Mikaela Lindberg

I received my PhD degree in 2012 at SLU with the thesis entitled ”Effects of increasing the proportion of high-quality grass silage in the diet of dairy cows”. The thesis examined the effects of increasing the proportion of high quality grass silage in diets of dairy cows over the entire lactation. The results showed that gradually increasing the dietary proportion of silage reaching upp to 70 % on dry matter basis in late lactation did not significantly affect milk yield compared with feeding 50 % silage. Positive effects of the higher proportion of silage were shown in terms of profitability and milk fatty acid composition. Since my dissertation I have worked as researcher and teacher at the department of animal nutrition and management, now department of applied animal science and welfare, with focus on ruminant nutrition, mainly dairy cows.

Research Interests:

My research interests include ruminant nutrition: forage utilization, feed efficiency, environmental impact and sustainable use of feed resources and sustainable ruminant production systems. I am also interested in research questions regarding future food systems and how these can provide animal products in a sustainable way.

Research Goal:

To investigate and evaluate different strategies for increased sustainability in ruminant production; including nutrition and feeding, milk and meat production, environmental impact and animal welfare.

Research Skills:

Animal science, ruminant nutrition, experienced in the design of large animal experiments. Worked with feeding experiments, methane inhibition, sampling in rumen-cannulated cows and performed gas-sampling using the Sulfurhexafluoride tracer technique and The GreenFeed system in dairy cows, experienced in milk fatty acid analysis. Interpretation and analysis of small and large data-sets, scientific writing.

Activity within the academia

• Member of the Doctoral Education Committee at the VH-Faculty, SLU. 
• Member of the Scientific Council for Animal Welfare at SLU.
• I am subject leader in ruminant nutrition.

Activity with stakeholders outside the scientific society

I received a scholarship from the King Carl XVI Gustaf 50th Anniversary Fund for Science, Technology and the Environment in May 2014. The scholarship enabled studies on environmental impact from dairy production through life cycle assessment (LCA) and the transformation from human-inedible feed (e.g. grass and by-products) to high-quality proteins in milk and meat.

Course leader of PSV0136 Environmental impact from animal production (2 ECTS, PhD course)

Course leader of  P000007 "Primary production of animal source food - systems perspective and assessment of environmental sustainability"  3 ECTS, PhD course.

Lecturer in courses on bachelor level: 

Animalieproduktion - idisslare, Husdjursvetenskaplig grundkurs, Djurens nutrition, Fodervetenskap och husdjurens näringslära, Organens struktur och funktion (näringslära idisslare) and supervise bachelor students in animal science.

I teach in the following master courses: Animal nutrition - health, behaviour and welfare, Feed science and forage production, Prospects and challenges for sustainable food systems and supervise master students in animal science. 

On-going projects:

In a PhD project that I am supervising, we investigate effects on methane emissions in dairy cows when they are given a feed supplement of red algae. Another doctoral project deals with how production and the environment are affected if dairy cows are fed different feeds that differ in climate impact from feed production.

Other projects where I participate are shown below.

Finished projects (some of them):

• Sustainable dairy production based on high-forage diets
• Feed efficient cows
• Sustainable protein flows in the food supply chain. Methods and applications to include quality and quantity in LCA
• Sustainable Swedish protein consumption
• Management for improved efficiency by increased cow longevity in dairy herds. 
• Total mixed ration – an economic feeding strategy for organic farmers with automatic milking?
• Does compact total mixed ration improve animal welfare in organic dairy herds?
• Milk on grass and by-products
• Prestationsindex - en metod att beräkna nu-värdet för varje enskild ko

Convenor for the Samrådsgruppen nötfoder, an annual industry meeting.

PhD-students 

Annica Hansson (Lic.) - "Indilact II" 2023-2025.

Melania Angellotti - "Algae as a Feed Additive for Reduced Methane Production in Dairy cows" 2021-2025.

