The breeding work with the winter bread wheat in the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” is being carried out taking into account the increasing aridity of the local climate, the availability of different soil and climatic zones, various forecrops. Every year in the Rostov region there is an increase in the sown area under winter wheat. So, in 2020 the grain crop was sown on more than 2.6 million hectares. Most of it is sown after such non-fallow forecrops as peas, maize, sunflower and other crops. In this regard, it is important to develop and introduce into production winter bread wheat varieties based according to these forecrops. The laboratory for breeding and seed production of winter bread wheat of half-intensive type was established in 1978. For the period from 1978 to 2019, 36 varieties were developed in the laboratory and sent to the State Variety Testing. The main task of the crop breeding for non-fallow forecrops was and still remains to develop highly productive varieties with high frost resistance, drought resistance, heat resistance, resistance to major diseases and grain quality of strong and valuable wheat. In 2020 22 winter bread wheat varieties, developed in the laboratory, have been included into the State List of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation. Currently five winter bread wheat varieties ‘Polina’, ‘Ambar’, ‘Niva Dona’, ‘Podarok Krymu’ and ‘Premiera’ are undergoing the State Variety Testing. There is still going on the work on the development of new winter bread wheat varieties that meet modern production requirements, with a wide ecological adaptability and stability of productivity and quality of grain and flour.

The current paper has considered the results of sixty years of breeding work on winter durum wheat development, a new grain crop for the steppe arid conditions of the Don area. This breeding period was represented by five stages, each of them was characterized by the solution of various problems, by the development of methods for obtaining and using the initial material and, on its basis, varieties being urgent for the definite period. Throughout the history of breeding work there were developed 32 winter turgid and durum wheat varieties, 21 of which were zoned or included into the State List, 16 were protected by patents, 6 were studied at the SVT. There have been presented the study results of the varieties of different breeding stages according to their main economically valuable traits and properties, obtained in the trial ‘History of the breeding work’ with green manure fallow in 2015–2019. There have been identified their positive advantages and disadvantages in the breding process. Significant progress has been achieved in changing plant architectonics by reducing straw length on 39.3–45.2 cm, increasing the resistance to lodging on 1.3–1.4 points, improving the agrocenosis on 300–400 heads per m², and increasing the harvesting index from 26.1 to 41.1%. Productivity due to productive breeding for 60 years increased on 3.37 t/ha or 66.3%, and the productivity potential of the modern short-stemmed varieties reached 10 t/ha and more. There has been found out that productivity improvement during breeding positively affected on adaptive properties (winter resistance, drought resistance, resistance to brown and yellow rust, powdery mildew) and the indices grain and pasta quality. There have also been indicated the problematic areas which require further intensive work not only in breeding, but also in a wider distribution of the winter durum wheat varieties in agricultural production.

The systematic study on winter wheat breeding began in 1955 in the former Zernograd experimental station, and now the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “ARC “Donskoy”. Under these conditions, the development of the most suitable for local conditions varieties of intensive type with increased frost resistance determined the main direction of winter wheat breeding in those years. In the early 1980s, the area of black fallow increased in the Rostov region, much attention was paid to irrigated agriculture. There was planned to increase the area under irrigation in the North Caucasus to 1 million hectares. Therefore, there was set a goal to develop highly productive, low-stemmed, resistant to lodging varieties, responsive to mineral fertilizing with complex immunity to diseases. The breeding work of the laboratory for the breeding and seed production of winter bread wheat of an intensive type over the past forty years resulted in the development of 22 varieties of intensive type with good adaptability to the conditions of the Rostov region. In 2020, 17 winter bread wheat varieties of an intensive type were included into the State List of Breeding Achievements, five varieties ‘Yubiley Dona’, ‘Zodiak’, ‘Univer’, ‘Razdolye’, ‘Rubin Dona’ are currently undergoing the State Variety Testing at the SVTs of the Russian Federation. A stable productivity improvement is possible only with the emphasis on the development of varieties with broad adaptive properties, providing sufficiently high yields under various cultivation conditions. Among the breeding traits that affect productivity stability, the most significant in the conditions of the Don are winter and frost resistance, disease resistance, drought resistance, early ripeness, and grain quality. Therefore, the adaptive potential increase is the most important task for the future breeding. In order to solve this problem, intraspecific and interspecific hybridization, followed by targeted selection, remains the main breeding method of winter bread wheat of an intensive type.

