Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Ensilerat vallfoder är ett av de absolut viktigaste fodermedlen för att förmå korna att producera en stor mängd högkvalitativ mjölk. En hake är dock att ensilaget ska vara av god kvalitet och med bästa möjliga näringsvärde, samtidigt som man även vill ha volymmängder. För att få detta gäller det att skörda vid rätt tidpunkt, vilket kan vara svårt att veta när det infaller. Till detta finns ett hjälpmedel som kallas skördetidsprognos. Detta går ut på att man klipper prover i vallen upp till tre gånger innan första skörden för att analysera gräset och därigenom kunna avgöra när bästa tiden är för att skörda för att få den mest optimala kombinationen av mängd och näringsvärde.
Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur bra hjälpmedel jordbrukare i norra Sverige tycker att skördetidsprognosen är för att få en ökad kvalitet på ensilaget, samt att jämföra variationen i näringsvärde och mängd biomassa inom och mellan olika fält. Arbetet är baserat på dels egna praktiska moment, där provklippningar har genomförts före första skörd på åtta fält på Ersmarksgården AB, Skellefteå Kommun. Före tredje skörden inventerades artsammansättningen på de olika fälten. Men arbetet är också baserat på telefonintervjuer av 23 av de 24 jordbrukare som är värdar för skördetidsprognosen i Norrbottens och Västerbottens län. Telefonintervjuerna genomfördes utifrån ett frågeformulär som sammanställts tillsammans med handledarna. Frågeformuläret innehåller 13 frågor som tar upp aspekter som jordbrukarnas erfarenheter och åsikter om skördetidsprognosen men också deras vallkedja.

Summary
The silage is one of the most important tools to make the cows able to produce a good amount of high quality milk. One hatch is that the silage should be of high quality and be as nutritional as possible and in the mean time you want quantities. To achieve this, it is urgent to harvest at the right time and it may be difficult to know when that time is. There is some technical aid to use, called harvest time prognosis in leys. It means that you, before harvest, do up to three test cuttings to make chemical analyses of the timothy. From these analyses you can evaluate the nutritional values and the production of biomass, and decide when to harvest.
The purpose with this project is to investigate how well the farmers in northern Sweden think that the analyses from the prognosis for harvest time are as a tool to get silage with high quality. But also to investigate if there are variations in nutrition and the biomass production in, and between, different fields on a farm and in that case which variations. The work is based on partial practical moments, where test cuttings before first harvest were performed at Ersmarksgården AB, in Skellefteå Kommun. Between second and third harvest an inventory of the botanical composition on these fields was made, to look into how the composition of the species in different ages of the pasture varies. The work was partial telephone-interviews with the farmers that are hosts of the evaluation of prognoses for harvest time in leys in northern Sweden. During the telephone-interview questions were asked from a questionnaire with 13 questions that were put together with the supervisors. There were 23 farmers in the interview.

The silage is one of the most important tools to make the cows able to produce a good amount of high quality milk. One hatch is that the silage should be of high quality and be as nutritional as possible and in the mean time you want quantities. To achieve this, it is urgent to harvest at the right time and it may be difficult to know when that time is. There is some technical aid to use, called harvest time prognosis in leys. It means that you, before harvest, do up to three test cuttings to make chemical analyses of the timothy. From these analyses you can evaluate the nutritional values and the production of biomass, and decide when to harvest.
The purpose with this project is to investigate how well the farmers in northern Sweden think that the analyses from the prognosis for harvest time are as a tool to get silage with high quality. But also to investigate if there are variations in nutrition and the biomass production in, and between, different fields on a farm and in that case which variations. The work is based on partial practical moments, where test cuttings before first harvest were performed at Ersmarksgården AB, in Skellefteå Kommun. Between second and third harvest an inventory of the botanical composition on these fields was made, to look into how the composition of the species in different ages of the pasture varies. The work was partial telephone-interviews with the farmers that are hosts of the evaluation of prognoses for harvest time in leys in northern Sweden. During the telephone-interview questions were asked from a questionnaire with 13 questions that were put together with the supervisors. There were 23 farmers in the interview.