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.
2018
Abstract
Although pasture is low-cost feed, many farmers find it difficult to maintain high milk yield when using pasturefor high-yielding dairy cows in automatically milked herds. Therefore, a seven-week experiment with 40 cows inearly to mid-lactation was performed to evaluate a management model for including pasture in the diet withoutjeopardizing milk production. Within a part-time grazing system with morning and evening outdoor access, wecompared a group with ad libitum grass silage indoors combined with access to a small grass-covered permanentpaddock for exercise and recreation (group EX) with a group offered production pasture at a high allowance percow and day combined with restricted grass silage allowance at night (group PROD). Both groups had the sameoutdoor access times and the same concentrate allowance based on pre-experimental milk yield. Milk yield andmilking frequency were recorded daily in the automatic milking unit. Milk recordings and samplings for de-termination of milk composition took place weekly and outdoor behaviour of cows was recorded during pastureaccess hours on six observation days, evenly distributed over the experimental period. During the experiment,average metabolisable energy concentration was higher in the grass silage offered both groups than in pastureherbage. However, our results showed no significant difference in daily milk yield between treatments.Furthermore, no signifi cant differences between treatments were found in energy-corrected milk, milk fatproduction, or body weight change. Milk protein production was, however, significantly higher in group PROD.In early lactation, no difference in milking frequency was observed between treatments while for cows in mid- tolate lactation, milking frequency was significantly higher in group EX than group PROD. Over the entire ex-periment, group EX cows spent significantly less time outdoors than group PROD. In conclusion, offering highyielding dairy cows in automatic milking systems high-quality pasture at a high allowance for a few hours inmorning and afternoon appears to be an interesting alternative to exercise paddock with full indoor feeding, as itcan reduce costs for supplementary silage, facilitate natural behaviour, and encourage cows to spend more timeoutdoors, while maintaining milk production at a level comparable to that of full indoor feeding.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Silje Elde Ingrid Kvalvik Bjørg Helen Nøstvold Rune Rødbotten Sigridur Dalmannsdottir Hilde Halland Eivind Uleberg Ólafur Reykdal Jón Árnason Páll Gunnar Pálsson Rakel Halldórsdóttir Óli Þór Hilmarsson Gunnar Þórðarson Þóra Valsdóttir Rebekka Knudsen David Natcher Daria SidorovaAbstract
The aim of the "Arctic as a food producing region" - project is to assess the potential for increased production and added value of food from the Arctic region, with the overarching aim of improving economic and social conditions of Arctic communities. This report is the output from the first phase of the project, providing a description of the main food production and examples of conditions for food production in the Arctic areas of the countries involved. This will form the basis for further analysis of opportunities, driving forces and barriers for further development of arctic food production, in the next phase of the project. The project has participation from Canada, Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Russia, and is endorsed by the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG).
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This research note offers a critical-constructive discussion of the article ‘Class, Culture and Culinary Tastes: Cultural Distinctions and Social Class Divisions in Contemporary Norway’, written by Flemmen, Hjellbrekke and Jarness (FHJ) (Sociology, 2018(1)). Concerns are raised about the methods and the use of the data. A robustness analysis with alternative data and/or alternative methods is suggested. Conceptually, the analysis of FHJ is considered not to engage adequately with a more qualitative body of historical and ethnological literature, as well as the impact of Norwegian agricultural policy. To describe and understand the evolution of social meaning and social patterns of the consumption of ‘traditional’ Norwegian foodstuffs, a qualitative approach could have contributed constructively. Overall, wider implications for Bourdieu-inspired analyses of cultural consumption are addressed.
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Authors
Tomas Persson Mats Höglind Marcel Van Oijen Panu Korhonen Taru Palosuo Guillaume Jégo Perttu Virkajärvi Gilles Bélanger Anne-Maj GustavssonAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Panu Korhonen Taru Palosuo Tomas Persson Mats Höglind Guillaume Jégo Marcel Van Oijen Anne-Maj Gustavsson Gilles Bélanger Perttu VirkajärviAbstract
During the past few years, several studies have compared the performance of crop simulation models to assess the uncertainties in model-based climate change impact assessments and other modelling studies. Many of these studies have concentrated on cereal crops, while fewer model comparisons have been conducted for grasses. We compared the predictions for timothy grass (Phleum pratense L.) yields for first and second cuts along with the dynamics of above-ground biomass for the grass simulation models BASGRA and CATIMO, and the soil-crop model STICS. The models were calibrated and evaluated using field data from seven sites across Northern Europe and Canada with different climates, soil conditions and management practices. Altogether the models were compared using data on timothy grass from 33 combinations of sites, cultivars and management regimes. Model performances with two calibration approaches, cultivar-specific and generic calibrations, were compared. All the models studied estimated the dynamics of above-ground biomass and the leaf area index satisfactorily, but tended to underestimate the first cut yield. Cultivar-specific calibration resulted in more accurate first cut yield predictions than the generic calibration achieving root mean square errors approximately one third lower for the cultivar-specific calibration. For the second cut, the difference between the calibration methods was small. The results indicate that detailed soil process descriptions improved the overall model performance and the model responses to management, such as nitrogen applications. The results also suggest that taking the genetic variability into account between cultivars of timothy grass also improves the yield estimates. Calibrations using both spring and summer growth data simultaneously revealed that processes determining the growth in these two periods require further attention in model development.