The current paper has presented an overview of the work of the laboratory for breeding and seed production of perennial grasses of the ARC “Donskoy” over a ten-year period. There has been presented a brief history of the development of the laboratory from the moment of its establishment to the present day. The main purpose of the work in this period was the breeding, reproduction, introduction into production of the new alfalfa and sainfoin varieties with a wide range of resistance to various stress factors with high productivity of forage and seeds. In the collection farms of alfalfa there have been tested and agro biologically estimated more than 600 varieties from the world collection of VIR, other research institutions and local hybrids. Based on this work there have been developed an initial material with a wide variability of economically-biological useful characters using the methods of hybridization and selection. The best lines and hybrids were included in the complex hybrid populations, which became the basis for the development of the new alfalfa varieties ‘Selyanka’ (2013) and ‘Golubka’ (2019). Throughout the history of the laboratory, great attention was paid to the development of the new sainfoin varieties, as a result of which there were zoned such varieties as ‘Severokavkazky dvuukosny’ (1947), ‘Zernogradsky 2’ (1998), ‘Zernogradsky 3’ (2001), ‘Atamansky’ (2004), ‘Veles’ (2010). Over the past ten years, there were developed the sainfoin varieties ‘Sudar’ (2013) and ‘Shuravi’ (2019) protected by a patent, the varieties undergone the State Variety Testing, were included into the State List of Breeding Achievements approved for use in several regions of the Russian Federation. There has been given a brief description of the current problems of breeding and primary seed production of perennial grasses, as well as the directions of the laboratory's work to solve them. There has been presented the publication activity of the researchers of the laboratory.

The current paper has presented the results of breeding work on maize in the Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”. The three-line and double interlinear middle early and middle ripening maize hybrids of various economic use ‘Zernogradsky 242 MV’, ‘Zernogradsky 282 MV’, ‘Zernogradsky 288 MV’, ‘Zernogradsky 299 MV’, ‘Zernogradsky 354 MV’, ‘Zernogradsky MV’, ‘Stepnyak MV’ were developed and included into the State List of Breeding Achievements from 2006 to 2020. The Competitive Variety Testing has identified a new high-heterosis simple hybrid ‘Zernogradsky 352 MB’ and the new early ripening hybrids ‘Krucha M × KB 215’, ‘Krucha M × SP 56/57’ with low harvesting grain moisture. The main method used to develop maize hybrids was an interline hybridization using heterosis in the first generation (F1 ). There have been determined the priority directions of further breeding, namely early ripeness, grain humidity-transfer intensity during ripening, drought resistance, high starch content in grain. There has been developed new initial material for each direction of breeding. There have been selected the introduced testers (‘Alpha M’, ‘Almaz M’, ‘Aurora S’, ‘Milena M’, ‘Istok S’) to develop early-ripening hybrids. There have been identified the early and middle-early ripening self-pollinated lines ‘C 207’, ‘RD 12’, ‘TVA 308’, ‘PLS 61’, ‘KB 215’, etc., with a high grain humidity-transfer intensity during ripening (0.95–1.30% per day), low harvest moisture content of grain (10.8–13.8%). There have been developed the new self-pollinated waxy maize lines (24/29/5, 25/64/10, 26/8, 26/4, 26/80, 24/28) with 68.1–69.8% of amylopectin starch in grain. There have been identified the new self-pollinated maize lines resistant to water stress (DS 498/217-3, DS 257/85-5, DS 498/203, KB 262, etc.) promising for breeding drought-resistant maize hybrids.

Sorghum is one of the main food and feed crops in the world. Rapid population growth in Africa requires a growing amount of local foods such as sorghum. Therefore, breeding work aimed at developing highly productive sorghum varieties and hybrids adapted to the soil and climatic conditions of Africa and the arid conditions of southern Russia is of great urgency. Therefore, it was necessary to identify the adapted samples with valuable economically valuable traits. The current study has been carried out on the experimental plots of the laboratory for grain sorghum breeding and seed production of the FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”. As objects of the study there have been used the grain sorghum varieties of the National Research Institute of Semi-Arid Resources (NaSARRI) of the Republic of Uganda ‘Seso 1’, ‘Seso 3’, ‘Narosorg 1’, ‘Narosorg 2’, ‘Narosorg 3’, ‘Narosorg 4’, ‘Epuripur’, as well as the variety ‘Zernogradskoe 88’ sown as the standard variety. The study was conducted in accordance with the Methodology of State Variety Testing of Agricultural Crops and B. A. Dospekhov’s Methodology of a field trial. The purpose of the current study was a comprehensive estimation of grain sorghum varieties developed in the research institutions in Uganda under the conditions of the Rostov region to use the selected samples in further breeding work as sources of economically valuable traits. In the conditions of the Rostov region the Ugandan varieties belonged to the group of middle ripening and late ripening varieties. The plant height in the studied varieties varied from 155 to 210 cm. According to the trait “number of grains per panicle” the varieties had a large number of grains (1829–2530 pcs.). The main share of the NaSARRI varieties had a high percentage of raw protein in grain (13.6–14.9%). A low tannin content was established in the varieties ‘Seso 1’ (0.54%), ‘Epuripur’ (0.66%) and ‘Narosorg 1’ (0.71%).

