<div style="text-align: justify;">This experiment was conducted to explore the influence of cutting frequency (1, 2and 3 times), cutting time (June, July and August) and subtle height (3cm, 5cm, 7cm) on the dry matter (DM) and quality (crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF) and ash content) of Caoyuan No.3 (Medicago sativa cv.Caoyuan No.3) in Duolun county, Inner Mongolia. The result shows a) The cutting in June and July had negative effect on dry matter. b) Cutting significantly improved the crude protein and ash content and reduced the CF content, but the difference was not significant among the experiment groups. c) When three factors interacted, the highest crude protein and ash content and lowest CF content was found in different groups (Group 4-3 and 2-1 respectively). d) The negative influence of cutting on dry matter might due to the insufficient rainfall after cutting, while quality varation was more influenced by phenology.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">The Effect of Cutting Frequency, Period and Intensity on the Yield and Quality of Caoyuan No. 3</div>

<p>A field experiment was conducted at Indian Agricultural Research Institute Regional Station, Karnal, Haryana to evaluate the effect of spacing and frequencies of leaf cutting on seed yield in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum- graecum L.) cv. Pusa Early Bunching. The treatments comprised of three row spacing (30, 45 and 60 cm) in main plot and three leaf cuttings (none, one and two cuttings) in sub plots. Row spacing at 45 cm recorded significantly higher leaf yield ha-1 (89.05q) than 30 cm (70.53q) and 60 cm (75.95q) spacing, respectively. Spacing at 60 cm resulted in significantly higher test weight than the lower spacings. &nbsp;No leaf cutting treatment recorded higher test weight than one and two leaf cutting levels. The treatment comprising row spacing at 45 cm with one leaf cutting at 60 DAS resulted in a seed yield of 9.10 q ha-1 and leaf yield of 48.96 q ha-1. This treatment also recorded highest net returns ha-1 (Rs. 34065/-) and B:C ratio (1.41).&nbsp;</p>


<p>Influence of spacing and number of leaf cuttings on seed yield in fenugreek</p>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> India has been bestowed with wide range of climate and physio-geographical conditions making it suitable for growing various kinds of horticultural crops. Out of which the awareness on usage of cut flowers for various occasions has raised the demand for cut flowers in the market, especially Tamil Nadu. The overall objective of the study is to estimate the demand and supply of cut flowers in Tamil Nadu.<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods:</strong> Hosur block in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu was purposively selected as it is the leader in area and production of rose flowers. A two-stage random sampling method was adopted to select the sample farms with a total sample size of 120. Simple percentage analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis were used to discuss the results.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<strong>Result: </strong>The important period of demand for cut flowers in Hosur block are events like Navratri, Christmas, New Year, Valentine Day, Therthiruvizha, Ramjan and Bakrith. There were 164 days in a year which would be auspicious. On an average 450 bunches of rose, 320 bunches of gerberas and 150 bunches of carnations are used in an event in addition to some other flowers. The technical efficiency measures for Roses indicated that most farmers belonged to the least efficient category (&lt;90 per cent) with a proportion of 62.50 per cent to total.</div>


<p>Demand and Supply of Cut Flowers Production in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu - An Approach by Data Envelopment Analysis</p>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> Dairy cows during late pregnancy, parturition or early lactation may be subjected to oxidative stress or the production of reactive oxygen metabolites. An imbalance between increased production of ROS and reduced availability of antioxidant defenses near the time of parturition increases oxidative stress and may contribute to peri-parturient disorders in dairy cows therefore in present investigation, of biomarkers of oxidative stress during peri-parturient period in Gir cows were studied.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods: </strong>Total 42 peri-parturient Gir cows were included in the present study. Ten apparently healthy Gir cows were also selected (which were outside the peri-parturient period) to have base line data on levels of biomarkers of oxidative stress for the comparison and analysis. The study was conducted in southern part of Rajasthan.<br />
<br />
<strong>Result: </strong>The mean values of malondialdehyde (n mol/g Hb), super oxidase dismutase (U/mg Hb), reduced glutathione (mM) and catalase (&micro;mol of H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> consumed /min/mg Hb) during pre-partum period and post-partum period in Gir cows was 227.34&plusmn;9.48 and 255.85&plusmn;11.15; 72.97&plusmn;4.96 and 56.13&plusmn;4.30; 2.72&plusmn;0.15 and 2.27&plusmn;0.15 and 139.85&plusmn;3.81 and 121.57&plusmn;4.65, respectively. Determination of levels of biomarkers of oxidative stress revealed that level of malondialdehyde (MDA) was significantly (P&lt;0.05) increased during peri-parturient period in Gir cows whereas, levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and reduced Glutathione (GSH) were significantly (P&lt;0.05) decreased. The level of catalase was also significantly (P&lt;0.01) decreased during peri-parturient period in Gir cows.&nbsp;</div>


