Quality studies on wheat grown in different cropping systems: a holistic perspective

Spring wheat from a conventional (CONV) and an organic (ORG1) cropping system, both with animals, and from an organic system without animals (ORG2) was evaluated with respect to baking quality for the years 1995–2002. Amino acid (AA) composition was studied in both spring and winter wheat in 1993 and 2000–2002. The data were combined in multivariate analysis for exploration of the main factors responsible for the variation in quality. The most important factor for baking quality was weather conditions. High rainfall in May favoured baking quality in both cropping systems with animals, as did high temperature in May and high rainfall in July in the ORG1 system, and low rainfall in August in the CONV system. The only significant difference between the cropping systems was falling number, which was higher in ORG1 (252 s) than in CONV (205 s), probably due to a heavier CONV crop stand causing more difficult drying conditions. AA composition differed more between years than between cropping systems for both winter and spring wheat. The content of essential amino acids was high under the weather conditions associated with poor baking quality. The contents of threonine and leucine in spring wheat were significantly higher in ORG1, 1.76 and 8.11 g/100 g crude protein than in CONV, 1.63 and 7.72, respectively. In the interaction between AA and baking quality in spring wheat, it was possible to determine a correlation between phenylalanine, histidine, lysine and good baking properties. The primary effect was associated with weather conditions, but there was also an effect of differences between the cropping systems.