The new white-kernelled grain sorghum variety “Ataman"

The development and introduction of a new variety in the State List of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation is a significant and effective means to improve yields and grain quality of all agricultural crops. The purpose of our research was to evaluate the new grain sorghum variety “Ataman”, approved for use since 2018 due to productivity and other economically valuable traits. The variety was developed by the method of individual selection of white-kerneled forms from the hybrid combination “A-006 x Zernogradskoe 204”. The article presents the study results obtained in 2013-2015 by the FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”, located in the part of the Rostov region with insufficient and unstable humidity. The grain productivity in the competitive testing of the variety “Ataman” was 5.56 t/ha on average, which is significantly larger than that of the standard variety “Radiant” (4.73 t/ha). In addition, this variety has a white color of kernels and belongs to the early ripening group (the vegetation period “sprouts - full ripeness” is 89-95 days), which allows it to be grown without drying. Cultivation of a new variety contributes to grain productivity increase as well as it has a great influence on its quality improvement if agrotechnical methods are applied. The biochemical estimation established that the variety “Ataman” accumulates a very high starch percentage in the kernels (76.1%). In addition, it is characterized with average protein (11.6%) and low tannin percentage (0.06%).