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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sunflower and Plant Biology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #130682
Title: PREDICTING NUSUN HYBRID OLEIC ACID CONCENTRATION THROUGH EARLY SAMPLING

Author
item Miller, Jerry
item Rehder, Dale
item Vick, Brady

Submitted to: Proceedings Sunflower Research Workshop
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/17/2002
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The ability to predict the oleic acid concentration of the NuSun sunflower crop in any given year or location would be of benefit to the sunflower industry. A minimum requirement has been set by the frying industry (55%) and predicting the oleic percentage of the crop would allow processing plants to meet or exceed this requirement by shipping seed from southern production areas or mixing high oleic seed during crushing. The objective of this study was to determine of the oleic percentage of harvested seed could be predicted by immature seeds sampled a few weeks after flowering or by weather data. Three dates of planting were utilized and four samples were taken starting at 21 days after flowering. At all three planting dates, the oleic acid concentration dropped from the first sampling date to the harvest sampling date. The largest drop was from seed harvested in the first planting date. The oleic acid concentration of seed sampled from the second planting date dropped a similar amount as in the first planting date, and the third date dropped the least. Correlations between the oleic acid concentration of seed harvested on October 11 and the samples taken three to six days after flowering indicated that the best predictor of final oleic acid concentration was the second sampling date or 28 days after flowering. Prediction of oleic acid concentration by weather data was highly variable and correlations were not considered high enough to be accurate predictors.

Technical Abstract: The ability to predict the oleic acid concentration of the NuSun sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) crop in any given year or location would be of benefit to the sunflower industry. A minimum requirement has been set by the frying industry (55%) and predicting the oleic percentage of the crop would allow processing plants to meet or exceed this requirement by shipping seed from southern production areas or mixing high oleic seed during crushing. The objective of this study was to determine of the oleic percentage of harvested seed could be predicted by immature seeds sampled a few weeks after flowering or by weather data. Three dates of planting were utilized and four samples were taken starting at 21 days after flowering. At all three planting dates, the oleic acid concentration dropped from the first sampling date to the harvest sampling date. The largest drop was from seed harvested in the first planting date (69.3% to 61.9%). The oleic acid concentration of seed sampled from the second planting date dropped a similar amount as in the first planting date (6.8% versus 7.4%), and the third date dropped the least (3.6%). Correlations between the oleic acid concentration of seed harvested on October 11 and the samples taken three to six days after flowering indicated that the best predictor of final oleic acid concentration was the second sampling date or 28 days after flowering (0.97). Prediction of oleic acid concentration by weather data was highly variable and correlations were not considered high enough to be accurate predictors.