.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Agricultural systems need to improve in order to meet future challenges of an increasing human population and at the same time ensure good animal welfare and a minimal ecological footprint. This project focuses on how to improve animal welfare and health in dairy cattle production using sensor technology, with the potential to minimize antibiotic use by improving tools for disease control and management.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
There are several projects going on in the area. One aim is to study the quality and microflora of northern Swedish milk at farm and dairy level, and the impact of this on maturing time and sensoric traits of long-ripened cheese.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The general objective of this project is to enhance food security in Tanzania through improved rangeland and livestock management practices in miombo woodlands.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The objective of this project is to investigate the hypothesis that methane production could be further reduced from stored manure in dairy cows supplemented with Asparagopsis taxiformis.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The environmental impact of dairy cows (i.e. ruminants) has received a lot of attention from society and the scientific community, primarily focusing on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The ruminants account for a significant proportion of methane emissions due to their enteric fermentation.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Ruminant livestock account for about half of the total greenhouse gas production in agriculture, where a large proportion of the emissions come from their digestion (enteric fermentation). Policies can be combined with information to consumers and investments in research to achieve climate and environmental goals . In the dairy industry, it is desired to produce milk with zero climate footprint, for example by increasing the carbon storage on farms, reducing the consumption of fossil fuels, increasing the biodiversity and using feed with as little climate impact as possible.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
This project will investigate the most economical and sustainable way of achieving less methane (CH4) from Swedish dairy production by composing low-emitting diets based on resources that cannot be directly utilized as food for humans.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The welfare of an animal is dependent on the balance between negative and positive experiences, but we lack ways to assess these positive experiences. This project aims to find practical and validated indicators for positive welfare in cattle and how best to implement them in practice to measure positive experiences in Swedish dairy cows.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Could impaired nutritional quality from delayed harvest of ley be counteracted by increasing the stubble height drastically and how would the total annual yield and quality then be affected?
Completed
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
According to "Keep Sweden clean" land ownership survey 2013 showed that littering has been increased in Sweden in recent years and both farmland and forest lands are littered. To cultivate the grassland next to busy roads have a high risk of involvement of aluminum in the forage chain. Fragments from shredded aluminum cans can result in animals suffering from hardware disease leading to emergency slaughter. In the project "Aluminum cans in silage - problems for the cows and farmers" 16 dairy and beef producers, as well as veterinarians and inspection veterinarians in western Sweden have been interviewed in an attempt to determine whether and to what extent aluminum cans is a problem.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The project aimed to investigate whether the response in drinking water intake at group level and individually was equal for potassium and sodium salts, how large the response in milk urea content was and what opportunities there are to use drinking water intake for estimating feed intake in dairy cows.
The purpose of this project was to identify which routines in the handling of the commercial dairy calf can be improved on the small-scale dairy farms in Vietnam.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Beef is a highly demanded food and plays an important role in the everyday diet for many people. The most common methods for measuring meat quality attributes are pH, colour, water-holding capacity, intramuscular fat, flavour and tenderness, are more or less performed by subjective methods and various types of chemical methods, which all are time consuming, invasive and destructive. Furthermore, results from subjective measurements may be inconsistent due to biased judgement. Different imaging-based techniques have recently been tested in order to rapidly and non-destructively measure and rank quality traits in beef cuts with consistent and reliable results. In this study imaging techniques (digital imaging and hyperspectral imaging) were used to objectively predict the average fat content and the distribution of fat on the surface of cuts of fresh beef samples.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Cattle on heterogeneous semi-natural pastures - nutrient supply and the effect of behaviour on nutrient redistribution between vegetation types within the grazing area.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Variation in enteric methane (CH4) emissions in lactating dairy cows has been attributed to both animal and dietary factors. Several strategies for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) including CH4 based on dietary manipulation or feed additives have been suggested. However, implementation in practice has been limited due to high costs or adverse effects on performance. This project will investigate if a simple thing like inclusion of oats in the diet might work.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Farm animals are usually transported on road to the slaughterhouse, where they often spend the night before being slaughtered. Stress occurs in connection with handling, during transport and in unfamiliar environments where the animals are subjected to numerous different stimuli. It is well-known that animal welfare and meat quality can be negatively affected. Small-scale slaughter can possibly reduce these problems.
Feeding late cut forage is a common strategy to provide pregnant suckler cows with feed of suitable nutritional quality during ad libitum feeding regimes. Despite this method, commonly grown grasses may result in overfeeding with energy and protein in relation to cow nutrient demands. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate alternative types of high-fibre roughages and their effects on feed intake, utilization, and cow energy status, to improve the effectiveness of feed resource use to spring-calving suckler cows.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
The purpose of this project is to develop knowledge and understanding to enable rapid creation of highly trample-resistant grazing areas that are also attractive to grazing animals and to evaluate measures for areas that are particularly vulnerable to trampling.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
This project addresses how optimization of the social environment of young dairy calves on farms can be a powerful tool to enhance their abilities to cope with challenges and boost their immune competence.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
Good animal welfare is more than the absence of pain and suffering - welfare can be regarded as the possibility to experience positive emotional states. Interest in investigating positive emotions in animals has grown lately. The challenge is for us to be able to assess these emotions through animals' behaviour and physiology.
Institutionen för tillämpad husdjursvetenskap och välfärd
