Not so long ago, the agricultural fields of Polissia and the hearts of farmers began to be conquered by a new crop – triticale. This is a unique hybrid in which the best hereditary qualities of wheat and rye have been successfully combined. At the Volyn Institute of Agro-Industrial Production, there is a support point of the Myronivka Institute of Wheat named after Vasyl Remeslo, headed by Candidate of Agricultural Sciences Anatolii Petrovych Bilitiuk. For 25 years, Anatolii Petrovych has been conducting scientific research. He is an adviser to the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School on agricultural issues, the author of three varieties of triticale, and the author of the first monograph in our country, "Triticale in Ukraine." Our correspondent's conversation with him is about this unique crop..

– Anatolii Petrovych, it is known that you work with winter varieties of triticale. In Volyn they are assessed as high-yielding. Triticale grain makes good bread; it is widely used for the production of alcohol, beer, and compound feed. This very crop is called "the second Polissian wheat." Its sown areas in the region occupy 25 thousand hectares. Tell me, are there also spring forms of this crop?

– Of course, wheat is our grain crop number one. It gets the best fields, the best predecessors. And where conditions are not entirely suitable for it, it is better to sow triticale. Today, Ukrainian breeders have developed up to ten varieties of spring triticale, in particular Aist kharkivskyi, Zhaivoronok kharkivskyi, Khlibodar kharkivskyi, and Arsenal. When zonal resource-saving technologies developed specifically for them are applied, these varieties ensure, in the conditions of our region, a grain yield of 60–70 centners per hectare. The grain is of excellent quality and in some main parameters even surpasses wheat grain.

– And what are the advantages of spring triticale over spring wheat?

– First, this crop is resistant to diseases, pests, and other unfavorable environmental factors. Second, triticale grain is a valuable feed for animals and poultry in agriculture, because it has an increased protein content, essential amino acids, and carotenoids, and substantially improves the baking properties of soft wheat. Third, its quality indicators are better as well. For example, the weight of 1,000 grains is 40–42 grams, the grain test weight is 700–720 grams per liter, the protein content is 13–15 percent, gluten of the first group is 23–26 percent, and the bread volume is 450–480 milliliters. All this shows that spring triticale not only is not inferior to spring wheat but also surpasses it.

– So housewives can safely bake bread from triticale?

– The baking properties of spring triticale grain are at the level of third-class spring wheat. Flour from triticale, thanks to its strong gluten, is capable of improving the baking properties of flour from wheat of classes IV–VI. For this purpose, it is recommended to add up to 30 percent triticale flour to wheat flour, or to bake bread in pure form. Bread made from the grain of this crop is white, almost like wheat bread, somewhat inferior to it in volume, slightly sweet in taste, does not stale as quickly, and is beneficial for people suffering from diabetes or prone to obesity. Four types of such bread – "Volynskyi," "Prostyi zavarnyi," "Poltavskyi," "Kharkivskyi" – have already been put into production.

– Statistics show that 50 percent of triticale crops are grown on farms and on household plots of the population. What biological features does this crop have when it is grown?

– Of course, everyone who grows this cereal must know that the best predecessors for it in the forest-steppe zone of the region are corn, potatoes, beets, grain legumes, buckwheat, vegetable crops, and annual grasses. In the Transitional and Polissia zones, on poor sod-podzolic and peat-bog drained soils, triticale should be sown after row crops: potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots, beans, legumes, annual and perennial grasses, and buckwheat.

The composition and doses of mineral fertilizers applied under spring triticale are determined depending on the soil's supply of nutrients, which is connected with soil fertility and predecessors. Before the main tillage, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers should be applied: on average 50–60 kilograms of phosphorus and 60–80 kilograms of potassium of active substance per hectare. Nitrogen fertilizers, especially ammonium nitrate, should preferably be applied locally before pre-sowing cultivation (50–60 kilograms of active substance per hectare). The depth of seed incorporation is 4–5 centimeters, but during intensive drying of the soil the sowing depth should be increased to 6–7 centimeters. The sowing rate is 5 million germinating seeds per hectare with the best predecessors and 5–6 million with worse ones.

– Does spring triticale have immunity to various diseases?

– Varieties of spring triticale are resistant to infection by bunt and loose smut, so seeds for commercial crops do not need to be treated. Triticale has good immunity to leaf diseases. Therefore, on spring triticale crops the need to use fungicides disappears. When larvae of the shield bug and grain beetles appear in the milky and dough stages of the grain, the crops are treated with Karate, Decis, and Volaton preparations.

It is worth remembering that triticale is also indispensable when using short crop rotation, which today is extremely necessary for small farms.

Interview conducted by Olena DUDKEVYCH