Studies on work-rest cycle for non-descript bullocks of Odisha

The present study was conducted to fnd out suitable work-rest cycles for small sized bullocks during summer, rainy and winter season. The experiments were carried out at OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha during the year 2011. The work-rest cycles were considered as per the convenience of the farmers ’practice of that region by keeping the total hours of work and total duration of interim rest be same as followed by them while performing various farm operations. Three work-rest cycles i.e. (i) 2h work + 1h rest + 2h work (Farmers ’practice): Wr₁; (ii) 1.5 h work + 30 min rest + 1.5 h work + 30 min rest + 1h work: Wr₂ and (iii) 2 h work + 40 min rest + 1 h work + 20 min rest + 1 h work: Wr₃ were tried in each season. It was found that the increase of power output in Wr₂ and Wr₃ compared to Wr₁ were 18.46% and 9.74% respectively in summer season and 16.96% and 10.71% respectively in rainy season. However, the reverse trend was observed in the winter season. Considering the fatigue score and power output, the work-rest cycle Wr₂ may be adopted both for summer and rainy season and Wr₁ for winter season.