and information quality guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Energy. Though this report does not constitute "influential" information, as that term is defined in DOE's information quality guidelines or the Office of Management and Budget's Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review (Bulletin), the study was reviewed both internally and externally prior to publication.

Efficient utilization of crop residues is an alternative way to overcome feed shortage for livestock feeding. Hence, an experiment was conducted to determine the effect on nutrient intake, milk yield, nutrient digestibility and rumen parameters of total mixed ration (TMR) as mash or block form in comparison to conventional feeding system for a period of 45 days. Accoding to CRD 18 RCC early milking cows (Bos indicus) having average daily milk yield of 3.20±0.14 L/d and divided into three treatment groups. Existing feeding practice at the farm was considered as control group (T0) fed Napier-3 adlib. and concentrate mixture. In another two groups, animals fed TMR, where one fed as block (T1) and another as mash form (T2) with the same roughage and concentrate combination (50:50). All diets contained 16% CP. To determine digestibility of supplied feed, a digestibility trial at the middle of the feeding trial was conducted and also to study the rumen environment (pH, TVFA, NH3-N), rumen liquors were collected at post feeding intervals of 3, 6, 12, 24 and 36h. Study revealed that fresh feed intakes were significantly (p<0.001) higher in T0. DMI and CPI were significantly (p<0.001) higher in T1 group. Significantly (p<0.05) highest milk yields were obtained in T1 (3.6 l/d) and T2 (3.49 l/d) and lowest in T0 (3.35l/d). Milk fat (p<0.001) and SNF (p<0.05) were significantly higher T1 and T2. Except ADF, digestibility for most of the nutrient was significantly higher in T1 and T2 than T0. Total volatile fatty acids (TVFA) and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) were significantly (p<0.01) higher in T1 and T2 groups than that of T0 group. Finally, it may be concluded that TMR, either in block or mash form gives better results in terms of milk yield, milk composition, digestibility and concentration of TVFA and NH3-N. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. March 2019, 5(1): 71-77

The existence of dams cannot be ignored. The dam-lake formed due to the construction of a dam can be considered an integrated part of the natural watershed. A question which must be answered is how to operate a dam-lake so that the negative impacts of the dam on the natural flow system are reduced and at the same time the intended purposes of the dam are efficiently met. Among many aquatic species, the fish species are probably the most highly impacted species by the construction of a dam. As a result of the dam, fish habitat can decrease resulting in low productivity to no productivity at all for some fish species. This paper presents a methodology to develop a dam-lake operation model to maximize fish habitat. This study considered the physical habitat of smallmouth bass in its adult life. The operation model is developed by linking one-dimensional hydraulics model HEC-2 and dam-lake simulation model HEC-5 with a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, the Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA). The computation of physical habitat, which is a function of habitat suitability index and some hydraulic parameters, is coded within the optimization algorithm. The model has been successfully applied to an unnamed dam-lake in the northeast of the U.S. The fish habitat for smallmouth bass in its adult life stage increases as the water surface in the dam-lake increases. Some recommendations to improve the model are discussed in the conclusions section.

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A baseline survey was conducted with the objectives to determine seasonal availability, utilization of feeds and fodder resources and livestock production systems in different river basin areas and to identify the constraints of fodder production in selected river basins of Bangladesh. Based on cattle population, 2 upazilas from each of 10 districts were selected for household survey (HHS). A randomly selected 50 farmers from each upazila were considered for collecting information. After screening a total of 963 HHs were considered for statistical analyses. Results show that about 51%HHs were landless. Having an average population size of 3.3, about 99% HHs in the surveyed areas was keeping cattle, whereas, buffalo was not found in all regions which were found only in1.7% HHs with an average population size of 2.31 per buffalo keeper HH. Sheep was found only in about 1% HHs with an overall number of 3.22 per sheep keeper HH. About 16% HHs were keeping goats with an average size of 2.9 per sheep keeper HH. Significant differences on performance potentials were found both in native and crossbred cows among different regions. It was observed that all types of farm categories HHs reared cattle and most of them reared by tethering (around 23%) and free grazing (around 22%) management systems but semi-grazing was followed by around 14% HHs. Rest of the farmers followed different combinations of methods. Rice straw and naturally grown green grasses were the main roughages for feeding their cattle. About 95% HHs fed rice straw and about 81% HHs fed cut and carry green grass to their cattle. There were no seasonal variations on feeding rice straw but variations occurred for supplying cut and carry green grasses. Concentrates provided to animals in the surveyed areas were mainly rice polish, wheat bran, broken rice, pulse bran and mustard oil cake, among which rice polish and wheat bran were supplied by more HHs (about 93% and 75%, respectively). The variations of supplying concentrates among seasons were very negligible. Although, there were about 1.14% HHs who cultivated some fodder crops, they harvest grains for human consumption and residues for their cattle. However, high yielding varieties of fodders are very rarely cultivated by the farmers for feeding cattle in the riverside regions. The reason not to cultivate fodder and main constraint behind it was not accurately mentioned by the farmers. In the survey among different riverside regions, about48 different native green fodders were obtained in different agro-ecological zones, among which most available native green fodders were Durba, Badla, Kawn, Shama, Khesari, Gamma, Ura, Gobra, Shama and Maskalai. Most of the native grasses are grown more in summer and some others like Kawn, Khesari and Maskalai are grown in winter. Finally, it may be concluded that extensive fodder cultivation program by motivating farmers through training and demonstrating high yielding fodder crops are essential in the riverside regions for increasing productivity of livestock in the respective areas.Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2017. 46 (3): 206-214