<p>​Assessment of the Levels of Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress during Peri-parturient Period in Gir Cows</p>


<p>Edible films and coatings based on natural ingredients attract much interest today as an efficient, safe and ecologic approach for food products&rsquo; quality and shelf-life enhancement. Edible films and coatings protect food from mechanical and microbial damage, reduce moisture and volatiles escape, inhibit biochemical deterioration processes and improve food appearance, as well as enhance the products&rsquo; nutritional value. Advanced edible films and coatings can also serve as a matrix for the delivery of active agents such as natural antimicrobials, nutraceuticals, antibrowning agents and natural flavor and aroma compounds. For this purpose nano technology-based approaches can be exploited. The vegetables are more amenable crops for fresh-cut and minimally processed market that renders ready-to-cook produce that saves the time of today&rsquo;s engaged life. The cut surface of the cut vegetables is prone to loss of weight, moisture and nutrients though packed. This review deals with the application of the edible coating to the fresh-cut and minimally-processed vegetables to serve purpose increasing shelf-life by reducing the post-harvest losses. Various methods and materials employed in the edible coating of vegetables are also discussed in this review.</p>


<p>Application of&nbsp;Edible Coating to Fresh-cut and Minimally-processed Vegetables: A Review</p>


<div style="text-align: justify;">India has a rich diversity of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge on herbal medicine to treat the animals has both curative and preventive roles. Immunity of the animals affects the is production potential. Strengthening of non-specific immunity of the parturient animals can be used as an alternative approach to overcome the incidence of diseases in the peri and postpartum period where in these animals are more prone. One of the promising technologies is the use of immunomodulators to boost the immunity of animals during the transition period. Immunomodulators can be of natural or synthetic origin, which helps in boosting up the immunity for overcoming stress-related ailments, inhibition of reactive oxygen species generation and scavenging of free radicals to ensure the general wellbeing of animals. In the recent years, several different approaches have been examined to investigate the effect of various herb extracts and minerals as immunopotentiator separately. In literature many plants have been listed having immunomodulatory effect and some of them have been proved to have active principles with immunomodulatory, antioxidant, analgesic, antipyretic and antimicrobial properties. The present compilation deals with some of such medicinal plants like Anethum graveolens (Sowa), Elettaria cardamomum (Bari elaichi/Cardamom), Foeniculum vulgare (Saunf), Trachyspermum ammi (Ajwain), Zingiber officinale (Sundh) and Trigonella foenun- graceum etc.</div>

Potentiating immunity of dairy animals during transition period through&nbsp;herbs - A review

