Winter rye grain quality of hybrid and population cultivars

Rye (Secale cereale L.) is an important European crop used for food that is grown primarily in Eastern, Central and Northern Europe. Consuming rye grain products provides a rich source of dietary fibre as well as several bioactive compounds with potentially positive health implications. The goal of the research was to compare the rye grain quality of hybrid and population cultivars. A field trial was carried out in Priekuli Research Centre, Institute of Agricultural Resourses and Economic (in Latvia) during a three-year period: 2014/2015, 2015/2016, and 2016/2017. The trial included population winter rye cultivars ‘Kaupo’, ‘Amilo’, ‘Dankowskie Amber’ and hybrid rye cultivars ‘Brasetto’, ‘Su Drive’, ‘Su Mephisto’. Rye grain quality indices were analysed at Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, in Grain and Seed Research laboratory. Average data in our investigation (three years) show that cultivar, crop-year (weather conditions) and cultivar×crop-year interaction significantly (P < 0.05) affected rye grain protein content, starch content and Hagberg falling number. A significant negative correlation was found between protein content and starch content r = -0.937 (population cultivars grain), r = -0.944 (hybrid cultivars grain), medium strong negative correlation was found between protein content and falling number, respective r = -0.549 and r = -0.573. Differences between hybrid cultivar grain protein content, falling number and starch content comparing with population cultivar grains were not observed. The results of the current research show that the quality of all the studied cultivars meets the requirements for high-grade rye grains for food consumption.