Einkorn, emmer, and rivet are three species of wheat that have largely been neglected in modern agriculture. There is a revived interest in these species as potentially successful alternatives to mainstream wheat in organic and low-input cropping systems and as sources of highly nutritious food. However, the availability of literature studies concerning rotational positions and soil tillage management is still scarce. The aim of this study was to explore the field (cover, disease resistance, yield) and quality performance (protein, fats, fiber, polyphenols, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity) of these species when organically grown in the United Kingdom. As part of the H2020 DIVERSIFOOD project, different cultivars of each species, including landraces, populations, old varieties, and where available, commercial varieties, were included in the experiment. Rotational position and tillage systems significantly affected the main agronomic performance of the minor cereals investigated, suggesting that low fertility and shallow-non-inversion tillage might be suitable options to manage tall species. Emmer showed the highest incidence of foliar diseases, whereas einkorn and rivet wheat appeared quasi-immune to the main fungal diseases (stripe rust, septoria). In addition, nutritional and nutraceutical investigation showed that the rotational position and soil management also affect metabolic pathways differently by species and within species, by genotype. Our results suggest a good potential to introduce these species in sustainable cropping systems. Furthermore, the interesting species and cultivar-by-management interactions observed can pave the way for future, better focused, research on these underutilized and underexplored species.

The profiles of polar metabolites were determined in wholemeal flours of grain from the Broadbalk wheat experiment and from plants grown under organic and low-input systems to study the effects of nutrition on composition. The Broadbalk samples showed increased amino acids, acetate, and choline and decreased fructose and succinate with increasing nitrogen fertilization. Samples receiving farm yard manure had similar grain nitrogen to those receiving 96 kg of N/ha but had higher contents of amino acids, sugars, and organic acids. A comparison of the profiles of grain from organic and low-input systems showed only partial separation, with clear effects of climate and agronomy. However, supervised multivariate analysis showed that the low-input samples had higher contents of many amino acids, raffinose, glucose, organic acids, and choline and lower sucrose, fructose, and glycine. Consequently, although differences between organic and conventional grain occur, these cannot be used to confirm sample identity.

Yield gaps between organic and conventional agriculture raise concerns about future agricultural systems which should reduce external inputs and face an unpredictable climate. In the UK, the performance gap is especially severe for wheat that, as a result, has a small and shrinking organic acreage. In organic wheat production, most determinants of crop performance are managed at a rotation level, which leaves cultivar choice as the major decision on a seasonal basis. Yet, conventionally generated cultivar recommendations might be inappropriate to organic farms. Furthermore, uncertainty about field-scale crop performance hinders positive developments of the supply chain of organic grains and seeds. Here, we present a field-scale evaluation of winter wheat cultivars, integrated with an agronomic crop performance survey, across a network of organic farms. The relation between crop performance and climatic patterns is explored, to capitalise past growing seasons in cultivar and management decisions on-farm. Grain yield and grain protein content were linked by a dual relation, positive across environments and negative across cultivars. Feed-grade cultivars showed a relatively high yield (4.5–5.5 t/ha) but low protein (8.5–9.3%), whereas breadmaking and historic cultivars showed higher protein (10.4–11.1%) and lower yields (3.5–4.0 t/ha). Historic phenotypes showed better weed suppressive ability than modern ones, without trade-offs with yield or quality. Multiple regressions showed that weed abundance at wheat anthesis was the main yield predictor. The effects of two different post-emergence weed management strategies were observed. Farms relying on interrow hoeing showed lower weed abundance, but a higher relative abundance of the dominant species than that of those relying on spring tine harrowing. Future wheat breeding and cultivar testing should account for crop-weed relations, weed management strategies and their effects on nutrient use efficiency. Further data collection can inform plant breeding on critical traits for low-input farming and shed light on cultivar-environment-management interactions.