Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2020
Authors
Kristin Sørheim Berit Marie Blomstrand Juni Rosann E. Johanssen Inga Marie Aasen Håvard Steinshamn Heidi L EnemarkAbstract
Coccidiosis is a serious disease caused by Eimeria spp. in young lambs in Norway. Re-sistance against anticoccidial chemicals has been demonstrated in conventional sheep farm-ing. In organic farming we are looking for natural plant sources to increase animal health and welfare. Condensed tannins (CT) have showed effect against coccidia in several trials. Extract from Norwegian spruce bark (Picea abies), a waste product from the wood industry, was shown to contain CT in a Norwegian study. In our trial we tested the effect of bark extract from Norwegian spruce against Eimeria spp in young lambs. The extract was prepared by hot water extraction followed by evaporation and freeze drying. 24 naïve lambs were randomly grouped, 16 of them were inoculated with 100 000 Eimeria oocysts each for three days at 3 weeks of age, and eight of the 16 were treated with bark extract for 12 successive days post infection. The CTg per lamb per day correspond to 0.05% BMW. A control group of eight lambs was not infected or treated. Individually faeces samples were collected and analysed for faecal score and oocysts. Clinically observations and weight gain were measured. In this trial the bark extract was found to have a significant effect on the development of Eime-ria spp. oocysts in the lambs (p<0,001). The extract was given by a stomach tube, and had a negative effect on the lambs appetite as long as it was administered.
Authors
Gillian Butler Carsten Malisch Elisabet Nadeau Anna Woodhouse Bjørn Egil Flø Tomasz Sakowski Flaviana Gottardo Giorgia Riuzzi Hannah Davis Håvard SteinshamnAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Mountain grazing conditions represent a constraint on lamb growth performance for various reasons. One approach to counteract these effects is to graze lambs on improved pastures. We tested the effects of grazing ewes and/or their lambs on established grass-clover (GCM), chicory alone (CHA), and grassclover-chicory (GCC) stands on spring (Exp.1) and summer (Exp.2) pastures on lamb performance. We hypothesized that CHA and GCC would sustain higher spring and autumn daily gain of lambs compared with GCM. In Exp.1, 12 twin-rearing ewes together with their 24 lambs were randomly allocated into three sward types replicated twice (n=2 ewes, 4 lambs/replicate) and monitored for 25 d before sending to mountain pasture. In Exp.2, 24 weaned lambs from the mountain pasture were again randomly allocated to one of the above pasture types and grazed for 28 d. We observed differences in chemical composition and estimated energy values between swards containing chicory and GCM swards. However, these did not affect lamb performance during both experiments, contrary to our previous findings, suggesting that grazing sheep either selected against chicory, or the observed differences in chemical composition among sward types were not strong enough to influence performance, or a combination of the two possible effects
Authors
Veronika Maurer Spiridoula Athanasiadou Catherine Experton Florian Leiber Håvard Steinshamn Lucius TammAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
A Schmitt I Pertot V Verrastro Jakob Magid B Moeskops K Möller Spiridoula Athanasiadou C Experton Håvard Steinshamn F Leiber Veronika Maurer EK Bunemann J Herforth-Rahme Lucius TammAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Håvard SteinshamnAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
The Norwegian sheep industry is based on utilization of “free” rangeland pasture resources. Use of mountain pastures is dominating, with about two million sheep grazing these pastures during summer. Regional challenges related to e.g., loss of sheep to large carnivores make farmers think differently. The Norwegian coastline is among the longest globally and is scattered with islets and islands. Alone along the coast of Nordland county, it is estimated more than 14,000 islands. Use of islands for summer pasture is an alternative but there is a limited knowledge about such a management system. In this study, we examined lambs' average daily gain on island pastures at the coast of Norway. In total 230 lambs on three islands (Sandvær, Sjonøya, and Buøya), with varying pasture quality and stocking rate, for 3 years (2012, 2013, and 2014). At Sandvær as much as 92% of the island was characterized as high nutritional value while at Sjonøya and Buøya only 15%, was characterized high nutritional value. We found an average daily lamb growth rate of 0.320 kg d−1. Lambs on Sandvær had a higher daily gain (P < 0.05) than those on Sjonøya and Buøya, and lambs' average daily gain was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in 2013 compared to 2012 and 2014. We conclude that with a dynamic and adaptive management strategy there is a potential to utilize islands for sheep grazing during summer.
Abstract
Perennial versus short term (<3 years) grass vegetation cover is likely to have considerable differences in root density and thus carbon (C) inputs to soil. Carbon inputs are important to maintain soil organic carbon (SOC) and may even increase it. In Norway and Scandinavia, the SOC content in soil is often higher than in other parts of Europe, due to the cold climate and high precipitation (i.e. slower turnover rates for soil organic matter) and a dominance of animal production systems with a large amount of grassland. Here we aimed to evaluate differences in SOC content, down to 60 cm depth, of a long-term grassland (without ploughing for decades) and a short-term grassland (frequently renewed by ploughing) under contrasting climate, soil and management conditions. Quantification of SOC was carried out on three long-term experimental sites on an extended latitude gradient in West and North Norway. The samples were taken from 4 depth increments (0-5, 5-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm) in treatments that have not been ploughed for at least 43 years, and in treatments that were ploughed every third year until 2011. Preliminary results suggest that there is no significant difference in SOC storage down to 60 cm between long-term and short-term grasslands.
Abstract
Farms in Central Norway, feeding more forage and pasture to their dairy cows, achieved lower milk yield per cow but higher profitability than farms feeding more concentrate feeds, mainly because of more governmental subsidies per kg milk and meat produced. Also, our analysis does not support the general assumption that higher concentrate feeding and milk production lowers global warming potential and energy needed per kg of milk and meat produced compared with more extensive systems