The effects of the number of frozen-thawed ram sperm per single and double intra-cervical artificial insemination (AI) on fertility in ewes were studied. A total of 89 non-pregnant ewes were synchronized for oestrus with two doses of 100 μg PGF2α (Cloprostenol) 9 days apart. The ewes were randomly assigned to one of four groups; D200 (n = 23; double AI with 200 × 106 sperm), S200 (n = 24; single AI with 200 × 106 sperm), D100 (n = 24; double AI with 100 × 106 sperm) and S100 (n = 18; single AI with 100 × 106 sperm). Ewes were inseminated within 12 to 18 h for single AI and, within 10 to 12 h and 16 to 18 h for double AI after the onset of oestrus. The onset of oestrus ranged from 28 to 76 h (54.33 ± 1.28 h). The high percentage (29.2%) of ewes showed oestrus between 51 to 60 h. The non-return rates were highest in group D200 (56.5%) and differed significantly (p < 0.05) from group S100 (11.1%). No ewes were pregnant in group S100, and the pregnancy rates among the remaining groups did not differ. The mean gestation period was 152.8 ± 0.5 days and no difference was observed among the groups. The lambing and multiple birth rates were 100% in group D200. The single and twin lambing was highest in group D100 (33.3%) and group D200 (83.3%), respectively. Only one triplet lambing and the highest lambing size (2.2 ± 0.2) was recorded in group D200. In conclusion, double AI with 200 × 106 sperm showed comparatively most practical for achieving high pregnancy rates and lambing performances in Bangladeshi ewes under field conditions.

An experiment was carried out at the Field Laboratory of the Department of Crop Botany, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from March to July, 2001 to investigate the effect of biofertilizers on morpho-physiological characters of okra. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. There were nine treatments such as ~textrmT0 (control), ~textrmT1 (Azotobacter biofertilizer), ~textrmT2 (Azospirillum biofertilizer), ~textrmT3 (Azotobacter+Azospirillum biofertilizers), ~textrmT4 (Azotobacter+Cowdung 5 ton ~textrmha-1 ), ~textrmT5 (Azospirillum+Cowdung 5 ton ~textrmha-1 ), ~textrmT6 (Azotobacter+Azospirillum+Cowdung 5 ton ~textrmha-1 ), ~textrmT7 (Cowdung 5 ton ~textrmha-1 ) and ~textrmT8 (60% Nitrogen). The experimental results revealed that significant variations exist among the treatments regarding morphological characters e.g. plant height, number of leaves/plant, stem base diameter, tap root length, and physiological characters like, root dry weight, leaf area index and crop growth rate. Number of leaves/plant, stem base diameter, root length, root dry weight, leaf area index and crop growth rate were found higher in ~textrmT4 , ~textrmT5 , ~textrmT6 and ~textrmT8 than the others. In all the parameters, ~textrmT8 gave the similar result with biofertilizers in combination with cowdung treatments and ~textrmT7 showed identical with ~textrmT0 (control). Biofertilizer treatments had insignificant effect on 1000-seed weight(g). Experimental results mentioned above revealed that morpho-physioligical characters of okra could be modified by the application of biofertilizer+cowdung. However, biofertilizers+Cowdung treatments were comparable to ~textrmT8 (60% Nitrogen) in this study. This suggests that ~textrmT4 or ~textrmT6 or ~textrmT5 were more benificial in environmentally friendly okra cultivation and may be used as an alternative of inorganic nitrogen by saving cost of production and sustaining productivity.