Noodle quality of winter wheat cultivated in sustainable farming systems

Field experiments were conducted at the Research Experimental Station Dolná Malanta, Western Slovakia during 2009 and 2010 on a Haplic Luvisol developed on proluvial sediments mixed with loess. The altitude of the experimental field was 178 m. The location has a continental climate with an average temperature 19.7 °C in July and -1.7 °C in January, an average annual precipitations are 561 mm. The aim of this work was to evaluate the quality of white and wholegrain noodles made from winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown in ecological and integrated farming system. A split - plot design was used with two main treatments, ecological (ES) and integrated (IS) cropping systems. The ecological system was composed of a six course crop rotation: beans + alfalfa – alfalfa – winter wheat – peas – maize – spring barley. The integrated system consisted of the crop rotation: winter wheat – peas – winter wheat – maize – spring barley – alfalfa (3 years at the same plot). Subplots were fertilised (F) and unfertilised (N) variants. The fertilised variant in ES was based on 40 t of manure while the IS also received 40 t of manure plus synthetic fertilisers. Based on the reached results, winter wheat noodle qualitative parameters were significantly affected by farming system, fertilisation, forecrop and by external impacts of the weather. Noodle quality evaluated by cooking time, volume and weight of cooked noodles, noodle absorption and by cooking loss showed higher values of each of the cooking quality parameters of wholegrain noodles, it also applies to longer cooking time or higher cooking loss. Noodles from the ecological farming system, especially wholegrain noodles, have better quality than noodles from the winter wheat cultivated in integrated farming system. The positive site of white noodles was their shorter cooking time and appropriate lower cooking loss. In ES was found longer cooking time of both types of noodles, but even so the values of cooking loss in ES was lower than in integrated system