Wheat rheological and Mixolab quality in relation to cropping systems and plant nutrition sources

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cropping systems [integrated (INT) vs. organic (ORG)] and plant nutrition sources (synthetic in INT vs. approved organic in ORG) on analytical and rheological quality traits of winter wheat and its productivity. The results after 16 years of field experiments were evaluated. Pre-crop for winter wheat was N-fixing crop. Grain yield of winter wheat (6.8 t ha^–1 in INT, 6.5 t ha^–1 in ORG) did not differ significantly, while plant nutrition sources had an equal and positive effect on the yield. Crude protein quantity was higher in INT system by about 0.2%. The farinograph dough development time and dough stability were the longest for ORG and fertilised treatments. Mixolab quality indicators showed a clear distinction between ORG and INT systems and fertilisation in the protein and starch characteristics of the grain. The ORG reported longer Mixolab stability of the dough, mainly on fertilised treatment (8.8 min). Starch characteristics – torque C4 (amylolytic activity) and torque C5 (starch retrogradation) were higher for ORG system. Torque C2, protein weakening, was not affected by the cropping system. ORG system has the potential to achieve consistent, high-quality yields with significantly lower reliance on external inputs.