Breeding progress, environmental variation and correlation of winter wheat yield and quality traits in German official variety trials and on-farm during 1983–2014

KEY MESSAGE: Over the last 32 years, a large gain in grain yield (24 %) was achieved in official German variety trials, and despite considerable loss in protein concentration (−7.9 %), winter wheat baking quality was partially improved over the last 32 years. On-farm gain in grain yield (32 %) exceeded gain in trials, but at yield level about 25 dt ha (−1) lower. Breeding progress was very successfully transferred into both progress in grain yield and on-farm baking quality. ABSTRACT: Long-term gains in grain yield and baking quality of 316 winter wheat varieties from German official trials were evaluated. We dissected progress into a genetic and a non-genetic part to quantify the contribution of genetic improvement. We further investigated the influence of genotype and environment on total variation by estimating variance components. We also estimated genetic and phenotypic correlation between quality traits. For trial data, we found a large gain in grain yield (24%), but a strong decline in protein concentration (−8.0%) and loaf volume (−8.5%) relative to 1983. Improvement of baking quality could be achieved for falling number (5.8%), sedimentation value (7.9%), hardness (13.4%), water absorption (1.2%) and milling yield (2.4%). Grain yield, falling number and protein concentration were highly influenced by environment, whereas for sedimentation value, hardness, water absorption and loaf volume genotypes accounted for more than 60% of total variation. Strong to very strong relations exist among protein concentration, sedimentation value, and loaf volume. On-farm yields were obtained from national statistics, and grain quality data from samples collected by national harvest survey. These on-farm data were compared with trial results. On-farm gain in grain yield was 31.6%, but at a mean level about 25 dt ha(−1) lower. Improvement of on-farm quality exceeded trial results considerably. A shift to varieties with improved baking quality can be considered as the main reason for this remarkable improvement of on-farm baking quality. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-016-2810-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.