ASRB NET and ARS / SMS / STO Fodder Production & Grassland Management: practice questions

Question 1 · medium

Whole-plant maize for silage is best harvested at which dry matter and kernel stage?

1. About 55-60% DM, after the black layer has formed at full maturity
2. Any stage at all, because maize sugar content stays constant with age
3. About 30-35% DM, kernel milk line roughly half to two-thirds down
4. About 18-22% DM, at tasselling when the whole plant is most succulent

Question 2 · medium

Why is maize commonly intercropped with cowpea for green fodder?

1. Cowpea suppresses the dhurrin that maize forms when it is grown as a sole crop
2. Cowpea supplies the soluble sugar that maize lacks for green feeding of cattle and buffalo
3. Cowpea raises the crude protein of the mixture and adds biologically fixed nitrogen
4. Cowpea shades out maize tillers so the crop gives a single thick-stemmed cut

Question 3 · easy

Berseem seed crops in north India are pollinated mainly by:

1. Self-pollination inside closed flowers, without any insects
2. Night-flying moths, so seed crops are lit at night to help
3. Honeybees, so placing hives near the field raises seed yield
4. Wind, so hives make no difference to the seed yield at all

Question 4 · easy

Which grass of the most arid sandy tracts of western Rajasthan is often called the 'king of desert grasses'?

1. Sewan (Lasiurus sindicus)
2. Para grass (Brachiaria mutica)
3. Doob (Cynodon dactylon)
4. Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus)

Question 5 · easy

In the Indian seed generation system, which sequence is correct?

1. Certified - foundation - breeder - nucleus
2. Foundation - breeder - certified - nucleus
3. Breeder - nucleus - certified - foundation
4. Nucleus - breeder - foundation - certified

Question 6 · hard

Lucerne hay baled too wet heated in the stack, turned brown and smells sweet like caramel. What has happened to its protein?

1. Heating converted the protein to extra non-protein nitrogen that raised its value
2. Nothing important, because protein is fully stable at stack-heating temperatures
3. The heat changed the protein to nitrate, which now makes the hay unsafe to feed
4. Maillard reactions bound protein to sugars, raising acid detergent insoluble N

Question 7 · hard

Why is Lentilactobacillus (Lactobacillus) buchneri used as a silage inoculant?

1. It converts nitrate to nitrogen gas, so silo filler's disease cannot ever occur
2. It fixes atmospheric nitrogen and so raises the crude protein of the silage
3. Its acetic acid production inhibits yeasts and improves aerobic stability at feed-out
4. It produces only lactic acid, giving the fastest possible fall in pH during filling and sealing

Question 8 · hard

Which laboratory result most clearly indicates excessive protein breakdown during ensiling?

1. A low pH of about 3.9 with no butyric acid being detected
2. A dry matter content close to 33% with a pleasant smell
3. A high lactic to acetic acid ratio in the silage extract
4. A high proportion of ammonia nitrogen in the total nitrogen

Question 9 · medium

In leader-follower grazing, which animals graze a fresh paddock first?

1. Sheep first and cattle second, because sheep must always graze any pasture first
2. High-producing animals such as milking cows, followed by lower-demand stock
3. Whichever animals are heaviest, because heavy animals trample the pasture least
4. Dry cows and other low-demand stock, followed later by the highest-producing animals

Question 10 · medium

A fodder laboratory wants rapid, low-cost prediction of CP, NDF and digestibility for thousands of samples. Which method suits, and what does it require?

1. Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy, calibrated against reference wet chemistry
2. The Tilley and Terry method, which needs no rumen liquor or reference values
3. Kjeldahl analysis alone, which predicts NDF and digestibility from nitrogen
4. Total faecal collection feeding trials, which take only minutes for each sample run