The effect of environment and cultivar on sunflower seed. I. Yield, hullability and physical seed characteristics

Development and validation of relationships between sunflower seed quality and easily measurable seed characteristics for grading purposes

“…Means and ranges of the easily measurable characteristics as well as the seed quality parameters compared well, or exceeded those reported by Nel, Loubser & Hammes (2000a) and Nel, Loubser & Hammes (2000b) who analysed seed from five cultivars produced at three localities in two previous seasons. The seed samples analysed appear to represent a reasonably wide quality range.…”

“…Judged by results of the annual national cultivar trials, seed oil content ranges between 36 and 50% and the protein content between 10 and 24%. Hullability varies between 45 and 94% (Nel, Loubser & Hammes, 2000a). This variation within the quality parameters consequently causes variation in the value of seed for the crushing industry.…”

The effect of environment and cultivar on sunflower seed. II. Composition and processing quality

“…This would correspond with an oil cake protein content of 34.7 to 54.8%, assuming that it also contains 6.68% oil and 6.73% moisture as reported by Smith, Hayes and Smith (1989) for commercial South African oil cake meals. Only 13.3% of the seed samples (all produced at Heilbron in 1996/97) would be expected to have oil cake with less than 40% protein, which deviates drastically from the 81.8% reported by Smith et al (1989) for commercially produced oil cakes.…”

“…For cultivars, crude fibre content varied from 21.4 to 25.1% for HV 3037 and PAN 7392 respectively and for environments from 21.8 to 25.9% for Viljoenskroon in 1997/98 and Potchefstroom in 1997/98 respectively. For individual seed samples the KRF crude fibre content varied from 17.6 to 28.5% (Table 3), which would correspond to 13.7% and 22.2% assuming that it also contains Table 4 Correlation coefficients between the potential oil yield, oil and moisture-free yield and protein content of the kernel-rich fraction and the physical seed traits, seed composition and kernel composition 6.68% oil and 6.73% moisture as found for commercial oil cakes (Smith et al, 1989). This corresponds well with the range of 11.81 to 23.95% reported by Smith et at.…”

“…For clarity, hullability analyses should be confirmed by analysis for crude fibre. The crude fibre content of seed, factors affecting it and its relationship with hullability also need further investigation as the crude fibre content of sunflower oil cake is the primary restriction to its greater use for monogastric animals such as swine (Park, Marx, Moon, Wiesenborn, Chang & Hofman, 1997).…”