ABSTRACT
For hundreds of years there has been a tradition with tethered dairy cows in Sweden. The last
decades the old fashioned way to hold cows have been questioned and the number of dairy
cows in loose housing has been increasing. Last year (2004) 19 percent in total of all farms
with milk production in Sweden had their cows in loose housing. Because of EU-legislation
concerning all organic production no farms are allowed to build tie stalls any more and after
2010 all organic dairy cows are supposed to live in loose-housing systems.
The aim of the thesis was mainly to find out the number of farms with tethered organic dairy
cows and if they will continue after the year 2010. Furthermore the purpose was to study if
there are any regional differences, how countries similar to Sweden interpret the EU-decision
about tethered cows and differences in buildings between organic and conventional farms and
the reasons to them. To conclude two suggestions of loose housing for 30 organic dairy cows
were made and the building costs were estimated.
There are important differences between buildings made for conventional dairy cows and
organic ones. Some examples from organic rules are that calf and cow are allowed to go
together during the whole colostrums period and the area per animal in some cases is bigger.
That often makes organic buildings for dairy cows more expensive to build than conventional
ones.
In the end of 2004 60 percent of the organically kept dairy cows, which is equivalent to 40
percent of the farms in Sweden, were already in loose-housing systems depending on that
decision. There are big regional differences. The information that these results are based on
was collected from the controllers of KRAV and the farmers themselves. The legislation is
known amongst the affected milk producers, but the uncertainty if they will continue their
production or not is widely spread. 48 percent are estimated to continue, 10 percent to quit
and 42 percent are uncertain whether they will continue to produce organic milk or not after
the year 2010. The estimations were made out of the assessments of approximately half of the
KRAV controllers. After interviewing a number of farmers who have tied-up cows and soon
probably will have to build a loose-housing system I became aware of how they hope to
handle the changeover. The conclusion made was that they hope to be able to get a bankloan,
find second-hand equipment and use building materials of their own and do as much of
the work as possible themselves.
Different countries within EU have construed the legislation about dairy cow housing in
different ways and in Denmark for example all tethered cows have to be taken out daily. The
other Scandinavian countries are waiting for the EU-commission’s report on the
implementation of the provision about what size “small holdings” are. I have got the information
about the different interpretations by reading the legislation of the countries and from personal
contact with people working on these questions.
Depending on how the subsidy for new investments in the agriculture is designed and how the
agricultural politics in general is working it affects the amount of loose-housing systems and the
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size of the stocks in different parts of Sweden. I got the impression, during my field trip in
February 2005, that the situation is similar in Denmark and Norway.
Two suggestions, including drawings, for loose-housing systems for 30 cows have been made
and the building cost was estimated at approximately 3 to 3,4 million Swedish crowns.
This thesis is written at the request of the Swedish Dairy Association (Svensk Mjölk).
SAMMANFATTNING
Sedan många hundra år tillbaka har Sverige haft en tradition att ha uppbundna mjölkkor. De
senaste årtiondena har detta börjat ifrågasättas och allt fler mjölkkor går nu mera i lösdrift. Det
var 2004 totalt 19 procent av alla mjölkgårdar i Sverige som hade kor i lösdrift. I och med ett
EU-beslut om ekologisk produktion får inga gårdar längre bygga stall för uppbundna kor och
efter år 2010 ska alla ekologiska mjölkkor gå i lösdrift.
Syftet med examensarbetet var främst att ta reda på hur många besättningar med uppbundna
ekologiska kor som finns i Sverige och om de kommer att fortsätta efter år 2010. Dessutom
skulle undersökas om det fanns regionala skillnader, hur länder liknande Sverige tolkar EUbeslutet
om förbud att hålla djur bundna och skillnader på byggnader mellan ekologisk och
konventionell mjölkproduktion och orsakerna till dem. Utöver detta skulle två förslag på små
lösdriftsstallar tas fram och kostnaden skulle uppskattas.
Det finns betydande skillnader mellan byggnader för konventionella mjölkkor och ekologiska.
Bland annat ska enligt ekologiska regler kalv och ko få gå tillsammans under hela
råmjölksperioden och golvarealerna ska i vissa fall vara större per djur. Detta leder ofta till
högre byggkostnader än vid konventionell produktion.
EU-beslutet har lett till att i slutet av 2004 gick 60 procent av de ekologiska korna i lösdrift
vilket motsvarar 40 procent av gårdarna i Sverige. Det finns dock stora regionala skillnader.
Uppgifterna som ligger till grund för dessa resultat har fåtts från KRAV:s kontrollanter och
lantbrukarna själva. Beslutet är känt bland de berörda mjölkproducenterna, men osäkerheten
om den egna framtida produktionen är utbredd. 48 procent uppskattas fortsätta, 10 procent
slutar och 42 procent är osäkra på om de kommer att fortsätta producera ekologisk mjölk
efter år 2010. Siffrorna är sammanställda utifrån uppskattningar från ungefär hälften av
KRAV:s kontrollanter. Efter att ha intervjuat ett flertal lantbrukare kunde slutsatsen dras att de
som har uppbundet system och som planerar att fortsätta hoppas på att kunna lösa
övergången genom banklån, köpa begagnad utrustning och genom att använda eget
byggmaterial och arbetskraft.
Olika länder inom EU har tolkat beslutet om förbud att hålla djur bundna olika och i bland
annat Danmark måste alla uppbundna kor rastas minst en gång dagligen. De övriga
skandinaviska länderna har istället skjutit rastningstvånget för uppbundna kor framför sig några
år. Detta har gjort...
