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REPLACEMENT OF PLANT PROTEINS IN THE RATIONS [Vol. XXIII, Part III,
In the treatment of the data pertaining to attributes of semen quality and
reaction time, the adjustment made was for the intial quality of the semen for each
attribute. In case of reaction time, adjustment was made for the initial reaction
time. The initial semen quality was obtained by averaging each of the attributes
falling within the summer month. The total number of observations used for
striking the averages were four in all the first three weeks of experimentation. In
the like manner, four observations per attribute falling within the last three weeks
of the experiment were utilised for getting the averages of the final figures which
were adjusted with the inital figures in the analysis of co-variance. Thus, not only
more stable observations within the two seasons, viz. summer and autumn,
were obtained, but, due to the use of like number of observations in the two averages,
the averages also were brought on to a comparable basis. The results are summarised
in Table IV(a) and (b).
From a study of Tables II, III and IV (a) and (b) the following facts emerge :
Volume. The average semen volume was higher in the second than in the
first ejaculate in both groups. Between ejaculate difference was not statistically
significant. The overall group average for the blood-meal fed group was 1.59 c.c.
while it was 1.80 c.c. for the control group. The difference in the adjusted overall
group means failed to reach the level of significance.
Initial motility. The average motility rating was slightly in favour of the
second ejaculate in case of bulls in the blood-meal group ; while it was markedly in
favour of the second ejaculate in the control group. As before, between ejaculate
differences as well as the adjusted lot mean difference, were not significant. The
actual mean motility rating for blood-meal group was 3.39 while it was 3.50 for the
control.
Sperm density. The mean sperm density was found to be higher for the first
than for the second ejaculate in both groups. The mean was 983.05 millions per c.c.
for the blood-meal group and 874.30 millions per c.c. for the control group. Both
between ejaculates and adjusted group mean differences were statistically not signi-
ficant.
Per cent abnormal sperms. The mean for the first ejaculate was higher than for
the second ejaculate in the blood-meal group and the other way about in the control.
The actual group means were 6.89 per cent and 5.57 per cent respectively for the
blood-meal and control groups. Both between ejaculates and adjusted group mean
differences due to treatments failed to reach the level of significance.
Total number of sperms in ejaculate. The total was obtained by multiplying
volume by the corresponding sperm density. The mean for the second ejaculate
was observed to be higher than for the first in both groups, the group means being
1,465 and 1,577 millions respectively for the blood-meal and control groups. Both
between ejaculates and between groups (after adjustment) differences failed to reach
the level of significance.
Initial pH. In both groups, the initial pH on an average was higher in the second
than in the first ejaculate. The difference again was not statistically significant,
though between ejaculate difference was highly significant. The average overall
pHs for the blood-meal and control groups were 6.13 and 6.11 respectively. After
adjusting for initial observation, it was found that the difference between the two
groups failed to reach the level of significance for both the ejaculates.