Features of selection of winter wheat on grain quality

Abstract

The quality of grain means a set of technologico-biochemical, baking and food properties determining the economic value of a grain variety. When choosing source material for selection, the degree of grain preservation in adverse environmental conditions is taken into account as well as the genotypic potential of grain yield and quality. It is believed that in the arid conditions of the Volga region, the main limiting factor in the formation of high-quality grain is the amount of precipitation during the growing season of wheat and the uniformity of its distribution, so more than 25 indices of the winter wheat quality are evaluated annually, including the quantitative expression of indices of the rheological properties of dough. Experimental data indicate that such indices as water absorption capacity (WAC, %); energy absorbed by dough during mixing (W·h/kg); dough stability, (min); dough dilution (C2, N·m); and starch retrogradation index (C5, N·m) provide sufficient information for selection. The dough formation time seems the least promising indicator: genotype-environmental interactions on this index were manifested in 100% of cases. In the process of studying the ball-shaped forms of winter soft wheat it has been revealed that they have a high crop yield and excellent grain quality, namely the dough stability, which is 10.3, 9.9, 9.7, and 8.4 min in the studied samples Nos. 209–212, respectively. They also exceed the Saratov 90 variety by C2 , which characterizes dough dilution, having values of 0.57, 0.52, and 0.47 N·m, while having excellent baking qualities. The variation limits of the index of flour whiteness were 60.5–71.9 in the red-grain group of winter wheat and 57.5–69.6 in the white-grain one. The average value of this index is 66.3 and 57.5, respectively. Extra-quality flour can be obtained from the Smuglianka variety and lines with breeding numbers 17-17, 34-17, 1081-17, 1096-17, and 1093-17. Of all the others, we can get highest-grade flour without exception. The correlation between the indicators of meal whiteness and flour whiteness in the red-grain and white-grain forms of winter wheat is 0.7660 at the 1% significance level and 0.9311, respectively. This means that it is possible to assess the whiteness of flour from the color of whole-milled grain with a high probability.