Socio-economic Characteristics of Small Scale Buffalo Farms in Tanamalwila Area in Moneragala District of Sri Lanka

A household survey was conducted, interviewing 100 buffalo farmers in fourteen Grama Niladhari divisions (GN) in Thanamalwila area to identify the present status of buffalo farming to improve the socio-economic status as well as to improve the livelihoods. Results reveal that direct involvement of males (100%) was the prominent feature in this farming system while involvement of females was negligible. Among respondents, 80% farmers were between 21-50 ages while 30% were between 21-30 ages. Three types of breeds (Indigenous, Murrah and Nili-Ravi) and there crosses were existed. Major system of management was extensive (90.71%) followed by semi-intensive (7.41%) and intensive (1.85%). Herd size ranged between 12-251 heads. Mostly natural breeding was practiced. Calving interval ranged from 12-30 months. Age at firstcalving was more than 42 months was 82% of buffalo herds. It was found that 24.22% ±4.8 of total herd consisted of male with an atypical herd composition with 4.481±4.192 excess bulls than the requirement. Income was mainly generated through selling of raw milk and lives buffaloes. It can be concluded that there is a chance to convert buffalo farming as economic venture in Thanamalwila area. Active participation of females, and younger generation should be ensured. As well as provision of technical knowledge is vital to make the industry is a profitable venture

Effect of Supplementation of Different Concentrate Rations on Weight Gain, Milk Yield, and Composition of Cross Bred Buffalo Cows

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of three concentrate supplements with different metabolizable energy (ME) levels on weight gain, milk yield and composition in milking buffalos. Sixteen Murrah × non-descriptive crossed bred milking cows (720±50kg) were used. Animals in treatment 1 (T1) were fed only with forages while animals in other three treatments were given 90% forages +10 % concentrate. The three treatments were Commercial concentrate feed (T2) (ME (Kcal/kg): 2500 ±0.75), farm made concentrate feed (T3) (ME (Kcal/kg): 2733.25±2.32) and experimental feed (T4) (ME (Kcal/kg): 2933.03±2.15). Experimental design was a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four treatments and four replicates. Forage intake was reduced, when feeding concentrate rations with high energy and CP, recording highest reduction with T4 followed by T3 and T2. Significant enhancement (P0.05) and also highest values of weight gain, milk yield, fat, protein, and solid non-fat were observed with T4. Conclusion can be drawn that, higher milk yield with better composition could be obtained by feeding high energy rations formulated with low cost, locally available ingredients

Historical analysis of national subjective wellbeing using millions of digitized books

In addition to improving quality of life, higher subjective wellbeing leads to fewer health problems and higher productivity, making subjective wellbeing a focal issue among researchers and governments. However, it is difficult to estimate how happy people were during previous centuries. Here we show that a method based on the quantitative analysis of natural language published over the past 200 years captures reliable patterns in historical subjective wellbeing. Using sentiment analysis on the basis of psychological valence norms, we compute a national valence index for the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and Italy, indicating relative happiness in response to national and international wars and in comparison to historical trends in longevity and gross domestic product. We validate our method using Eurobarometer survey data from the 1970s and demonstrate robustness using words with stable historical meanings, diverse corpora (newspapers, magazines and books) and additional word norms. By providing a window on quantitative historical psychology, this approach could inform policy and economic history

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONDENSED TANNINS AND DRY MATTER DEGRADABILITY OF TWO TROPICAL FODDER LEGUMES

In the tropics tree fodder legumes provide adequate protein to ruminants, particularly in the dryseason. However, many of them contain high levels of anti nutritional factors such as condensedtannins. Therefore, the objective the present study was to investigate the relationship betweencondensed tannin (CT) content and the in vitro dI) matter digestibility (DMD) of two tropicalshrubs, Gliricidta septum and Ca/liandra calothyrsus. The tannin binding chemical polyethyleneglycol (PEG) was added at rates of 0.1500 and 5000mg /lOOg plant substrate to asses the effectonDMD.Although the PEG response was not marked, G. sepium had significantly (P<0.05) higher DMD(60%-65%) in all treatments as compared with C. calothyrsus. In contrast, DMD ef C.calothyrsus increased (39.5% to 53.5%) with the addition of PEG. Extractable CT levels rangedfrom 0.57% in G. septum to 4.05% in C. calothyrsus. Results indicate that C. calothyrsus in spiteof having a lower DMD due to high levels of condensed tannins, the addition of PEG had asignificantly higher and desirable effect on DMD compared to G. sepium.The significant co-correlation of DMD and CT indicates that PEG binding technique is asuitable method to improve the dry matter degradability of tannin rich tropical forages.

