eChapters

Faulty estrus detection is the most important problem in reproductive management.  There are two requirements for good estrus detection: a skilled observer must spend sufficient time to make observations and cows must show overt signs of estrus during the period of observation.  There are various ways to detect the estrus signs in cows and buffaloes as detailed below.

1.    Palpation of reproductive organs:  Routine rectal examination of all cows between 30-40 days after calving and individual cow that has not been inseminated within two months after calving should be encouraged.   This is to confirm that the reproductive tract is normal and to predict when the next estrus will occur or to identify cows for prostaglandin treatment when estrous cycles are occurring, but estrus has not been detected. 

2.     Teaser bulls:  Teaser bulls are useful in identifying estrus in large number of animals especially buffalo cows.   Teaser bulls can be prepared by vasectomy or by applying apron to a bull. 

3.     Heat detector animals:  Sexually active animals like bulls, cystic cows, hormone treated steer, cows and heifers can be used to identify estrus cows.    They may be fitted with halters containing ink- filled reservoirs and ball paint pen type devices (chin ball markers) that will mark animals that mounted or they can be used without these devices to increase the sexually activity and make visual detection programs more effective.

Synchronization of estrus is making a group of cows to come into estrus at the same time.  Effective estrus detection requires much time, labour, skill and expense and it is a major limiting factor in artificial insemination programme in cattle.  It was the principal stimulus that led to research in the development of progestational and prostaglandin compounds. 

Advantages

1.     Improve the efficiency of heat detection

2.     Management tool, better planning of breeding activities and wider use of artificial insemination 

3.     Solve problem of unobserved estrus

4.     Maintain short calving interval

5.     Overall improvement in herd productivity and reproductive efficiency

6.     Controlled lactation

7.     Management of replacement heifers

8.     Useful in embryo transfer programmes

9.     Reduce labour

10.     Possibly reduce involuntary culling for reproductive reasons

Conservation agriculture (CA) has benefits to farmers in overcoming labor shortages associated with other tillage practices. With the introduction mechanized CA practices, farmers are able to finalize planting earlier, and can even free the equipment for service hire to neighbors. These CA equipment can reduce the delays in planting and also benefit neighbors who can hire this equipment and be able to plant within the first planting window, commonly associated with better yield gains. Smallholder farmers can also form groups to mobilize resources for equipment purchase to overcome the equipment cost problem. Local production of CA equipment for the smallholder agricultural sector has been almost non-existent prior to 2005.

There is no rapid direct test to determine fertility of semen sample. During freezing and thawing of semen 20-80% of the spermatozoa become immotile or die. In addition to this, there may be damage to spermatozoa by disintegration of sperm cell membrane and acrosome leading to loss of intracellular enzymes.   The only reliable method to evaluate the semen is to inseminate a cow and get a calf at the end of gestation period.  Now-a-days new methods have been developed for in-vitro assessment of fertility of spermatozoa.  Some of these methods are exhaustive, time consuming, need for a full fledged analysis and difficult under field conditions.

Abstract

Jute is known as golden fibre of Bengal and the most important bast fibre of the world. Jute is a natural fibre crop and is second in the world after cotton in terms of global production, consumption and availability. It is a completely biodegradable, recyclable and eco-friendly lingo-cellulose fibre. The genus Corchorus belongs to the family Tiliaceae, which is composed of approximately 100 species. Two species (Corchorus capsularis L. and Corchorus olitorius L.) are widely cultivated for natural fibre. The field experiment was conducted in Pre-Kharif season of 2014 in Mondouri Research Farm, of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal. This farm is located very close to the tropic of cancer having approximately 89º E longitudes, 23 º N latitude and about 9.75 in altitude above the sea level. The experiment was in a Factorial Randomized Block Design replicated thrice with first factor variety i.e. V1-JRC 321, V2- JRC 698, V3- JRCJ 2 and V4-NDJC 2011 and Second factor fertilizers with three levels i.e. F1-60:13:25, F2-80:17.5: 33.3 and F3- 100:21.8:41.7. The plant height was not significant at the harvest stage. 

1. Introduction

Starch is present in the endosperm of cereal grains which provides the necessary energy during the process of germination and seedling establishment and rice starch is reported to supply 22% of global energy intake in humans (Sun et al, 2014). Starch is a semi-crystalline polymer composed mainly of linear and highly branched polymer viz. amylose and amylopectin respectively. Each polymer is composed of several D-glucose molecules and the difference lies only in the linkages between them. Amylose is a linear chain which is interlinked by α- (1→4) linkages and few branched chains (Kizil et al, 2002). Amylopectin subunits are linked by both-(1→4) and-(1→ 6), with about 95% of the glyosidic bonds being-(1→ 4) linkages and roughly 5% being-(1→ 6). The highly branched nature of amylopectin is attributed to the-(1→ 6) linkage.

