BELTSVILLE, Md. - Tomor
row’s amber waves of grain have
already ‘taken root’ in the confines
of brightly-lit growth chambers
here. The chambers contain ex
periments in another culture, a
laboratory system to breed new
crop varieties.
Research geneticist Stephen
Baenziger of the USDA’s
Agricultural Research Service
reports that the system could
change and speed up the way plant
breeders unprove wheat, the
world's most important crop.
Anther culture is the generation
of new plants in test tubes from
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Designers of Quality Systems For Poultry, Swine & Grain Handling
Test-tube wheat speeds new variety
bits of anthers, the male parts of
flowers (also called pollen sacs).
After tiny plantlets develop, they
are transplanted to soil and
evaluated for possible im
provements, Baenziger says.
Breeders routinely look for new
plant features that could make
crops more productive, more
nutritious, disease-resistant, or
stress-tolerant. Baenziger says
new wheat features, “unmasked
by genetic changes from anther
culturing, can be captures in pure
breeding lines’’, or genetically
stable breeding stock.
He and colleague Gideon
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with a sturdy, tubular handrail and roof ladder; walk
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ladders; and unique roof stiffener ring that gives
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Schaeffer, an ARS biochemist,
have made rapid progress in ap
plying “the advantages of anther
culture to standard breeding
practices that directly affect the
over 80 million acres of wheat
planted each year in the U JS.”
Since 1978, Baenziger and
Schaeffer have identified wheat
varieties well-suited to anther
culturing, defined complicated
artificial media for test-tube
growth, and regenerated
numerous types of wheat plants
from anthers. They have collected
over a pound of seed from some
anther-cultured wheat. Recently,
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HEKSHEYEQUIPMENT
Fj I COMPANY, INC.
SYCAMORE IND. PARK
255 PLANE TREE DRIVE, LANCASTER. PA 17603
(717)393-5807
Route 30 West at the Centerville Exit
liwirtw rwt<, U*m4at,Ufll, HP—AIT
cooperators in Idaho and
elsewhere have begun field
evaluationg plants grown from the
seed.
In greenhouse tests, the scien
tists have already found unex
pected variations in anther
generated wheat, such as height
differences and changes in seed
fMAO
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Broiler handling process
bead structure, that may affect
future wheat varieties.
Anther culture also saves plant
breeders precious tune, said
Baenager. “In a 10-year wheat
breeding program, for example,
inbreeding to obtain pure lines
takes the first five to sue years
With anther culture, we get pure
breeding lines in one to two years “
(Continued Irom Pace A 36)
designed to stay safely closed
when the cage is handled by the lift
and truck during transportation
The boom damp telescopes
horizontally and vertically for
positioning over the cage, con*
trolled by the lift operator who
regulates the rate of emptying
broilers. Hie cycle tune of the
tilting platform for rotating the
cage, emptying the broilers, and
returning is about 10 seconds
Hoppers mounted to the support
frame of the unloader provide a
smooth, slippery surface or sliding
the broilers from the cage to the
belt conveyors.
This is how the process looks to
an observer.
The transport truck loaded with
empty cages arrives at the poultry
farm and the truck is positioned
near the broiler house
Hie lift truck operator positions
the cage inside the house near the
broilers, rotates it about 20* and
lowers it onto a 20-mch-high por
table stand in the center and under
the door side of the cage A six
person catching crew picks up the
broilers, and after the cages are
loaded one attendant secures the
door and counts the broilers.
The broilers slide down the in
clined floor toward the rear of the
compartment and easily regain
their balance. There is no “pile
up."
At the receiving dock of the
processing plant, the loaded
transport truck is driven onto the
unloading apron near the receiving
dock conveyor. When the lift truck
puts the cage on the conveyor, the
operator releases the clamp and
returns to the truck for another
cage.
The cages are conveyed onto the
tilting platform of the unloader for
automatic broiler removal As the
cage is tilted about 48* from
hortizontal, the birds gradually
slide toward the side and their
weight opens the spring-loaded
cage door. The broilers then slide
out slowly onto the hoppers and
onto the belt conveyors without
injury
The top two layers of broilers are
emptied onto the top belt and the
lower three layers ar deposited
onto the bottom belt The top belt
travels in a direction counter to the
bottom belt, maintaining a con
stant flow of broilers to the bottom
belt and providing added broiler
storage when the cage is emptied
Inside the hanging area the
workers remove the broders from
the conveyor and place them in the
picking line—another advantage
over manual removal from coops
that contributes to the safet\ of the
chickens
Broiler companies report a
reduction of 10 to 20 workers, sa\s
Shackelford
‘There is a significant im
provement in grade and higher
jields. Maintenance costs of the
cages are also lower compared
with coop systems "