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Foundation donates 13 million Danish kroner to dairy and cattle research

Agrifood research at Aarhus University has benefited from the donation of millions of kroner for new and ongoing research projects to generate knowledge for the benefit of dairies and cattle farming.

[Translate to English:] Forskere på Aarhus Universitet har modtaget godt 13 millioner kroner til forskning inden for mælk og kvæg.

The milk levy fund has just granted about 13 million Danish kroner to 11 research projects conducted at Aarhus University.

 

A number of the 11 projects are already in receipt of support from the milk levy fund, but now receive additional funds to continue the activities in the projects. These include a project to improve the quality of byproducts in animal feeds. Read more about the project here.

 

In addition to ongoing research projects, the milk levy fund supports two new projects that are being launched this year. The projects are “The importance of the metagenome for milk composition”, where the project leaders are postdoc Nina Aagaard Poulsen, Department of Food Science, and postdoc Jan Lassen, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. The project received 853,000 kroner from the fund.

 

In addition, senior scientist Peter Løvendahl from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics has received nearly 3 million kroner for the new project “Nordic feed use efficiency”.

 

The projects which the milk levy fund supports in 2013 are listed below:

 

  • Nordic feed use efficiency
  • Improving the quality of byproducts in animal feeds
  • Phenotypic and genotypic biomarkers
  • A nutritious diet for the high-yielding and efficient dairy cow
  • Nucleic acids – improved nitrogen use and biomarkers
  • The importance of the metagenome for milk composition
  • Reduction of free fatty acids in milk from automatic milking systems
  • The optimal cow
  • New milk condensing technology
  • Development of estimating methods of NDF in feedstuffs
  • Rate of passage of NDF

Facts
The objective of the milk levy fund is to strengthen the development of dairy and cattle farming and the competitiveness of the dairy industry.

The income in the fund primarily originates from a tax of 0.4 øre/kg levied on the milk supplied to the Danish dairies.