Our investigation aimed to find out the type and volume of certain qualitative and microbiological changes in various fodder winter wheat varieties and also their similarity to the changes of quality parameters in the storage of improving winter wheat varieties.
Laboratory experiments on wheat samples included moisture and protein content, Hagberg’s falling number, wet gluten content, alveographic values, and microbiological tests. Th e examined winter wheat varieties (‘Magor’, ‘Hunor’, ‘Róna’ and ‘Kondor’) retained their moisture, protein content, and their Hagberg’s falling number aft er storage. A slight increase was observed in wet gluten content for all four winter wheat varieties aft er 129 days of storage. This result proved the theory of after-ripening, as gluten percentage improved both qualitatively and quantitatively. An approximate 10% increase in quantitative growth was observed for all four winter wheat varieties. We placed a special emphasis on measuring the alveographic W (10-4 J) values during storage. All four winter wheat varieties showed decreasing values of about 20-40%. Microbiological examinations on the four winter wheat varieties showed that mould, mould flora and total germ count remained balanced, with some slight variations, and that they did not change in terms of time under optimal storage conditions. The changes in the tendency, type, and volume of the five qualitative parameters in the studied four forage wheat varieties and poor baking quality winter wheat varieties during storage showed similarities as compared to that of earlier described and studied improving winter wheat varieties.

winter wheat; storage; quality changes; microbiology

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia