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Sustainability

Bodenverdichtung

How does compacted soil recover?

It takes mere seconds to compact a soil, but years or even decades for it to recover. Biological activities by plant roots and soil organisms (earthworms) as well as physical effects like drying out and rewetting phases, and freezing-thawing cycles are vital for natural regeneration. Exactly how recovery happens is being investigated in a long-term field trial. For this, an observational infrastructure with hundreds of soil probes – the Soil Structure Observatory (SSO) – was set up in 2014 together with ETH Zurich. After the initial compaction event, a fallow, a permanent grassland and a crop rotation with and without tillage were set up. This allows to analyse e.g. the influence of plants and tillage on recovery.

Bodenfruchtbarkeit und Bodenschutz
SoilStructureObservatory
Regeneration verdichteter Böden

Publikation Arbeitshaltung Melken

Ergonomics in the milking parlour

Milkers frequently suffer from musculoskeletal disorders, especially in the area of the shoulders and arms.  Agroscope therefore investigated whether appropriate working heights can reduce workload in the milking parlour. For this, the angle of flexion of various joints during milking was recorded in one experiment, whilst a second experiment recorded muscle contractions at three different heights. The study showed that although a lower working height in the milking parlour has no effect on forearms or upper arms, it significantly reduces strain on the shoulders. 

Publikationen Marianne Cockburn

Huber R., Gazzarin C., Cheseaux J., Cockburn M.
Weitere Pensionsbetriebe gesucht.
Schweizer Bauer, 22. Juni, 2024, 34.

Huber R., Gazzarin C., Cheseaux J., Cockburn M.
La pension équine, une opportunité de diversification jugée interessante.
Journal Agri, 9 août, 2024, 14.

Cardoso Moreira Waldburger T., Anken T., Walter A., Nasser R., Monney P., Cockburn M.
Growing cocoa in semi-arid climate and the rhythmicity of stem growth and leaf flushing determined by dendrometers.
Heliyon, 10, 2024.

Rey S., Nasser R., Cockburn M.
Effect of sampling rate and data source on rhythmicity computation.
In: 13th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research. 15 - 17 May, Hrsg. Noldus Information Technology, Aberdeen (GB). 2024, 482-483.

Rey S., Nasser R., Cockburn M.
Rhythmicity as a welfare indicator – looking into the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in group housed horses.
In: 13th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research. 15 - 17 May, Hrsg. Noldus Information Technology, Aberdeen (GB). 2024, 332-336.

Kienapfel-Henseleit K. I., Piccolo L. M., Cockburn M., Gmel A., Ruess D., Bachmann I.
Comparison of head–neck positions and conflict behaviour in ridden elite dressage horses between warm-up and competition.
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 272, 2024, 1-11.

Cockburn M.
Sustainability of equine housing systems – a Swiss perspective.
In: Rich waters - From the paddock to the sea – horses and water management. 24. April, Västeros (SE). 2024.

Huber R., Cockburn M., Gazzarin C.
Wie wirtschaftlich ist die Pensionspferdehaltung?: Ergebnisse aus einer ETH Masterarbeit von Rafael Huber.
In: Strickhof Pensionspferdetag. 20. März, Wülflingen. 2024, 1-23.

Heikkilä U., Ueda K., Gobbo Oliveira Erünlü N., Baumgartner M., Cockburn M., Bachmann I., Roig-Pons M., Rieder S.
Social network analysis of horses inferred from sensor ear tag and GPS-logger data.
In: EAAP 74 Annual Meeting. 26 Augus, Lyon. 2023, 652.

Heikkila U., Ueda K., Baumgartner M., Cockburn M., Bachmann I., Roig-Pons M., Rieder S.
Social network analysis of horses inferred from sensor ear tag and GPS-logger data.
In: EAAP 74 Annual Meeting. 26 August, Lyon. 2023, 1.

Hiltebrand C., Roig-Pons M., Baumgartner M., Cockburn M., Doetterl S., Bachmann I., Keller T., Briefer S., Würbel H., Gmel A., Pauler C., Schneider M. K., Nasser R.
Laufende Versuche auf Agroscope-Forschungsterrain St.Aubin.
In: Jeudi au Haras. 20. Juli, Avenches. 2023, 1.
weitere Sprachen: französisch

Ellerbrock C. N., Zeitler-Feicht M., Cockburn M., Erhard M.H., Baumgartner M.
Urinating in transponder-controlled feeding stations: Analysis of an undesirable behaviour in horses.
Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 266, 2023, 1-10.

Gasser L., Perez F. C. , Cockburn M.
Can meteorological data improve the short-term prediction of individual milk yield in dairy cows?
Journal of Dairy Science, 106, (8), 2023, 5501-5516.

Ellerbrock C., Zeitler-Feicht M. H., Cockburn M., Erhard M. H., Baumgartner M.
Analyse des unerwünschten Verhaltens “Urinabsatz in Abrufautomaten“ von Pferden.
In: 17. Tagung Pferdeforschung Schweiz. 20. April, Hrsg. Agroscope, Avenches. 2023, 36-37.

Reissig L., Cockburn M.
Neuer Rohstoff aus der Landwirtschaft.
Schweizer Bauer, 20. Mai, 2023, 4.

Gómez Y., Cockburn M., Hankele A. K., Gygax L., Zähner M., Hillmann E. , Savary P.
Effects of small milking stalls on stress responses in dairy cows during milking in group milking parlors.
Journal of Dairy Science, 105, (1), 2022, 609-622.

Gandorfer M., Hoffmann C., El Benni N., Cockburn M., Anken T., Floto H.
Informatik in der Land-, Forst- und Ernährungswirtschaft: Fokus: Künstliche Intelligenz in der Agrar- und Ernährungswirtschaft.
In: 42. GIL Jahrestagung. P-317, Hrsg. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), Agroscope, Tänikon, Ettenhausen, Schweiz. 2022.

Cardoso Moreira Waldburger T., Cockburn M., Monney P., Anken T.
Dendrometers reflect physiological growth, leaf flushing cycles and water stress levels of cocoa trees.
In: 41. GIL-Jahrestagung, Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie in kritischen Zeiten. 8.-9. März, Hrsg. A. Meyer-Aurich, M. Gandorfer, C. Hoffmann, C. Weltzien, S. Bellingrath-Kimura, H. Floto, Potsdam. 2021, 337-342.

Cockburn M.
Can algorithms help us manage dairy cows?
In: 41. GIL-Jahrestagung. 8. - 9. März, Potsdam (D). 2021, 67-72.

Cardoso Moreira Waldburger T., Cockburn M., Monney P., Anken T.
Dendrometers reflect physiological growth, leaf flushing cycles and water stress levels of cocoa trees.
In: 41. GIL-Jahrestagung, Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie in kritischen Zeiten. 08.03., Bonn. 2021, 337-342.

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Rinder Fuetterung

Optimised feed reduces environmental impacts

On behalf of Micarna SA, Agroscope analysed the environmental impacts of beef, pork and poultry production. With beef production, feed intensity was crucial. In the case of pork and poultry production, the quantity of feed used per kg of meat had the greatest influence on environmental impacts. The use of European soya with its shorter transport distances had a positive effect. 

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