Rice is one of the most important food crops in the world. The development of new rice varieties requires a thorough study and involvement of gene pool from different countries in breeding work. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a mutual ecological testing of the rice varieties in the Rostov region of Russia (FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy”) such as ‘Akustik’, ‘Aromatik 1’, ‘Aromatny’, ‘Kuboyar’, ‘Yuzhanin’ and the Ugandan (NaCRRI) ‘Nerica 1’, ‘Nerica 4’, ‘Komboka’, ‘Wita 9’. These samples have shown a wide range of resistance to blast and other diseases. The research was carried out in the Proletarsky district of the Rostov region. As a result, the rice varieties were studied for a number of important economic and biological traits. The growing season from sowing to ripening was 131–139 days for two varieties ‘Nerica 1’ and ‘Nerica 4’ under the conditions of the Rostov region, and 110 days for the standard variety ‘Komandor’. The other two varieties ‘Komboka’ and ‘Wita 9’ were very late maturing and did not bloom. All samples had a modern low-growing plant habit with upright rigid leaves and long drooping panicles (17–23 cm). Plant height of the Ugandan varieties ranged from 70 to 90 cm. The grains were elongated with 29–31 mg of weight. Number of spikelets per panicle was 85 and 200, respectively. The varieties ‘Nerica 1’ and ‘Nerica 4’ were used in hybridization with the Russian varieties ‘Kontakt’ and ‘Boyarin’. The preliminary study of Russian rice varieties in Uganda showed that RU 105 (‘Aromatny’) and RU 101 (‘Aromatik 1’) were resistant to rice yellow spot virus (‘RYMV’), blast and brown leaf spot. The varieties were selected for further study in the conditions of Uganda.

In order to obtain high yields of winter durum wheat, it is necessary not only to use advanced agricultural technologies, but also to sow varieties resistant to major diseases. One of these diseases that cause great harm to grain crops is Septoria leaf blotch. The current paper has presented the study results of collection material of Russian and foreign winter durum wheat according to the efficiency of the Septoria leaf blotch resistance gene Stb2 in the North Caucasus region. The purpose of the current study was to identify the Septoria leaf blotch resistance gene Stb2 in the collection material of winter durum wheat. The study was carried out in 2017–2018 in the laboratory of marker breeding of the FSBSI “ARC “Donskoy” in Zernograd. In the course of the study there have been applied such methods as the isolation of genomic DNA by the CTAB-method, PCR-analysis with the molecular SSR marker WMS533, electrophoresis on 2% agarose gel, analysis of electrophoresis gels in the Bio-Rad Image Lab 6.0 software, general data analysis by Microsoft Excel. The study has shown that 29 samples out of 185 analyzed ones had the Septoria leaf blotch resistance gene Stb2, they are the lines L3557 h42, L3182 h7, L3335 h29, L3336 h43, L3408 h218 (Russia, FSBSI “Research Center of Plants named after P. P. Lukyanenko”), K-61620 (Russia), K-54455, DF 917 (Romania), K-61924, K-59179, K-51863, K-61869 (Moldova), K-63871 (Turkey), Kharkovskaya 909 (Ukraine), MVTD-15-99 (Hungary), 2196-1/04, 922/93, 589/13, 655/13, 683/13, 145/14, 322/14, 484/14, Gordeiform 1424/82 (Russia, FSBSI “ARC “Donskoy”), Beliy Parus (Ukraine), Belgorodskaya Yantarnaya (LLC “Sativa” in Belgorod, Russia), IR named after V. Ya. Yuriev (Kharkov, Ukraine)), Zhivitsa (Russia, Prikumskaya OSS), Pandur (Romania) and Elidur (Romania). There have been recommended using the identified samples of winter durum wheat with the Septoria leaf blotch resistance gene Stb2 in breeding programs.

