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.
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.
In order to improve the housing conditions of stallions in individual boxes, we tested a so‐called “social box” allowing increased physical contact between neighbouring horses. This study aimed at investigating whether housing stallions in social boxes potentially changes their behaviour during carriage driving. We hypothesised that the stay in social boxes would decrease the number of unwanted social interactions when driven in pairs. Eight Franches‐Montagnes breeding stallions were observed when driven in pairs with a “neutral” stallion housed in a so‐called “conventional box,” strongly limiting physical contact. They were driven on a standardised route over the course of four days before, during, and after being housed in a social box. The behaviours of the pairs and the interventions of the groom and the driver during the test drives were assessed live and using video recordings. The results showed that the stallions performed more social interactions during the driving test before being housed in social boxes and that these interactions decreased over the four days. This suggests that being housed in social boxes decreased the social behaviour of stallions while driven in pairs. Another important factor in reducing unwanted social interactions of stallions during carriage driving appears to be the consistency of the driver and the groom in their demands to teach the stallions that social interactions are unwanted while being driven in pairs. Other effects, such as habituation to the test conditions and the pairing, could not be assessed here and represent a limitation of our study.
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.