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New method - A single value for seed size variability or uniformity of a grain sample
J. WOOD (1), S. Harden (1) (1) NSW Department of Primary Industries, Calala, Australia.

Seed size is an important quality trait for most grains with 1000 grain weight often used as a surrogate measure. However, individual seeds within a sample vary in size, the variation being more pronounced in plants that are indeterminate, such as pulses (grain legumes). A more uniform seed size is visually more attractive and leads to greater consistency in composition and in processing. The seed size distribution method is routinely used as a quality parameter of pulse samples, particularly in breeding programs. Using a sieve stack, percentage (by weight) of grain retained on each sieve is obtained and can be presented in a table or histogram. However comparing histograms across samples is problematic. A single value of within-sample variability would make comparison and analysis much easier. This study examined the seed size distributions of a large set of pulse samples and compared the fit of different methods capable of generating the two parameters of interest; a mean seed size and within-sample variability. The seeds within samples were found to be Normally distributed without skewness or kurtosis and our proposed new method had a good fit to the data. The new method allows calculation of a mean Seed Size (<i>SSnorm</i>) and within-sample Size Variability (<i>SVnorm</i>). The method is most reliable when sieves are chosen so that the sample is retained on at least 5 sieves and it can also be applied retrospectively on existing seed size distributions. In addition, <i>SSnorm</i> and <i>SVnorm</i> were found to be independent of each other; meaning breeding programs can aim to maximize size uniformity without affecting the seed size. This method is suitable for calculating the mean Seed Size and within-sample Seed Variability of any grains that are normally distributed.

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