The genetic code uses 64 codons to represent the 20 standard amino acids and the translation termination signal. Each codon is recognised by a subset of a cell’s transfer ribonucleotide acid molecules (tRNAs) and with the exception of a few codons that have been reassigned in some lineages (Osawa and Jukes 1989; Osawa et al., 1990) the genetic code is remarkably conserved, although it is still in a state of evolution (Osawa et al.,1992). The genetic code uses 64 codons to represent the 20 standard amino acids and the translation termination signal. Each codon is recognised by a subset of a cell’s transfer ribonucleotide acid molecules (tRNAs) and with the exception of a few codons that have been reassigned in some lineages (Osawa and Jukes 1989; Osawa et al., 1990) the genetic code is remarkably conserved, although it is still in a state of evolution (Osawa et al., 1992).

The annual milk production in Tamil Nadu during 2009-10 from crossbred cows, non-descript cows and buffaloes were 42.28,7.89 and 7.61 lakh tones, respectively. Tamil Nadu had 59.83 lakhs crossbred female cows in the year 2007 as against 41.47 lakhs in 2003 with an annual growth rate of 9.59 per cent (Anon, 2010). With the increasing crossbred cattle population and average annual production, better management of the high producers becomes a necessity. Production and health of animals depend mostly on environment in which they live. A satisfactory environment for any farm livestock is the one that ensures not only optimal productivity but also meets the health and behavioral needs of the animals. A satisfactory environment is the one that satisfies the following four criteria: thermal comfort, physical comfort, disease control and behavioral satisfaction. The most important environmental interventions done in recent days are those that have been done in housing and other attempts to ameliorate the thermal environment. The effort of the body to maintain a stable internal environment to challenges from widely variable environments was first described by Claude Bernard (1878) and later referred to as homeostasis (Cannon, 1932). An environment in which stressors are minimized would likely be favorable for efficient production of products derived from domestic farm animals and for helping ensure the well-being of those species.

The table gives the approximate date of parturition, based on the date of breeding/mating in the year as a easy ready reference table.

• What is Meant by the Term Expert?
• Building Blocks of Expert Systems
• Designing Expert Systems in Problem Solving 
• Applications of Expert System
• An Expert System for Decision Problem
• Advantages of Expert System
• Cases of Expert Systems in Agriculture

1. Introduction

Sundarbans is claimed to be one of the wonders of the world for its natural resources of halophytic mangrove forest (some 34 species of true mangroves are present), biodiversity and ecosystem that form an extraordinary environment of the globe. Available brackish water environment of Sundarbans provides favourable substratum for algal communities (Naskar and Naskar, 2010). Enteromorpha intestinalis specifically is one of the algal species that is very abundant in the Sundarban region. The production of total seaweeds in India in 2000 was approximately 600,000 tons (wet weight). India produces 110-132 tons of dry agar annually utilizing about 880-1100 tons of dry agarophytes. The seaweed industry in India is mainly a cottage industry and is based only on the natural stock of agar-yielding red seaweeds, such as Gelidiella acerosa and Gracilaria edulis, and algin yielding brown seaweeds species such as Sargassum and Tubineria (Kaladharan and Kaliaperumal, 1999).

Investigational studies indicate that marine algae contain significant amount of nutraceuticals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber and antioxidants. Composition indicates that there is a tremendous scope for food and pharmaceutical applications. These may be used for food fortification but after rigorous studies. Formulation, standarizaiton and characterization should be performed before human use. Studies for exploitation of the bioactive components of the species may open up new avenues. Hence there seems to be a full scope for the realization of outcomes of the research. Further the utilization of the developed processes at higher scales may reap in financial benefits and may prove beneficial to the local people, who are supplier of the raw materials. The present study is an attempt to utilize this India variety of macro-algae for fortification of bakery food products.

Abstract

Brassica vegetables belonging to family Brassicaceae are one of the most important groups of cool season vegetables. Initially, these crops were confined to Europe and other temperate regions. But, after the Second World War, their cultivation has spread to tropics and sub tropics as well. All the members of this group have originated primarily from the common ancestor wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. oleracea) and are fully cross-compatible with each other. In general, these are highly cross pollinated crops and have shown preponderance of non-additive gene action for most of the economic traits thereby suggesting the relevance of heterosis breeding. In the absence of appropriate genetic mechanism for the production of hybrid seed with ease at relatively lower cost, heterosis in a crop is of no practical value. Fortunately, the presence of natural genetic phenomenon of sporophytic self incompatibility and male sterility (particularly CMS) in brassica vegetables has proved instrumental in commercialization of hybrid seed production.