<div><strong>Background: </strong>Weed populations reduce crop yields by influencing the pattern of crop growth and development throughout the season and by directly competing with the crop for limiting precious resources, like light, water or nutrients. A number of the factors that influence magnitude of crop yield losses from weed interference include the timing of weed emergence relative to the crop, weed density, pattern of weed growth and development. Weed management is one among the foremost critical factors influencing crop yield. By providing a window of weed-free growth early within the season, the size advantage that crop seedlings have over weeds can be utilized to reduce the intensity of direct competition for resources at the stages of crop development when yield is being determined. Weeds are identified as a significance drawback since they create biotic stress in realizing the genetic yield potential of this valuable crop.<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods:</strong> A field experiment was carried out during the rabi season of 2010-11 to 2014-15 at ICAR- National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Ajmer, Rajasthan to estimate the yield losses because of weed infestation and to work out the critical period for weed control (CPWC) in fenugreek (<em>Trigonella foenum-graecum</em> L.). There were 14 treatments comprising of initial weedy periods of 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 days after sowing (DAS) and weed free period upto 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 DAS along with weedy till harvest (un-weeded check) and weed free till harvest (weed free check). The treatments were replicated three times in a randomized block design.<br />
<br />
<strong>Result:</strong> Maximum pod length (cm), number of pods/plant, number of seed/pod, test weight (g), seed yield (kg/ha), straw yield (kg/ha) and harvesting index (%) to the tune of 9.47, 41.2, 16.67, 12.60, 2297, 4954 and 31.73 were recorded at weed free throughout growth period. Weed infestation up to 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 DAS and weedy throughout growth period reduced the seed yield significantly to the magnitude of 567.3, 801.7, 913.3, 1253.3, 1393.7 and 1736.3 kg/ha. Yield losses in fenugreek increase from 2.95 kg/ha/day at 15 days weed infestation to 12.31 kg/ha/day at 135 days weed infestation. Maximum gross return (<strong>`</strong>104248/ha), net return (`67018/ha) were obtained at weed free throughout growth period with the B:C ratio 2.80 among the weed free treatments. The employment of response curves with weed free or weed competition period showed that seed yield of fenugreek&nbsp;were&nbsp;the highest with the field&nbsp;free&nbsp;from weeds throughout the growth period and the critical period of weed/fenugreek competition was 32 days after sowing and lies between 30-45 days after sowing. In regression approach for fenugreek seed yield and weed free or weed competition period the quadratic function was fitted to estimate the expected yields which had the high significant with the data recorded and have the highest values of R<sup>2</sup>. If we predict the seed yield losses based on the quadratic model for weed free period model, it declined from 42.04 at 0 DAS to 0.0% at 135 days. Similarly, weed infestation period model predicted the seed yield losses increased from 0.00 at 0 days weed infestation to 73.42% at 135 days. Critical period for weed competition in fenugreek was found to be 32 days after sowing. The CPWC is helpful for making decisions on the necessity for and timing of weed control.</div>


<div>Yield Losses Due to Weeds, Critical Period for Weed-crop Competition in Fenugreek (<em>Trigonella foenum-graecum </em>L.)&nbsp;</div>


<div><strong>Background:</strong> Many genetical, physiological, environmental and organizational constraints associated with the low productivity of forage crops, but the most important among them is lack of quality seeds of improved cultivars to farmers. Scarcity of green fodder and low seed setting forces the farmers not to prefer for seed production. Weather extremities like unbalanced or untimely rains or high speed winds also affected seed setting. All these extremities lead to scarcity of berseem seed in Punjab and farmer are forced to paying high prices at the time of sowing. Maintaining the proper sowing time and time of last cut for fodder and for leaving the crop for seed production may help in keeping the balance between vegetative and reproductive phases for high seed yield to tackle these problems. Therefore, optimum sowing time and last cut is a very deciding factor to achieve maximum green fodder and seed yield. The current experiment aimed to study the effect of different sowing dates and timings of last cut on yield attributes and seed yield of berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.).<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods: </strong>In this experiment, crop was sown on five different dates with the broadcast method and also three dates of last cut of crop left for seed production. These treatments were replicated thrice. All other cultural practices were also maintained for optimum berseem productivity. The first cutting of fodder was taken after 55 days from sowing and thereafter 30 days interval. After the time of last cut, crop was left for seed production. At maturity, data on yield attributes were recorded.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<strong>Results:</strong> Our investigations revealed that late sown berseem increased the yield attributes and seed yield but decreased the green fodder yield. Therefore to get maximum seed production, it is suggested that late sown 20th October has the optimum date of sowing and optimum time for leave the crop is 25th March for seed production.</div>


<div>Effect of Different Sowing Dates and Timings of Last Cut on Yield Attributes and Seed Yield of Berseem (<em>Trifolium alexandrinum</em> L.)</div>