Markos Managos - "Lifetime net GHG emissions and contribution to the food system from dairy cows fed best practice diets" 2021-2025

Johanna Karlsson - “High forage proportions to forage efficient dairy cows” 2016-2020.

Pok Samkol - "Groundnut foliage as feed for Cambodian cattle" 2014-2018.

Angellotti, M., Lindberg, M., Ramin, M., Krizsan, S.J. & Danielsson, R. 2025. Asparagopsis taxiformis supplementation to mitigate enteric methane emissions in dairy cows – effects on performance and metabolism. J. Dairy Sci. 108 (3), 2503 - 2516. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2024-25258 

Zira, S., Managos, M., Printz, S., Lindberg, M., Ahlgren, S., Sonesson, U. 2025. The dairy production system in the north of Sweden under possible future food scenarios. Agricultural Systems, 222, 104177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104177 

Johansson, M., Lindberg, M. and Lundh, Å. 2024. Does Keeping Cows for More Lactations Affect the Composition and Technological Properties of the Milk? Animals, 14(1):157. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14010157 

Clasen, J.B., Fikse, W.F., Ramin, M. and Lindberg, M. 2024. Effects of herd management decisions on dairy cow longevity, farm profitability, and emissions of enteric methane – a simulation study of milk and beef production. Animal, 18(2), 101051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2023.101051 

Karlsson, J.O., Robling, H., Cederberg, C., Spörndly, R., Lindberg, M., Martiin, C., Ardfors, E. and Tidåker, P. 2023. What can we learn from the past? Tracking sustainability indicators for the Swedish dairy sector over 30 years. Agricultural Systems, 212, 103779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2023.103779 

Johansson, T., Agenäs, S. and Lindberg, M. 2024. Time budgets of dairy cows in a cow-calf contact system with automatic milking.  JDS Communications, 5(1):52-56. https://doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2023-0401 

Addisu Adamie, B., Owusu-Sekyere, E., Lindberg, M., Agenäs, S., Nyman, A.-K. and Hansson, H. 2023. Dairy cow longevity and farm economic performance: Evidence from Swedish dairy farms. J. Dairy Sci. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2023-23436

Owusu-Sekyere, E., Nyman, A.-K., Lindberg, M., Addisu Adamie, B., Agenäs, S. and Hansson, H. 2023. Dairy cow longevity: Impact of animal health and farmers’ investment decisions. J. Dairy Sci. 106:3509-3524. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22808

Lindberg, M., Henriksson, M., Bååth Jacobsson, S. & Berglund Lundberg, M. 2021. By-products in Swedish dairy cow diets – evaluation of environmental impact and feed costs. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A - Animal Sci. 70:3-4, 132-144

Kronqvist, C., Petters, F., Robertsson, U. & Lindberg, M. 2021. Evaluation of production parameters, feed sorting behaviour and social interactions in dairy cows: Comparison of two total mixed rations with different particle size and water content. Livestock Sci. 251 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2021.104662 

Karlsson, J., Lindberg, M., Åkerlind, M. & Holtenius, K. 2020. Feed intake, milk yield and metabolic status of early-lactation Swedish Holstein and Swedish Red dairy cows of different parities fed grass silage and two levels of byproduct-based concentrate. Livestock Sci. 242 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2020.104304

Karlsson, J., Lindberg, M., Åkerlind, M. & Holtenius, K. 2020. Whole-lactation feed intake, milk yield, and energy balance of Holstein and Swedish Red dairy cows fed grass-clover silage and 2 levels of byproduct-based concentrate. J. Dairy Sci. 103:10, 8922–8937 https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2020-18204 

Lindberg, M., Lundström, J., Albihn, A., Gustafson, G., Bertilsson, J., Rydhmer, L., Åhman, B. & Magnusson., U. 2020. Djurens roll för livsmedelsförsörjningen i en föränderlig miljö - utmaningar och kunskapsbehov. Future Food Reports 12.

