The aim of this study was to compare three behavioural tests to assess fear of humans in breeding gilts and sows in a commercial setting.
For an interesting variation, mix several types and colors of lettuce seeds in a single package and sow in a continuous row.
Acorns were harvested in a local forest and sown in 10 L containers with a peat and sand mixture (1/1: v/v).
Rice seeds were dehulled, soaked in 0.5 mM CaCl2 for 30 min and sown in soil (equal parts of a fine-textured krasnozem from Robertson, NSW, a silty clay-loam from Bungendore, near Canberra, ACT, and general potting mix (Australian Native Landscapes)) in pots.
Accessions were divided into two sets of 48, and sown in 12 40-pot trays in a randomized fashion.
Analysing the data from the other two strata ("thin sows with a low straw supply" and "sows in good conditioned with a high straw supply") was not meaningful since there were too few animals in those strata (n = 2 respectively 3 sows).
To achieve synchronized flowering, the RILs were first phenotyped for days to 50% flowering and grouped into three categories as early, medium and late flowering types and then were sown in a staggered manner for synchronization of their flowering time.
Seeds of H471, HHZ, and P28 were sown in a seedling nursery and 30-day-old seedlings were transplanted into a screenhouse of the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
Seeds that had been surface-sterilized and germinated were sown in a greenhouse maintained at 25 °C for 14 h in light and 18 °C for 10 h in the dark.
Those bony figures, those monochrome scenes of reaping and sowing in the gloomy fields feel sacramental: a gospel of sorrow and humility inscribed in cross-hatched ink.