<div style="text-align: justify;">The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of the duration of the dry period (DP) on milk yield, milk composition, and reproductive performance of Murrah buffaloes in the subsequent lactation. High yielding Murrah buffaloes (n=48) were assigned to either shortened (30 to 45 d (n=16); and 45 to 60 d (n=16)) or traditional (&gt;60 days (n=16)) dry period lengths. The buffaloes were fed individually according to the production status. The buffaloes in &gt;60, 45 and 30 d dry period groups had similar (P&gt;0.05) milk yield, 6% Fat corrected milk (FCM), milk fat, and total solids; however, the former groups had an increased (P&lt;0.05) 6% FCM yield change, and SNF percentage of milk. The mean service period (days) was least (P&lt;0.05) with the higher number of services required for conception in buffaloes allocated to traditional dry period length compared to those assigned to shortened dry periods. Further, 6% FCM had a negative correlation with Serum Glucose (SG) values at 30 d postpartum, followed by a significant positive (P&lt;0.01) correlation at 60 or 90 d postpartum. It is concluded that extended DP of more than 60 days is not advantageous and would be a costly affair for the farmers in both productive and reproductive backdrop. &nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align:justify">Shortened dry period in dairy Buffaloes: Influence on milk yield, milk components&nbsp;and reproductive performance</div>

<div><strong>Background:</strong> Coconut (<em>Cocos nucifera</em> L.) palm is an important cash crop in India and third-largest producer of coconut in the world. In general, the skilled workers climb to harvest the coconuts from the tree without any safety device. The coconut trees are very tall and injuries associated with coconut tree climbing, particularly falling from coconut trees is common in coconut plantations. In order to rectify the problem, an appropriate cutting system needs to be developed. Hence the characterizing physical and mechanical properties <em>viz.,</em> peduncle thickness, width, shape, size, moisture content, density and also the cutting blade characteristics, were studied.<br />
<br />
<strong>Methods:</strong> The observed characteristics were used for the effective design of the cutting module. The cutting blades were selected for the investigation <em>viz,</em> circular saw blade and saw tooth blade. The parameters selected for the investigation are cutting speed (S) at three levels (500, 700 and 900 rpm), the inclination angle of the blade (Ɵ) five levels (30, 45, 60, 75 and 90&deg;), type of the blades (B) (regular tooth and ripped tooth pitch) and thickness of peduncle (T) three levels (30, 40 and 50 mm). Similarly for chain saw, the velocity of cutting speed (S) at three levels (500, 700 and 900 rpm), the inclination angle of blade (Ɵ) at three levels (45, 60 and 90&deg;) and thickness of peduncle (T) three levels (30, 40 and 50 mm) were selected for the experiments.<br />
<br />
<strong>Result: </strong>The optimization of the selected levels of variables was done to achieve best performance to select the cutting speed, cutting angle and type of blade. The results showed that circular saw blades with irregular tooth pitch have higher cutting efficiency than circular saw blades with regular tooth pitch. It was found that cutting time increases linearly with decreasing cutting speed. It was observed that chainsaw gives better cut quality with minimum cutting time than saw blades.</div>


The Effect of Cutting Frequency, Period and Intensity on the Yield and Quality of Caoyuan No. 3

Influence of spacing and number of leaf cuttings on seed yield in fenugreek

Demand and Supply of Cut Flowers Production in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu - An Approach by Data Envelopment Analysis

Assessment of the Levels of Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress during Peri-parturient Period in Gir Cows

Application of Edible Coating to Fresh-cut and Minimally-processed Vegetables: A Review

Potentiating immunity of dairy animals during transition period through herbs - A review

Yield Losses Due to Weeds, Critical Period for Weed-crop Competition in Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.)

Effect of Different Sowing Dates and Timings of Last Cut on Yield Attributes and Seed Yield of Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.)

Shortened dry period in dairy Buffaloes: Influence on milk yield, milk components and reproductive performance

Selection of a Cutting Mechanism and Optimization of Parameters for Coconut Harvesting Drone