Idisslarnutrition

Our goal is to contribute with successful research and education that creates long-term sustainable, profitable, and resilient milk and meat production from ruminants, primarily cattle. We work both nationally and globally to ensure the sustainable use of feed resources, with feeding practices that maintain good production without negatively affecting animal health and with low environmental impact. Consumer, industry, and societal demands such as increased animal welfare, reduced environmental impact, and product quality requirements are considered. Most of our studies are conducted at SLU’s research farms in Uppsala, Umeå, or Skara, where we have well-equipped infrastructure to automatically measure feed intake, milk yield, and methane emissions. We also have access to a laboratory at the Uppsala campus, where we analyze samples such as feed, manure, and milk.

Key research areas:

• Feed utilization and forage efficiency
• Use of feed ingredients with low climate impact, effects on production and methane emissions
• Reduced methane production in dairy cows with methane-inhibiting additives
• Rumen microbiology, primarily methane-producing microorganisms in the rumen
• Heifer recruitment, the future dairy cow, solutions for resilient nutrition
• Grazing for young animals and dairy cows, effects on growth, health, milk production, and the environment
• Mineral metabolism in dairy cows
• Systems with a high forage proportion and grazing under Swedish conditions