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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.

2025

Abstract

Dairy production in the Scandinavian countries is characterized by a long indoor feeding period combined with a short grazing season. The main feed intake is from grass silage and concentrates. Methane (CH4) measurements from dairy cows in Scandinavia have been prioritised during their indoor feeding period, while measurements from their pasture periods are scarce. Two Scandinavian experiments (in Sweden and Norway) measured CH4 emissions from dairy cows kept on multi-species pastures. Both experiments combined GreenFeed units indoors and outdoors to measure CH4 emissions. The Swedish experiment investigated effects of part-time pasture access either daytime or night-time grazing on animal performance and CH4 emissions from parlour-milked cows. Time of day with pasture access had no effect on feed intake, milk production or CH4 emissions. The Norwegian experiment investigated the effects of cows roaming between the barn and either a production pasture or an exercise paddock, when milked in an automatic milking system. Production pasture aimed to provide 50% of the animals’ daily forage intake and cows in this system had significantly lower CH4 emissions compared to cows fed indoors with access to an exercise paddock. Giving access to pasture is an undervalued management action that may reduce GHG emissions from modern dairy production.