Correlation of physical properties for establishments of standardized groups of soybean seed technologies in post-harvest

Abstract Physical characteristics determination of soybean seeds will help optimize processes and the development of projects and regulation of post-harvest equipment. Thus, the study aimed to characterize and correlate the physical properties of different varieties of soybean seeds to identify and form groups of cultivars with physical similarities for a technical-scientific recommendation of management of seed lots, adjustments, and dimensioning equipment and structures post-harvest. Seeds from forty soybean cultivars were clustered using the k-means algorithm, which groups treatments whose centroids are closest until there is no significant variation in each observation's minimum distance to each centroid characterized as G1-seeds larger, G2-seeds medium-large, G3-seeds medium-smaller, G4-seeds smaller. Next, Pearson's correlation coefficients were estimated to verify the association between physical properties. The cultivars of G1 and G4 differed from the predominant groups G2 and G3. The cultivars FLECHA IPRO, 6139 RR, KWS RK 6813 RR, KWS RK 6813 RR2, and MAMBA RR predominated as G1-seeds larger. The cultivars NS 7447, TMG 1180GX RR, KWS RK 6813 RR2, CD 2686 IPRO, M6410, 6139 RR, and 8473 RR predominated as G4-seeds smaller. The correlation of most physical properties between cultivars was low, indicating individual evaluations in projects. The physical variability of soybean seeds defined the important interaction between the industry of post-harvest equipment manufacturing and the area of genetic improvement of seeds to advance the development of quality technologies, enabling the optimization of agricultural processes.