Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

M. G. EDER, P. RUCKENBAUER and K. EHRENDORFER:

Comparison of different input-levels in the cropping of winter wheat in the region Pulkautal/Lower Austria

Summary

Duc to economic reasons the necessary reduction of working stocks in agricultural production also forces grain producers to cut input drastically. For this reason a three year trial program was held in a part of the pannonic region of Lower Austria, Pulkautal. Four different input-levels for quality grain production of wheat were tested: These four variants ran as follows: untreated variant (a), reduced input-level (b) in terms of seed density, fertilizer and agrochemicals, standard procedure (C) and intensively treated variant (d) with a high degree of cultivation. The results can be summarized as follows: The level of yield of the five different varieties of quality wheat was highly influenced by the effects of years and locations. The performance in yield of the three treated variants (b, C, d) was very much the same. There was no definite trend of an increase in yield through higher supply with fertilizer and plant protection. Regarding margins variant b) outnumbered the opponents. The amount of gluten was partly influenced by effects of varieties and fertilizer, although there was no clear dependence from the amount of nitrogensupply. The level of gluten in the three treated variants was very much alike. A steady increase in gluten through the increasing supply with nitrogen was only found on the light soil throughout three years. Key-words: input-levels, yield, margin, quality, winter wheat.