The purpose of the current study was to identify the role of haploid plants in the grain crops’ breeding, to analyze the methods of obtaining haploids in vitro, and to compare the efficiency of the conventional and cell methods of winter wheat breeding. The current paper has considered the biotechnological methods of obtaining dihaploid lines, which could fasten the breeding process by 1.5–2 times and improve the quality of products. There has been established that the agricultural crops’ breeding based on intraspecific hybridization and selection is still a long and labor consuming process (10–12 years). There has been given characteristics of such methods used in vitro as androgenesis in the isolated anthers and microspores, gynogenesis, distant hybridization followed by selective elimination of chromosomes. There has been established that biotechnological methods would allow breeders to work with the necessary traits, and the highly productive and adaptable lines obtained in a year should be included in hybridization. There have been shown the main stages of the technology for obtaining haploid plants in anthers of grain crops, namely a growing and selection of donor plants, pretreatment with various stress factors, isolation of anthers and their cultivation in vitro, inducing embryogenesis, plant regeneration, doubling the number of chromosomes of regenerant plants. There have been considered some factors controlling the induction of callusogenesis, embryoidogenesis and plant regeneration in vitro of cereals. Thus, there has been established an efficiency of cell breeding of winter wheat in comparison with conventional methods of breeding.

The current study was carried out in order to create an early-ripening variety of spring bread wheat with productivity at the level of middle-early or higher, the most adapted to the specific conditions of the Middle Urals. The estimation of the breeding material was carried out in the fields, the soils of which are typical for the Sverdlovsk region and Permsky Krai. During the years of the study, the agroclimatic conditions differed along the growing season. There have been established the dry year of 2016 (90 mm of rain, GTC 0.6) and the moisture years of 2014, 2015, 2017–2019 (with precipitation amount of 247–448 mm, GTC 2.0–3.2). The crossings were carried out between the middle-ripening variety ‘Omskaya 35’ (mother) and the early- ripening variety ‘Iren’ (father). There has been developed the variety that combined high productivity and early maturity. The average productivity of the new variety ‘Ekstra’ in the Competitive Variety Testing in 2014–2019 was 4.07 t/ha, which is on 0.55 t/ha higher than the standard variety ‘Iren’, the maximum productivity was 5.0–6.1 t/ha (2019). The new variety has exceeded the values of the standard variety in such yield structure elements as “seed weight per head”, “1000 grain weight”, “grain content per head”; the accumulation of seeds per day of growing season was 14.2% and at 1 mm of precipitation the value improved till 15.2%. In the ecological testing the variety ‘Ekstra’ exceeded the varieties ‘Iren’, ‘Irgina’ from the State List of Breeding Achievements in the Volga-Vyatka region on 0.56–0.80 t/ha and the middle-early ripening varieties ‘Gornouralskaya’, ‘Bazhenka’, ‘Svecha’, ‘Zlata’ on 0.44–0, 55 t/ha. The variety ‘Ekstra’ is characterized by better energy efficiency parameters than ‘Irgina’, ‘Iren’, ‘Gornouralskaya’, ‘Zlata’. The excess was 9.2–21.9% in terms of total energy in the harvest per hectare, 16.0–40.6% in net energy income, and 4.7–13.1% in bioenergy ratio. The variety reduced energy consumption for the production of 1 ton of grain by 9.5–11.5%. There has been determined a significant advantage of the variety ‘Ekstra’ in terms of the general adaptability, stability, and breeding value of the genotype. In 2020 the variety was included into the State List of Breeding Achievements in the Volga-Vyatka region, Ural, West Siberian regions of the Russian Federation. The variety ‘Ekstra’ has the same parameters of productivity, yield structure elements, adaptability, the accumulation of seeds per day of growing season and per 1 mm of precipitation, energy efficiency of cultivation, as the middle-early ripening standard variety ‘Ekaterina’.

