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Rate of adoption in the present study refers to the acceptance and application by a respondent, some or all the innovations recommended in the package of selected dairy innovations. Rate of diffusion is operationalized as the time taken by the dairy farmer to implement the innovation recommended, to the time form which the farmer is aware of the innovation. A total of 360 dairy farmers, who were first to adopt innovations suggested by the State Animal Husbandry Department from three districts of Andhra Pradesh i.e., Visakhapatnam, Krishna and Chittoor districts were selected purposively for the study. A total of nine dairy innovations were suggested for adoption to the dairy farmers in the study area. Based on adoption quotient computed, the farmers were categorized into low, medium and high adopters and item analysis on adoption of dairy innovations was carried out. Item analysis identified that, out of the nine practices recommended, only five practices i.e., package of practices for rearing heifers, pregnant and lactating animals; feeding of area specific mineral mixture, strategies for enhancement of milk yield and quality, marketing strategies to improve milk sales, use of ICT’s in adoption of innovations were adopted by majority of dairy farmers while remaining four practices i.e., cultivation and feeding of Azolla, hydroponic fodder, use of milking machine and formulation and feeding of complete feed blocks had shown almost low to nil adoption by sizeable section of the respondents. The reasons for adoption of the above mentioned five practices is due to dominant role played by them in influencing production levels, minimum input costs and high economic returns where as the remaining four practices involved high input costs, sound operational skills, low economic returns and non-applicability in all situations which might have been the reasons for their adoption to a meager extent.

We have applied PLSR on NIRS data of Sorghum to select significant wavelengths for Crude-Protein content. Calibration models proposed using single wavelength (1449nm) and a pair (1485nm and 1486nm) give the coefficient of determination (R2) as 0.7928 and 0.8334 respectively.

The present study was carried out to assess the effect of different farming systems on productive performance, body condition score and carcass characteristics of Deccani lambs. Thirty-six weaned lambs having 3 months of age were divided into three groups with twelve lambs in each group in under intensive (T1), semi-intensive (T2) and extensive (T3) farming systems. The comparative mean dry matter intake (kg/day) and (kg/100kg BW) was significantly (p less than 0.05) higher in T1 group when compared to other groups. T2 group had significantly (p less than 0.05) higher DM intake (kg/day) than T3 group. The mean values of Average daily gains in Deccani lambs were significantly (p less than 0.05) higher in T1 group compared to T2 and T3 groups. The feed efficiency was significantly (p less than 0.05) higher in T1 compared to T2, T3 groups. Statistically significant difference was found in BCS at six months of age (p less than 0.05) between T1 and T3 groups. BCS at 9, 12 months and overall BCS, there was a significant (p less than 0.05) difference between T1 and T3 groups. T1 group had higher pre-slaughter weight, hot carcass weight, meat %, fat% and meat: bone ratio thanT2 and T3. The dressing yields were comparable. The weights of other offals (heart, kidney, spleen, testicles, blood, head and lung and trachea) were comparable. The findings of this study indicated that the intensive and semi-intensive system of rearing could be useful for mutton production. In extensive system, which is predominant in India should change its facet by enriching the grazing land resources as well by the supplementation of required plane of nutrition during growth and special life stages viz., gestation, puberty, post lambing and finisher stages for achieving optimum productivity.

The result from revealed that T3 group have significantly (P

A 120 d growth study was conducted in Deccani sheep to evaluate the effect of feeding hydroponically grown barley fodder (HBF) on growth performance, nutrient utilization and carcass characteristics. Eighteen Deccani ram lambs of 3 months age (13.0±0.42 kg) were divided into three groups of six in each in a completely randomized design. Three iso-nitrogenous rations were formulated, in which the control ration (CON) was prepared by using roughage (chopped sorghum stover) and concentrate at 60:40 ratio; the other two experimental rations were formulated by replacing 50 (L-HBF) and 75 (H-HBF), per cent of CP of concentrate mixture with HBF at low and high levels, respectively. The replacement of concentrate mixture at 50% in L-HBF significantly (P

Karyological investigation pertaining to 30 crossbred pigs (both sexes) maintained at AICRP, Tirupati was undertaken in order to study the chromosomal profile of the crossbred pigs and their morphometric measurements. The cells had the usual diploid complement of 38 chromosomes (2n = 38) and a fundamental number of 64 as in the exotic pigs with XY complement in males and XX complement in females. The karyotype of crossbred pig was characterized by 5 pairs of submetacentric chromosomes (1-5), next two pairs were sub telocentric (6-7), subsequent 5 pairs were metacentric (8-12) and remaining six pairs were telocentric (13-18). A detailed idiogram was constructed from the results obtained. First chromosome was the longest pair and thirteenth pair was the second largest, while Y-chromosome was the smallest in the karyotype of the pig. The X chromosome was metacentric, but not readily distinguishable from the autosome pair number 9, while Y chromosome was metacentric.