Species diversity and forage value of herbage in a neglected coconut land proposed for livestock integration

The proposed coconut land is situated in the southern province. belongs to the land suitability class S4which is moderately suitable for coconut. Therefore, managing coconut as rnonoculture is unprofitableand steps have been taken to optimize the land use through livestock integration. Therefore, objectiveof this study was to investigate the species diversity and forage value of understory vegetation in thecoconut land before introducing cattle. Stratified quadrate sampling technique was adopted and 4samples each from 6 paddocks (approx 0.4 ha) were randomly taken. Each stratum contained morethan 80% of edible species while the non edible species found in all strata were common uplandweeds Axonopus affinus (carpet grass), Axonopus compressus (narrow carpet grass) andDesmodium trifolium were dominant prostate grass and legume species found in 0-5 em strataabove ground level. In addition to above species Pueraria phasioloides (Centro) was found to bedominant in 5-15 em strata. Crysopogen ariculatus and Pueraria phasioloides were dominant in15-25 cm strata while Seteria anceps (fox tail grass) found to be dominant above 25 em height. Thecommon non-edible species found in the lower two strata's were Urena lobota, Hemidcsmus indicumand Ocimum tenuiflorum while Lantana camara and Ocimum tenuiflorum were dominant in uppertwo strata's. The dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) content of edible herbage increased frombottom to top layers ranged from 390 gkg' to 480 gkg' and 75 gkg' to 100 gkg' respectively.The results of this study reveal that the species diversity and forage value are in an acceptablestandard to initiate cattle grazing. However, crop and cattle management strategies are important inorder to improve coconut and livestock performance.

Preliminary study on the adaptation of wild Guinea grass (Panicum maximum) to different agro-climatic regions in Hambanthota District

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum Jacq.) was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 1820s for forage and has become naturalised in most ecological zones, ecosystems and habitats. This is generally called “Wild Guinea Grass” and has become common and valuable forage especially in the Southern area.  Two main varieties are found: a coarse, broad leaved, hairy, stemmy, robust grass up to 3 meters high, known locally as Guinea-“A” and a finer, narrower leaved, leafy grass with smaller culms of 1-2 meters known as Guinea-“B”. Naturally, it now overruns road and railway sides, natural forests, crop plantations, natural grasslands and scrubland at low and mid elevations. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to compare the morphological and proximate properties of wild Guinea grass grown in Katuwana (IL1b) and Sooriyawewa (DL5) respectively intermediate and drought regions in Hambanthota District where   it was used as sole cattle feed especially during drought periods. Random samples of Guinea grass were collected from three representative places of each from Katuwana and Sooriyawewa areas. Morphological parameters such as plant height, number of tillers, number of reproductive tillers, leaf width, leaf length, stem diameter, panicle length, panicle width, spikelet width (from base) and, root depth were investigated  in the field itself. Proximate analysis was done for both post and pre blooming stages of P. maximum. It was revealed that height of P. maximum plants in Sooriyawewa area (231.33a ±16.0cm) were shorter than (P>0.05) that of Katuwana area (172.3b ± 17.5cm), may be attributed with the prolonged drought stress. Similarly, as water stress enhanced the tillering habit, numbers of tillers and reproductive tillers per plant were (27.67a ± 4.04 and 8.33 a ± 2.52 respectively) greater in (P>0.05) Sooriyawewa area as compared with Katuwana (7.333b ± 1.155 and 1.667b ± 0.577 respectively). When compared the inflorescence characters panicle length showed significantly higher value for Katuwana area (65.00a ± 12.00cm) as compared to Sooriyawewa (42.00b ± 5.00cm) while the panicle length and spikelet width (from base) were also slightly higher in Katuwana area. Dry matter (DM) content of Guinea samples was slightly higher in Sooriyawewa in both pre and post blooming stages. Furthermore, in crude protein (CP) content was also slightly higher in pre blooming stage in drought area (10.094% ± 0.624) than intermediate climate (8.54% ± 2.50) but it is opposite in post blooming stage as 5.429% ± 0.839 in drought area and 6.52% ± 1.75 in  intermediate climatic area. The results revealed that drought stress could effect on phenotypical characters of wild Guinea grass therefore, yield could be affected but not the quality by means of dry matter and crude protein contents. However, further investigations should be carried out to find out whether those characters are genetically heritable or not

Effects of Tropical High Tannin Non Legume and Low Tannin Legume Browse Mixtures on Fermentation Parameters and Methanogenesis Using Gas Production Technique

