The agricultural production in Punjab has increased manifold that aggravated the deficiencies of micronutrients in soils and plants. The availability of soil micronutrients in different soil orders depends upon the soil mineralogy, topography, climatic conditions and cropping sequences. Hence, to study the pedospheric variations of DTPA-extractable micronutrients, viz., zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu), in three prominent soil orders of Punjab, a total of 144 depth-wise soil samples were collected from four major land-use systems (cultivated, horticulture, forest and pasture lands). The DTPA extractable micronutrients varied from 1.74–2.81, 1.83–2.82 and 1.81–2.80 for Zn; 5.3–6.8, 5.6–6.9, 4.3–6.3 for Fe; 5.1–7.8, 5.5–7.9, 5.4–7.5 for Mn; and 0.84–1.40, 0.93–1.68, 0.87–1.65 for Cu in soil orders Aridisol, Entisol and Inceptisol, respectively. The average content of DTPA-extractable micronutrients was highest under soil order Entisol followed by Inceptisol and Aridisol. The content of micronutrients showed a declining trend with increase in soil depth in all orders. Among different soil properties, the pH and EC showed significantly negative correlation, however, OC had non-significant correlation with DTPA-extractable micronutrients in soils. Therefore, it is concluded that parent material, land use systems and soil depth affected the distribution of DTPA extractable micronutrients in different soil orders.

A field investigation on direct seeded rice (DSR) was carried out in the two consecutive rice growing seasons of 2017 and 2018 at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India for the development and validation of soil test crop response (STCR) to fertilizer and for assessing the performance of STCR-treatments as compared to the general recommended dose (GRD) in terms of yield, nutrient uptake and use efficiency, and the economics of DSR. For producing 1 Mg of rice-grain, the required nutrients (N, P, and K) were 2.01 kg, 0.44 kg, and 3.06 kg; the contribution from the soil was 22.05%, 37.34%, and 41.48%; from applied farmyard manure 23.25%, 28.34%, and 16.80%, from fertilizer 38.08%, 49.93%, and 252.98%; and from fertilizer with FYM 44.83%, 60.57%, and 278.70%; for N, P, and K, respectively. The STCR approach, with or without FYM, at both the target yields (4.5 Mg ha−1 and 5.0 Mg ha−1) markedly enhanced the grain yield (20.2% to 32.3%) and production efficiency over the GRD. It also exhibited a higher NPK uptake and use efficiency, along with better profitability, than the GRD. Therefore, the STCR-targeted yield approach could improve the yield, economics, and efficiency of nutrient use for direct seeded rice.

The present study was conducted on Sahiwal cows maintained at Uttar Pradesh Livestock-cum-Agriculture Farm, Chak Ganjaria, Lucknow. A total of 1194 records on age at first calving (AFC) spanning over a period of 57 years (1949 to 2006) were subjected to least squares analysis using suitable statistical model considering sire as random while period and season as fixed effects. The least squares mean of AFC was estimated to be 1251.77± 22.15 days. The least squares analysis revealed significant effect (P  0.01) of sire and period. However, the effect of season was found to be non-significant. The heritability estimate of age at first calving was found to be 0.159. The genetic, phenotypic and environmental trend for AFC were -3.31, 32.78 and 36.09 respectively. It was concluded from the present findings that selection of sire may be practiced for genetic improvement of this trait and ameliorative managemental practices should be employed to improve upon the trait i.e. age at first calving.

SUMMARYThis paper describes the differential response to calcium of the three edaphic ecotypes of Cynodon dactylon (L) Pers. growing, respectively, on non-calcareous, moderately calcareous, and highly calcareous soils. A close correlation was discernible for the three populations with the habitats they occupy in nature. The population from a highly calcareous soil showed a better yield in calcareous soils than in non-calcareous soils, though in highly calcareous soils it tended to decrease. The reverse was found to be the case for the population from non-calcareous soils; the population from moderately calcareous soil showed an intermediate behaviour. Significantly different responses were found between the three populations with regard to mineral uptake in both calcareous and non-calcareous soils. Although calcium uptake was higher in the case of plants from non-calcareous soils compared to those from calcareous soils in experiments using calcareous and non-calcareous soils, in extremely calcareous soil the reverse was found to be the case. The ash content and the uptake of calcium, potassium and magnesium, in general, increased with increase in soil calcium level. However, the calcium uptake of the populations from moderately calcareous or non-calcareous soils and the magnesium uptake of the latter decreased in highly calcareous soils. It is concluded from the present studies that there are at least three 'edaphic ecotypes' within this species, each markedly different from the other in its physiologic-ecological attributes and that the basis for the differentiation is chiefly due to their response to soil calcium.