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Nutritional Value of Hard Red Spring Wheat Grain Protein as Influenced by Fertilization and Cultivar¹

Cereal grains often vary sufficiently in protein content or amino acid composition to produce significant growth differences in experimental animals. A study was undertaken to determine the influence of fertilization and cultivar on the nutritional value of wheat. Two relatively unrelated hard red spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, Era and Waldron, were grown during 1977 and 1978 on Heimdal (coarse-loamy , mixed, thermic Udic Haploborolls) soils in eastern North Dakota. Fertilizer N, P, and K were applied in several combinations to determine if differences would occur in grain protein. Sprague-Dawley albino rats were fed vitamin and mineral-fortified grain diets from 11 of the fertility treatments and the two cultivars each year to determine if treatment and cultivar would result in differences in diet consumed, rate of gain, feed per gain, protein efficiency ratio (PER), and protein digestibility coefficient (PDC). In 1977, with relatively high initial available N, additions of fertilizer N increased grain protein 1.6 percentage units and caused highly significant increases in diet consumed and rate of gain, and a decrease in feed per gain; PER and PDC were not affected. In 1978, with low initial available soil N, fertilizer N increased grain protein by 2.1 percentage units, reduced PER and increased PDC values. Adding micronutrients and S to the soil after planting did not affect PER values but significantly improved PDC values. The fact that the grain from the low N treatments and the low residual N site tended to have low protein contents, but higher nutritive value of the protein, tends to support the widely acknowledged inverse lysine-protein relationship. Improved protein utilization at lower dietary protein levels may also have been a factor in improving PER values.

Key Words: Triticum aestivum L. • Rats • Micronutrients • Protein efficiency ratio • Protein digestibility coefficient • Rate of gain • Feed per gain

² Soils consultant (formerly graduate research assistant), 3601 Garden Brook, Dallas, TX 75234, professor of soil science, and associate professor of animal science, respectively.

Received for publication May 15, 1981.