In vitro experiments were conducted to evaluate the suitability of several mixtures of high tanniniferous non legumes with low tanniniferous legumes on in vitro gas production (IVGP), dry matter degradation, Ammonia-N, methane production and microbial population. Eight treatments were examined in a randomized complete block design using four non-legumes and two legumes (Carallia integerrima×Leucaena leucocephala (LL) (Trt 1), C. integerrima×Gliricidia sepium (GS) (Trt 2), Aporosa lindeliyana×LL (Trt 3), A. lindeliyana×GS (Trt 4), Ceiba perntandra×LL (Trt 5), C. perntandra×GS (Trt 6), Artocarpus heterophyllus×LL (Trt 7), A. heterophyllus×GS (Trt 8). The condensed tannin (CT) content of non legumes ranged from 6.2% (Carallia integerrima) to 4.9% (Ceiba perntandra) while the CT of legumes were 1.58% (Leucaena leucocephala) and 0.78% (Gliricidia sepium). Forage mixtures contained more than 14% of crude protein (CP) while the CT content ranged from 2.8% to 4.0% respectively. Differences (p0.05) NH3-N (ml/200 mg DM) production was observed with the A. heterophyllus×G. sepium (Trt 8) mixture which may be attributed with it’s highest CP content. The correlation between IVGP and CT was 0.675 while IVGP and CP was 0.610. In vitro dry matter degradation (IVDMD) was highest in Trt 8 as well. Methane production ranged from 2.57 to 4.79 (ml/200 mg DM) to be synonimous with IVGP. A higher bacteria population (p<0.05) was found in C. perntandra×G. sepium (Trt 6) followed by Artocarpus heterophyllus+G. sepium (Trt 8) and the same trend was observed with the protozoa population as well. The results show that supplementing high tannin non leguminous forages by incremental substitution of legume forage increased gas production parameters, NH3-N, IVDMD and microbial population in the fermentation liquid. Methane production was not significantly affected by the presence of CT or different levels of CP in forage mixtures. Among non legumes, Ceiba perntandra and Artocarpus heterophyllus performed better in mixture with L. leucocephala and G. sepium

Effects of Tropical High Tannin Non Legume and Low Tannin Legume Browse Mixtures on Fermentation Parameters and Methanogenesis Using Gas Production Technique

In vitro experiments were conducted to evaluate the suitability of several mixtures of high tanniniferous non legumes with low tanniniferous legumes on in vitro gas production (IVGP), dry matter degradation, Ammonia-N, methane production and microbial population. Eight treatments were examined in a randomized complete block design using four non-legumes and two legumes (Carallia integerrima×Leucaena leucocephala (LL) (Trt 1), C. integerrima×Gliricidia sepium (GS) (Trt 2), Aporosa lindeliyana×LL (Trt 3), A. lindeliyana×GS (Trt 4), Ceiba perntandra×LL (Trt 5), C. perntandra×GS (Trt 6), Artocarpus heterophyllus×LL (Trt 7), A. heterophyllus×GS (Trt 8). The condensed tannin (CT) content of non legumes ranged from 6.2% (Carallia integerrima) to 4.9% (Ceiba perntandra) while the CT of legumes were 1.58% (Leucaena leucocephala) and 0.78% (Gliricidia sepium). Forage mixtures contained more than 14% of crude protein (CP) while the CT content ranged from 2.8% to 4.0% respectively. Differences (p<0.05) were observed in in vitro gas production (IGVP) within treatments over a 48 h period dominated by C. perntandra×G. sepium (Trt 6). The net gas production (p<0.05) was also high with Trt6 followed by A. heterophyllus×L. leucocephala (Trt 7) and A. heterophyllus×G. sepium (Trt 8). Highest (p>0.05) NH3-N (ml/200 mg DM) production was observed with the A. heterophyllus×G. sepium (Trt 8) mixture which may be attributed with it’s highest CP content. The correlation between IVGP and CT was 0.675 while IVGP and CP was 0.610. In vitro dry matter degradation (IVDMD) was highest in Trt 8 as well. Methane production ranged from 2.57 to 4.79 (ml/200 mg DM) to be synonimous with IVGP. A higher bacteria population (p<0.05) was found in C. perntandra×G. sepium (Trt 6) followed by Artocarpus heterophyllus+G. sepium (Trt 8) and the same trend was observed with the protozoa population as well. The results show that supplementing high tannin non leguminous forages by incremental substitution of legume forage increased gas production parameters, NH3-N, IVDMD and microbial population in the fermentation liquid. Methane production was not significantly affected by the presence of CT or different levels of CP in forage mixtures. Among non legumes, Ceiba perntandra and Artocarpus heterophyllus performed better in mixture with L. leucocephala and G. sepium