(a) Suggest the strategies which should be implemented by the dairy farmers to ensure round the year supply of green fodder. (15…

(a) Strategies for round-the-year green fodder supply An adult cow needs about 25–30 kg of green fodder a day, but supply collapses in two lean periods: October–November, between the kharif and rabi crops, and May–June, in summer. Farmers can close these gaps as follows.

• Perennial fodder as the base: grow hybrid Napier (Bajra-Napier hybrids such as CO-4, CO-5 and APBN-1), guinea grass or para grass on irrigated land. Cut every 45–60 days, they supply green fodder for 3–5 years, including summer.

Seasonal crops in sequence (fodder calendar):

• Kharif: maize, sorghum, bajra, cowpea and cluster bean;
• Rabi: berseem (4–6 cuts from December to April), oats and lucerne (a multi-cut legume that lasts 3–4 years);
• Summer (with irrigation): maize, cowpea, bajra and multi-cut sorghum-sudan grass.
• Crop sequences: intensive sequences such as maize + cowpea → berseem + mustard (or oats) → sorghum + cowpea give green fodder in every month. Staggered sowing at 10–15 day intervals avoids a glut followed by a gap.
• Cereal–legume mixtures and intercropping: for example maize + cowpea, oats + berseem or Napier + lucerne raise both yield and protein.
• Fodder trees and silvipasture: subabul (Leucaena), Sesbania, Gliricidia, khejri, neem and pipal on bunds and fences, and grass–tree systems on wasteland, supply green leaves in the dry season.
• Conservation of surplus: make silage from surplus maize, sorghum or Napier in the flush season, and hay from berseem, lucerne or oats, to feed in lean months. Community fodder banks and baled silage help small farmers.
• Better varieties and inputs: use improved seed from ICAR-IGFRI Jhansi and state universities, fertilise and irrigate fodder like a cash crop, and cut at the right stage (pre-flowering for cereals, early bloom for legumes).
• Supplements when green fodder is short: urea-treated straw and urea-molasses-mineral blocks, while hydroponic fodder is a costly, small-scale option.
• Institutional support: the Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed of the National Livestock Mission supports fodder seed production, silage making and fodder blocks, and MGNREGA (now succeeded by the VB-G RAM G Act, 2025) works on common land can develop pastures.

(b) Differentiate between the following

(i) Quantitative and qualitative traits

• Genes: quantitative traits are polygenic, each gene having a small additive effect; qualitative traits are controlled by one or a few genes with large effects.
• Variation: quantitative traits vary continuously and are measured (kg, days, %), forming a normal distribution; qualitative traits fall into distinct classes that are described or counted.
• Environment: quantitative traits are strongly affected by environment, and heritability is used to separate the two; qualitative traits are little affected.
• Examples: milk yield, growth rate, fat % and wool weight are quantitative; coat colour (black vs red in cattle), polled vs horned, and comb type in poultry are qualitative.
• Study and improvement: quantitative traits are studied with biometrical genetics and improved by selection on breeding values; qualitative traits follow Mendelian ratios and can be fixed by test mating or DNA tests.

(ii) Sex-limited and sex-influenced characters

• Expression: sex-limited characters are expressed in only one sex although both sexes carry the genes; sex-influenced characters are expressed in both sexes, but a gene is dominant in one sex and recessive in the other.
• Mechanism: both are usually due to autosomal genes (unlike sex-linked traits) whose expression is modified by sex hormones.
• Examples of sex-limited characters: milk yield and egg production in females, cryptorchidism in males, and hen feathering in cocks of the Sebright breed.
• Examples of sex-influenced characters: horns in sheep. In crosses such as Dorset Horn × Suffolk, the heterozygote is horned in rams but polled in ewes. Scurs in cattle, and beard in goats, behave the same way.
• Breeding implication: for sex-limited traits, males are selected on the performance of their female relatives (progeny testing of bulls for milk yield).

