The effect of tillage systems on yield and quality of durum wheat cultivars

Authors: ANDRZEJ WOZNIAK

Abstract: A field experiment was conducted for 3 years, from 2008 to 2010, in Uhrusk, Poland, to investigate the effect of tillage systems on the yield and quality of durum wheat cultivars Floradur and Lloyd. The 3 tillage systems were: 1) conventional tillage (CT) - shallow ploughing and harrowing after harvest of the previous crop, ploughing in the autumn; 2) reduced tillage (RT) - only a cultivator was used after harvest of the previous crop; and 3) herbicide tillage (HT) - only Roundup 360 SL was used after harvest of the previous crop. Both cultivars were found to respond differently to tillage systems and years. The wheat cultivar Floradur was characterised by high-yield stability under all tillage systems and in all years, while cultivar Lloyd produced higher yields under CT than under RT and HT. Grain quality of the tested wheat cultivars was affected to a greater extent by agroclimatic conditions than by tillage systems.

Keywords: Durum wheat, grain quality, grain yield, tillage systems

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