The current paper has presented the study results of 2017–2019 on estimating the indices of productivity and sowing seed qualities of the spring barley varieties ‘Gris’ and ‘Leon’. Ther was conducted pre-sowing treatment of seed material, depending on the fractional composition of grain and plants during the growing season. There were used the growth biostimulants based on algae Ruter and Stimax Start in the conditions of the southern part of the Rostov region. There has been found out that seed and plant treatment with biostimulants had an effect on the sowing qualities and yield properties of seeds. There has been established that the seeds isolated on sieves with a hole diameter of 2.4 × 20 mm, when using the biological product Ruter, had the highest germination energy (93–94%) and laboratory germination (97%), as well as the highest yield in the studied spring barley varieties ‘Gris’ (8.8 t/ha) and ‘Leon’ (8.3 t/ha). The largest grain size was obtained from the 2.4 × 20 fraction using the biological product Ruter (the variety ‘Leon’ produced 43.1 g and the variety ‘Gris’ produced 50.1 g). The maximum seed yield in the studied varieties after treatment (86.4 and 90.1%, respectively) was also identified in the 2.4 × 20 mm fraction when using the biostimulator Ruter. On the control without biostimulants, the seed yield of the variety ‘Leon’ in the 2.4 × 20 fraction was 80.3%, and that of the variety ‘Gris’ was 81.4%. There has been shown an economic efficiency of the biological products depending on the fraction of sowing material in the cultivation technology of spring barley. The largest productivity increase (the variety ‘Leon’ 1.2 t/ha (2.4 × 20 mm fraction) and ‘Gris’ 0.9 t/ha (2.2 × 20 mm fraction)) was obtained in the variants when using the bioproduct Ruter with the maximum (195.8%) profitability of the variety ‘Gris’. The results of the trials have shown that the use of biostimulants based on algae in general had a positive effect on the development of spring barley varieties and the production of high-quality seed material in the Rostov region.

The purpose of current work was to conduct an economic and biological estimation of the main morphobiological traits and properties of the ultra-early-ripening winter barley variety ‘Foks 1’ in comparison with the standard variety. In connection with the increasing climate aridity in recent years, the relevance of the production uses of early-ripening varieties of grain crops, including winter barley, has increased. For several decades the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” has been working in this direction, which resulted in the development of the new ultra early-ripening winter barley variety ‘Foks 1’. Since 2019 the variety ‘Foks 1’ has been included in the State List of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasus region. The variety parentage has the highly winter-resistant, lodging-resistant and large-grain varieties. The variety ‘Foks 1’ ripens on average 8–10 days earlier than the middle-ripening standard variety ‘Timofey’. On average, over the years of study in the Competitive Variety Testing (2017–2019), the trait “1000 grains weight” of the variety was 42.5 g, that of the standard variety was 40.2 g, the trait “grain nature” was 672 and 656 g/l, respectively. The trait “number of grains per head” of the new variety was 51, that of the standard variety was 45. The new variety formed an average yield of 8.1 t/ha, the excess over the standard was 0.5 t/ha. The variety ‘Foks 1’ was of a high level of winter tolerance and was resistant to lodging, it was also tolerant to damage by the main leaf diseases widespread in the region. The study results at the state variety plots of the Russian Federation and ecological testing in various soil and climatic zones have shown that the new ultra early-ripening winter barley variety ‘Foks 1’ under increasing climate aridity is undoubtedly of practical interest for cultivation in the North Caucasian region of the Russian Federation.

The current paper has presented the study results of the collection varieties of hull-less spring barley according to grain quality indices (protein, starch, lysine and ß-glucan). The initial material for the for the varieties' study in the conditions of the south of the Rostov region were than 100 varieties and lines of hull-less barley developed in the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “FRC All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources named after N. I. Vavilov”. The study was carried out in the crop rotation of the department of barley breeding and seed production of the FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” in 2016-2018. The purpose of the study was to scrutinize quality indices of the hull-less barley varieties. The trials were carried out according to the Methodology of the State Variety Testing. The accounting area of the plot was 10 m², the seeding rate was 450 germinating grains per 1 m², the standard variety ‘Ratnik’ was sown in 20 numbers with single sequence. The sowing was carried out with the seeder Wintershteiger Plotseed S; the harvesting was conducted with the combine Wintershteiger-Classik. The qualitative indices were determined according to generally accepted GOST standards. During the study under contrasting weather conditions, there have been identified the samples with increased indices of protein, lysine, starch and ß-glucan. In 2016 the variety ‘Golozerny’ (RF) was characterized by a high content of lysine and ß-glucan. In 2018 the samples ‘K-3800’ (Ukraine) and ‘Nigohodaka’ (Japan) combined a high content of several indices. Throughout three years of study, according to seed protein percentage, there has been identified the sample ‘Nigohadaka’ (Japan), which showed consistently high values of this trait. According to starch content there has been identified the sample ‘CDC Dawn’ (Canada). During the years of study, it was possible to trace that there were the advantages of hull-less samples according to quality indices over the unhulled standard variety. There could be made the conclusion that hull-less barley can be used in hybridization to improve quality.

