FEATURE thus treated with pesticides. The calculated cost for the treatment of one acre with pesticides is about US$10, making a total of US$5,870,000. In a report prepared by specialists about the cereal bug problem in Turkey, it was stated that should no plant protection measurement and precautions be taken against the insect during plague years, the damage could reach a ratio of 90 percent to as much as 100 percent. Moreover, if sufficient precautions are taken against the plague, savings with an amount of US$40,000,000 could be achieved (Kınacı, 1994).
Varietal susceptibility Many researchers have noted that the genetic quality of the insect-damaged variety influences the degree of quality deterioration (Cressey et al, 1987). Paulian and Popov (1980) reported that hard wheats are attacked more severely by the insect E. integriceps than soft wheats. Also, in New Zealand, the semi-hard wheat cultivar Karamu has shown more effects and the soft, white wheat cultivar Arawa has fewer effects of bug damage than other cultivars (Every et al, 1996). In a study to investigate the susceptibility of various New Zealand wheat cultivars and breeding lines to attack by N. huttoni, Every et al (1996) stated that the hard wheat cultivar Domino was clearly the least susceptible
&feed milling technology
Grain
and the soft type breeding line WW378 was clearly the most susceptible to Nysius infestation. A similar study performed in Turkey by Kınacı (1994) has proven that the cereal bug E. integriceps prefers to attack white, soft and/or semi-hard wheats and it is astonishing that the first priority of the insect is to select those high quality kernels. The same study showed that E. integriceps rarely attacks hard wheats. The latest genotypes of wheat which the bug preferred to attack were hard red wheats. Also it was observed that the density of the cereal bug among wheat having thick, hard and tightly adhered seed coats
is much less (Kınacı, 1994).
Effects on baking quality In 1931, wheat producing a ‘slimy gluten’ was reported by Berliner. This wheat was completely unsuitable for processing into bread because doughs formed from the flour quickly relaxed, becoming very sticky and difficult to mould. Loaves of bread baked from these doughs typically had low volume, coarse texture, and knobbly tops. Gluten was washed out of the flour with difficulty, and instead of having the normal elastic properties; it was ‘slimy’ or ‘rotten’ (Lorenz and Meredith, 1988).
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