Study of the possibilities of using sunflower lines with different colours of seeds to create poultry feed

Abstract Sunflower is used for the production of oil, confectionery and animal feed. Birds are very fond of sunflowers and can be pests of sunflower crops, and are consumers of seeds. Sunflower poultry feed is an emerging market that determines the direction of breeding. Its development is based on the determination of bird preferences and the available variety of sunflower lines. This is what our research is devoted to. Experimental feeding of chickens with a mixture of sunflower seeds of different colours was carried out. Chickens have been found to prefer contrasting striped seeds with white and dark stripes more than others. The white colour of the seeds was eaten less than others. Studies of the genetics of sunflower colour allow us to distinguish two groups of lines by seed colour. The first has white seeds with the EwEwPP genotype, suitable for use in human confectionery and more protected from being eaten by wild birds in the fields. The second is striped seeds with the EstrEstrPP genotype, which can be fed whole seeds to birds. Donors of seed colour traits and other traits important for hybrid breeding were selected from the evaluated collection of sunflower lines. InK1039 line is a donor of small striped seeds and pollen fertility restoration. InK1587 line is a sterility fixer and donor of striped and early maturing seeds. To create hybrids with white seeds for human consumption and thus more resistant to ingestion by wild birds, white seed donors were isolated with KG9 to restore pollen fertility and I2K2218 in a pollen sterility fixer.