Soil microorganisms are believed to play a major regulatory role in organic carbon dynamics, as key architects in nutrient transformation, and physical engineering of soil structure. The microbial populations of the soil alone encompass an enormous diversity of bacteria, algae, fungi, protozoa, and actinomycetes. Microbial diversity is being regulated by substrate and water availability, temperature, climatic regime and soil structure, which is considered as a transformation agent for soil organic matter and a labile pool of organic and inorganic nutrients. Extensive cultivation with repeated tillage operation often disrupts soil aggregates stability and destroys aggregates carbon and therefore, soil lose their physical properties and nutrient supplying capacity in a long-run.

Significant advancement in high throughput technologies (microarrays, automated sequencing and mass spectrometry), transcriptomics, the global study of transcription, together with genomics and proteomics, has undoubtedly contributed to a systems biology approach. These technologies have generated vast amount of sequence data from plants, animals and microorganisms. Fortunately, efficient computational tools (intelligent data networks, query, retrieval, analysis and visualization tools) have now optimized data mining, accelerating the process of discovery. The analysis of sequence variation is of major importance in genetic studies. In this context, molecular markers represent one of the most powerful tools for the analysis of variations in the genome and the association of heritable traits with underlying genetic variation. The development of high-throughput methods for the detection of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) has led to a revolution in their use as molecular markers. The availability of large sequence data sets permits mining for these molecular markers, which may then be used for numerous applications such as genetic mapping, association mapping, evolutionary and phylogenic studies.

1. Introduction

Citrus is a common term and genus (Citrus) of flowering plants in the Rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus fruits are non-climacteric and respiration slowly declines and the production and release of ethylene is gradual. India ranks sixth in the production of citrus fruits in the world. Citrus wastes typically are about 45- 50% of the weight of citrus original and the percentage of waste to 30-50% for vegetables and fruits in general. Natural colour plays a significant role in determining the degree of consumer acceptance of the product. In addition, carotenoids (vitamin A precursor) have high nutritional values which are important for human nutrition.Francis and Isaksen (1988) stated that carotenoids play a very important role for extraction as for protection of health against cancer, cardiovascular and eye disease and as anti-oxidant. Carotenoids play important roles in human nutrition through their provitamin A activity, but also by acting as antioxidants, for prevention of age-related macular degeneration or skin protection against UV radiation. The antioxidant capacity of carotenoids was proved for pure compounds as well as for plant extracts and food. The main objective of this research work is extraction, determination and identification of natural colorants from different citrus wastes (citrus peel). Also to study the effects of pH and oxygen on the stability of extracted pigments and determination of the specific carriers for the extracted pigments using solid matrices (starch, dextrin, arabic gum and flour).

Q.1.    Under what situation, the exact sample tests are required to be used and who discovered it first time ?

Preliminaries
    
Results on 22 Factorial Experiment
    
23 Experiment in r Replication
    
Confounding

Reproductive process involves many events that have to occur in a well balanced manner if satisfactory fertility rate is to be achieved. Any adverse  effect of  physiological, morphological  or environmental effect on the male  or  female may result  in failure  of  fertility  or reduced fertility  depending  on the severity of the cause. Apart from this, the role of person who stands between the cow and the bull play an important role. The efficiency of the person handling the semen and depositing in the reproductive tract of domestic animal will influence to a great extent on the conception rate in A.I. programme. It is observed that certain bovine population fails to conceive at a single service or series of services.   Some times there is loss of conceptus during gestation or produces a dead calf or weak calf that will die soon after birth.
 
Consequences of these factors affect cows and may have long calving interval, abortion or sterility, all of which tend to decrease the average daily production of milk.

• Introduction
• The Concept of a Farm Management System

1.    Entrance Gate
    
2.    Garden Walls
    
3.    Dry Wall
    
4.    Green Wall
    
5.    Fences
    
6.    Steps
    
7.    Garden Drives
    
8.    Garden Paths
    
9.    Hedge
    
10.    Edging
    
11.    Shrubbery
    
12.    Herbaceous Border
    
13.    Flower Beds
    
14.    Carpet Bedding
    
15.    Ground Covers
    
16.    Topiary
    
17.    Creating Shapes
    
18.    Lawn
    
19.    Arches
    
20.    Pergolas
    
21.    Bridges
    
22.    Gazebo
    
23.    Vertical Garden
    
24.    Roof Gardening
    
25.    Planning
    
26.    Plant Materials Suitable for Roof Gardening
    
27.    Terrace Gardening
    
28.    Planting
    
29.    Water Graden
    
30.    Plants for Water Garden
    
31.    Rock Garden
    
32.    Plants Suitable for a Rock Garden
    
33.    Healing Garden
    
34.    Clock Garden
    
35.    Greenhouse
    
36.    Garden Adornments
    
    
References