Lindberg, M. 2020. Milk fatty acid profiles from inclusion of different calcium salts in dairy cow diets. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A — Animal Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/09064702.2020.1781925

Karlsson, J. Ramin, M., Kass, M., Lindberg, M. & Holtenius, K. 2019. Effects of replacing wheat starch with glycerol on methane emissions, milk production, and feed efficiency in dairy cows fed grass silage-based diets. J. Dairy Sci. 102:7927–7935.

Samkol, P., Sath, K., Patel, M., Mom, S. & Holtenius, K. 2019. Effects of supplementing low-quality hay with groundnut foliage and cassava tops on feed intake, apparent digestibility and rumen fermentation in crossbred cattle. Anim Prod Sci. https://doi.org/10.1071/AN17680

Karlsson, J.O., Carlsson, G., Lindberg, M., Sjunnestrand, T. & Röös, E. 2018. Designing a future food vision for the Nordics through a participatory modeling approach. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 38: 59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-018-0528-0

Karlsson, J., Spörndly, R., Lindberg, M. & Holtenius, K. 2018. Replacing Human-Edible Feed Ingredients with By-Products Increases Net Food Production Efficiency in Dairy Cows. J Dairy Sci. 101:8 7146–7155.

Röös, E., Bajzelj, B., Smith, P., Patel, M., Little, D. & Garnett, T. 2017. Greedy or Needy? Land use and climate impacts of food in 2050 under different potential livestock futures. Global Env Change 47:1-12.

Samkol, P., Sath, K., Patel, M. & Holtenius, K. 2017. Effects of supplementing different levels of sun-dried groundnut foliage on intake, apparent digestibility and nitrogen metabolism in cattle offered a basal diet of a mixture of rice straw and para grass. Trop Anim Health Prod. DOI 10.1007/s11250-017-1352-2

Patel, M., Sonesson, U. & Hessle A. 2017. Upgrading plant amino acids through cattle to improve the nutritional value for humans: effects of different production systems. Animal 11:3 519-528 DOI: 10.1017/S1751731116001610

Röös, E., Bajzelj, B., Smith, P., Patel, M., Little, D. & Garnett, T. 2017. Protein futures for Western Europe: potential land use and climate impacts in 2050. Reg. Environ. Change 17:2 367-377 DOI: 10.1007/S10113-016-1013-4

Patel, M., Wredle, E., Spörndly, E. & Bertilsson, J. 2017. Whole lactation production responses in high-yielding dairy cows using high-quality grass/clover silage. J. Sci Food Agr 97:9,  2883-2890 DOI 10.1002/jsfa.8119

Röös, E., Patel, M. & Spångberg, J. 2016. Oat drink or cow's milk - environmental impacts considering the service of grazing, the opportunity cost of land and the demand for beef and protein. Agricultural Systems 142:23-32.

Röös, E., Patel, M., Spångberg, J. Carlsson, G & Rydhmer, L. 2016. Limiting livestock production to pasture and by-products in a search for sustainable diets. Food Policy 58:1-13.

Samkol, P., Sath, K., Patel, M., Windsor, P.A. & Holtenius, K. 2015. Survey of small-scale cattle production systems in different agro-ecological zones of Cambodia. Tropical Animal Health and Production: Volume 47:7, 1299-1306.

Patel, M., Wredle, E. & Bertilsson, J. 2013. Effect of dietary proportion of grass silage on milk fat with emphasis on odd- and branched-chain fatty acids in dairy cows. J Dairy Science 96: 390-397.

Patel, M., Wredle, E., Spörndly, E., Bertilsson, J. & Kumm, K.-I. 2013. Profitability of organic and conventional dairy production with different dietary proportions of high-quality grass silage. Organic Agriculture 3:1, 31-39.

Patel, M., Wredle, E., Börjesson, G., Danielsson, R., Iwaasa, A.D., Spörndly, E. & Bertilsson, J. 2011. Enteric methane emissions from dairy cows fed different proportions of highly digestible grass silage. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section A - Animal Science, 61:3, 128-136.
 

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7299-4276