The current paper has presented the study results on the ecological estimation of seed peas of different types of development. The purpose of our study was to assess the quantitative and qualitative indicators of seed peas varieties of different types of development in the southern part of the Rostov region. The trials were carried out on the experimental plots of the FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” at the laboratory for legumes breeding and seed production. Autumn sowing was carried out in the second decade of October. Spring sowing was conducted in the third decade of March. The objects of the study were the variety ‘Legion’ sown in autumn and spring in comparison with the variety ‘Aksaysky Usatiy 5’, which was used as a standard variety in the trials. The statistical data were processed according to B. A. Dospekhov’s methodology (2012) using Excel with the STATISTICA 10 application. The variety ‘Legion’ sown in autumn ripened earlier in comparison with the standard variety ‘Aksaysky Usatiy 5’. Early ripening of winter peas than spring peas made it possible to evenly distribute the load on the harvesting equipment, since ripening of spring peas often coincided with ripening of winter grain crops, such as winter barley and winter wheat. The variety ‘Legion’ sown in winter exceeded the standard variety ‘Aksaysky Usatiy 5’ in such indicators as “plant height”, “number of beans”, “number of seeds”, “seed weight per plant” and “protein percentage”. The study results have shown that the conditions of the southern part of the Rostov region were favorable for the cultivation of winter peas. The winter peas ripened a decade earlier than spring peas, and seed productivity was 1.7–1.8 times larger.

Grain quality of winter bread wheat is an urgent issue in Russia and in the world. The traits and properties of grain that characterize the quality are formed in the field under the effect of weather and climatic conditions. The current study was carried out in 2017–2019. The objects of the study were 12 varieties and 3 promising lines of winter bread wheat of the Competitive Variety Testing. The variety ‘Ermak’ was used as a standard variety. The purpose of the study was to carry out a comparative estimation of grain quality of the varieties and promising lines of winter bread wheat, to identify the variation of traits over the years and to determine the effect of growing conditions on the formation of grain quality. There has been established that the studied varieties and lines formed nature weight from 799 g/l (the variety ‘Aksiniya’) to 830 g/l (‘Yubiley Dona’) and corresponded to the 1-st quality class. There have been identified the varieties ‘Etyud’ (62%; Cv = 6.6%), ‘Ermak’ (62%; Cv = 7.0%) and the line ‘1005/14’ (68%; Cv = 8.1%) with a combination of high values of the general hardness and insignificant variation of the trait over the years. There has been determined that the variety ‘Nakhodka’ (14.11%; Cv = 3.6%) and the line ‘1261/13’ (14.10%; Cv = 6.1%) were characterized by the maximum protein percentage and low values of the coefficient of variation. There has been established that the varieties ‘Aksiniya’ (4.5 points; 7.9%) and ‘Tanais’ (4.0 points; 2.5%) combined a high baking value with the stability of the trait. When estimating the effect of the factors “genotype”, “year of study” and their correlation on the characteristics of grain quality, there has been found that general hardness (52.59%), mass fraction of grain protein (58.31%), dough deformation (57, 78%), valorimetric value (46.01%), volume of bread (41.77%) and general baking assessment (51.24%) were largely dependent on genotype. The growing conditions had an effect on the formation of the quantity and quality of gluten and the P/l ratio.

The purpose of the current work was to study the winter wheat varieties artificially infected with the North Caucasian population of brown rust to identify a damage degree. The study was carried out in two stages on two sets (8 and 10) of varieties with different level of resistance to the pathogen. The trials have established a high damage degree of rust on susceptible varieties, which resulted in productivity decrease from 16.3 to 32.2%. Among the varieties with the maximum damage degree, there was identified the most resistant variety ‘Tarasovskaya 29’ which, when completely (100%) damaged by the disease, showed a minimum productivity decrease, no more than 10.6%. The varieties being poorly susceptible to brown leaf rust reduced the productivity from 11.2% to 20.7%. The smaller indices of productivity decrease among this group were shown by the variety ‘Spartak’. Among the five varieties that showed moderate leaf rust damage, there were different degrees of productivity decrease. The variety ‘Donskaya Yubileynaya’ artificially infected with brown rust, showed a minimal productivity decrease and its structural elements, and it could be identified as the leaf rust resistant variety like the variety ‘Tarasovskaya 29’. When predicting the brown leaf rust epiphytoty, the susceptible and half-resistant wheat varieties require obligatory protection with fungicides.