(iii) Production and reproductive traits

• Meaning: production traits measure the output of the animal, while reproductive traits measure its ability to breed and produce offspring regularly.
• Examples: production traits include milk yield, fat and SNF %, growth rate, carcass weight, egg number and wool yield; reproductive traits include age at first calving, service period, calving interval, conception rate, number of services per conception and litter size.
• Heritability: production traits have low to high heritability (milk yield about 0.25–0.3, fat % about 0.5), so selection works well; reproductive traits have very low heritability (usually below 0.1) and depend mostly on management and nutrition.
• Relationship: high-producing cows often have longer service periods, as the antagonistic genetic correlation between yield and fertility shows; hence modern selection indices include fertility.
• Economics: both are important, because a cow earns money only if she calves regularly (ideally every 12–13 months).

(iv) Anoestrus and repeat breeding

• Meaning: anoestrus is the absence of oestrus (no heat) in a non-pregnant animal; a repeat breeder cycles and shows heat normally at 18–24 day intervals but fails to conceive after three or more inseminations with fertile semen, with no detectable abnormality of the genital tract.
• Ovarian status: in anoestrus the ovaries may be inactive (true anoestrus), cycling with unobserved heat (silent heat), cystic, or held by a persistent corpus luteum; in repeat breeding the cycle and ovaries are apparently normal.
• Causes of anoestrus: poor nutrition and low body condition, the postpartum period (beyond about 60 days is abnormal), summer anoestrus in buffaloes, heat stress, mineral deficiencies (phosphorus, copper) and poor heat detection.
• Causes of repeat breeding: fertilisation failure (subclinical endometritis, wrong timing of AI, delayed ovulation, poor semen or poor AI technique) or early embryonic death (luteal insufficiency, heat stress, infection).
• Management: for anoestrus, rule out pregnancy, improve feeding and mineral supplementation, and use hormonal induction (progesterone devices, GnRH-PGF2α-based Ovsynch protocols). For repeat breeding, check AI timing (the AM-PM rule), treat endometritis, give GnRH at insemination or progesterone support after it, and use good-quality semen.

(c) Advantages and disadvantages of artificial insemination (AI) in animals AI is the deposition of collected and processed semen into the female reproductive tract by instruments. In India it was first used at Palace Dairy Farm, Mysore, in 1939, and today it is spread through the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and the Nationwide AI Programme.

Advantages

• Faster genetic improvement: one proven bull can breed thousands of cows a year, compared with about 50–60 by natural service, so its superior genes spread widely.
• Progeny testing: a young bull's semen can be used in many herds at once, so its breeding value is known quickly and accurately.
• Use of exotic or outstanding germplasm: frozen semen can be used across long distances and even after the bull's death; semen can also be imported instead of animals.
• Disease control: it avoids venereal diseases spread by natural service (brucellosis, campylobacteriosis, trichomoniasis), provided semen comes from tested bulls.
• Economy: farmers need not keep a bull, saving feed, labour and risk.
• Other benefits: it overcomes differences in size between male and female; it allows crossbreeding programmes, oestrus synchronisation with fixed-time AI, and sex-sorted semen (about 90% female calves); and it improves records of parentage.

Disadvantages

• Skill and infrastructure: AI needs trained technicians, liquid nitrogen, a cold chain and good heat detection; poor handling of straws or wrong timing lowers conception.
• Conception rates: conception at first AI in Indian field conditions is often only about 35–40%, and it is lower in buffaloes, heifers and in hot weather.
• Disease spread by semen: semen from an infected bull (for example with IBR, BVD or brucellosis) can spread disease widely, so bulls must be screened.
• Loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding: overuse of a few bulls narrows the genetic base; unrecorded use can cause inbreeding and spread harmful recessive genes (such as BLAD).
• Wrong breed or bull: use of unsuitable exotic semen in harsh environments, or mixing of straws, can harm local breeds.
• Limited use in some species: AI is less practical where frozen semen gives poor fertility (pigs, sheep with cervical AI) or where animals are hard to handle.
• Cost and access: services may not reach remote villages, and sex-sorted semen is expensive.