Scientific Journal of KubSAU

At present, the farmers have to develop varieties and hybrids, which fully meet the requirements of agricultural production. The study of correlation among economic-valuable characteristics of grain sorghum is of great importance nowadays, as it allows optimizing plant-breeding work at its early stages. For a more productive process of developing of the initial material in breeding, it is necessary to determine the correlation among the traits to identify the strongest connections, and to conduct further work, based on the obtained data. Knowing the correlation, the estimation of timeconsuming economic trait can be replaced by the assessment of the simpler trait correlated with it. The article presents the analysis of correlation among various traits of grain sorghum. The degree and direction of the correlation have been estimated. The significant effect of the length of vegetation period on many traits has been seen. There have been also mentioned the characteristics, having an influence on a size and a number of kernels per panicle. There is a positive correlation between a size of panicle and dimensions of a leaf (length, width). Along with it there has been found a positive correlation among linier dimensions of a panicle, length and width of a leaf, a number of leaves with a number of kernels per panicle. While studying the correlation between an extension of a panicle with other traits, there has been noted a negative correlation between a length of vegetation period, length and width of a leaf, but there has been found a positive correlation with plant height. There has been found a positive effect of 1000-kernel weight, a number of kernels per panicle, a number of leaves and their dimensions on the formation of kernel weight per panicle

Sorghum is a source of concentrated, succulent and coarse forage. Its grain is used for making the mixed fodder and as the concentrated forage for swine, cows, sheep, horses and poultry. Sweet sorghum is successfully used for silage and haylage. Green chop of Sudan grass is used as fresh food for domestic animals and it’s used for making hay and silage. The nutritional value of the fodder is the way to meet the animal needs in nutrients, necessary for living. To determine the nutritional value of the fodder, oat fodder units and energy fodder units or exchange energy are used. At present the assessment of nutritional value according to fodder units is being revised, because it doesn’t give the true picture of the value of fodder nutrition and animal needs in nutrients. The general energetic nutritional value of fodder is considered as contents of all organic substances, supplied with fodder or with its energy. The nutritional value of fodder is valued according to the characteristics of its chemical composition, digestion of nutrients and general (energetic) nutritional value. The purpose of the work is to assess the nutritional value of fodder, obtained from the best sorghum varieties, as the food for different kinds of agricultural animals. Sorghum, used as fodder for poultry possesses the largest nutritional value. Among the grain sorghum varieties, the variety ‘Zernogradskoe 88’ has got the biggest value of fodder units. The green chop of Sudan grass and green fodder for silage of sweet sorghum possess the greatest nutritional value for swine. The varieties of Sudan grass ‘Krasava’ and ‘Arkadiya’ and the variety of sweet sorghum ‘Listvenit’ are the best varieties according to the contents of fodder units

The study was carried out during 2010-2015 years in the All-Russian research Institute of Grain Crops named after I.G. Kalinenko (the laboratory of the cultivation technology of plowing crops), situated in the southern soil-climatic zone of the Rostov region, which is characterized with the unstable and insufficient humidity. The trials were conducted on the heavy loamy, calcareous chernozem obyknovenny (natural blacksoil). The object of the study was the grain sorghum variety ‘Zernogradskoe 53’, approved to use in the Rostov region. The agroclimatic conditions during the years significantly differed during the vegetation in the amount of precipitations (from 110.2 mm in 2010 to 200.2 mm in 2013) and in the temperature regime (from 2512.9 0С in 2010 to 2788.8 ºÐ¡ in 2015), that allowed evaluating the grain sorghum productivity more objectively. The article gives the study results of the effect of the weather conditions on the duration of vegetation, productivity and grain quality (content of protein, oil, ash and fiber). The article showed the estimated interconnection among the sum of active temperatures, precipitations and hydrothermal coefficient during the sorghum vegetation with the principal economic-valuable traits of grain sorghum. The sum of active temperatures showed the greatest effect on the duration of the vegetation (r=0.89); the sum of precipitations during the vegetation had the greatest effect on the productivity (r=0.80). There was determined the strongest positive correlation of the sum of active temperatures with the content of protein in the grain sorghum kernels (r=0.80) and the average negative correlation with the content of oil (r=-0.69). The sums of active temperatures and precipitations, when the grain sorghum gives the largest productivity, were established

The effects of the general and specific combination abili-ty of the parental forms of hybrids are revealed, and the degree of domination, value of true heterosis are also determined; the types of the inheritance of protein in the reciprocal hybrids F1 of sorghum grain, obtained accord-ing to diallel diagram are studied