Professor Benada was born March 13, 1928, in Mikulčice into a family that farmed their own land, giving him deep connections to plants, nature, and agriculture.His private, as well as professional life, was influenced by important historical events

The work presents the results from 2016 - 2018 from the same locality (Ivanovice na Hane) using the same technology of spring barley cultivation. Sugar beet was used as pre-crop in all the mentioned years; it was grown after three different pre-crops: silage maize, winter wheat and spring barley. Each of these variants used four tillage methods (tillage 22 cm, tillage 15 cm, no tillage, disc 10 cm). The grain yield and its malt quality were assessed in relation to the weather conditions and cultivation method. Higher temperatures and rainfall deficit resulted in a significant decrease in the grain yield and quality parameters. Trials in an area where the moisture deficit during the vegetation period reached almost 40 % proved that the content of organic matter in soil, its quality and rate of decomposition are very important factors not only for the subsequent crop but also for other crops in the rotation.

Fifteen winter wheat varieties were tested for their reaction to Fusarium culmorum and F. graminearum in the ear in 1996, 1998 and 1999. To ensure a sufficient level of infection in the field the varieties were artificially inoculated with spores of the two species at a ratio of 1:1. The infection was evaluated using a 10-score scale at three times: first at the milk stage (BBCH 71–75), i.e. about 14 days after inoculation; two further readings were taken at 7-day intervals. The data were used to calculate the average infection for each variety at each reading, and were statistically evaluated. The parameter “area under disease progress curve” (AUDPC) was also calculated. Significant differences between varieties were found in all investigated years. On the average of the 3 years, the variety Ebi showed the lowest infection. Other varieties with significantly low infection were Estica and Atlet. The variety with the highest infection was Bruneta, followed by Samanta, Saskia and Samara. The degree of infection was considerably influenced by weather conditions in the year. A lower infection was observed in 1996 when rainfall in the period from 1st to 20th June was below normal, while rainfalls in 1998 and 1999 were higher in this period. The efficacy of fungicides was assessed in the highly susceptible variety Bruneta. All tested preparations significantly decreased the degree of infection in comparison with the untreated control. In 1998 the efficacy of fungicides was rather low (from 15.51 to 37.55%), while in 1999 it was higher (from 36.74 to 58.20%). In both years the preparation Folicur BT was most efficacious.

Fusarium head blight caused by a complex of Fusarium species is widespread across the world and ranks among the most serious diseases in cereals. Long-term field experiments were set up to evaluate the effects of preceding crop and soil management methods on Fusarium mycotoxin (DON, deoxynivalenol) contamination of winter wheat and spring barley grain. Winter wheat and spring barley were cultivated at two locations in the Czech Republic (A: Ivanovice na Hané during 2002–2014, and B: Žabčice during 2007–2014) with preceding crops (A) alfalfa, maize, and pea; and (B) alfalfa (only for wheat), sugar beet (only for barley), and maize. Different soil management methods also were used: (A) 22 cm tillage, 15 cm tillage, 10 cm chisel, and direct drilling; and (B) 22 cm tillage, 10 cm chisel, and direct drilling. Mycotoxin content in harvested grain was analysed using ELISA. At both locations in the experiments with both wheat and barley, year had a significant effect on mycotoxin content in grain. Preceding crop was another significant factor in wheat experiments at both locations, with DON content in grain higher with maize as the preceding crop than in the cases of other preceding crops. Soil management method had a significant effect only on mycotoxin content in wheat grain grown at Žabčice, and the highest DON content was determined in the chisel variant, in which case a large amount of harvest residue remained on the soil surface or was only partially incorporated.

Changes in the structure of grown crops to the detriment of root crops resulted in such a state that it is necessary to revise past cropping practices of spring barley for malting purposes and to assess proportions of the effect of current preceding crops, year, growing intensity and varieties on grain yield and quality parameters of this crop. The paper presents results from the period of 2005-2008. Spring barley (five varieties) was grown after four preceding crops (sugar beet, maize, cereal crop and oilseed rape). All varieties, after all preceding crops, were grown using three crop management practices. In the experiments, grain yield, volume weight, percentage of plump kernels (2.5-mm sieves) and N-substances content were evaluated. The effect of the year predominated in the experiments. It was due to a high instability of crop rotations containing only a few crops often repeated in the rotation and leaving a large amount of organic matter in the soil. It is followed by another important factor, weather conditions. If there was a lack of moisture during a short growing season of spring barley, especially at early growth and developmental stages, an overall structure of the stand was less able to form the required yield with high volume weight, low content of N-substances and a high percentage of plump kernels. The soil environment determined by the preceding crop limited or, conversely, stressed the negative effect of the weather in the given year. The highest grain yield as well as the highest volume weight were produced after preceding crop sugar beet. The percentage of plump kernels (87.8%) was also high after sugar beet. Content of N-substances was on average of all years and variants 12.1%.

Soil tillage practices involving various depth, intensity, and different methods of loosening the soil and treating plant residues have changed significantly in recent years and have spread also due to technical advance. The reasons are not only in expected benefits for crop production economics but also in preserving and increasing soil fertility. Although the practices were known for decades, their greatest development and use was seen only in the last 15 years, when decreasing production costs, efficient technology and effective herbicides were the main reasons for their development. At present, they are regarded as important alternatives to conventional management practices with moldboard plowing. Minimum soil tillage practices can contribute to effective soil management, however, risks associated with using these practices in various farming conditions shall be regarded. For cereals, these risks also include disease severity that is conditioned by several circumstances, which change along with the crop management practice, variety assortment or weather in individual years. Diseases that can be of greater importance in relation to the conservation soil tillage practice are stem-base diseases, root diseases and Fusarium head blight. Our experiments did not demonstrate an increased demand for protection against Fusarium head blight, foot diseases and take-all in the given system (three-crop rotation where wheat followed white mustard). Individual years were an important factor.

Selected lines of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) differing in spike morphotype were evaluated for responses to increasing nitrogen doses and pesticides. The examined collection consisted of lines with long glumes (LG) transferred from T. polonicum L. and lines with multirow spike (MRS) with the presence of supernumerary spikelets. These lines were compared with current wheat cultivars with normal spike (NS). Four agronomic practices were used: K0 - no fungicides and growth regulators, and no nitrogen fertilisation; F0, F100, F200 - fungicides and growth regulators with nitrogen doses 0, 100 and 200 kg. ha(-1). Lines with LG are considered perspective for breeding use because they had better yield increases in response to increasing nitrogen doses as compared to NS. Lines with MRS produced lower yields than lines with NS and LG, but their grain had higher content of N-substances. LG could increase spike assimilation capacity. MRS is characterised by high potential formation of spikelets and grain number. Its practical use will need much breeding effort.

Bunts (caused by <i>Tilletia caries</i> and <i>T. controversa</i>) belong to very important diseases of winter wheat because contaminated commodities (seeds, foods and feeds) affect the marketability of the crop on both domestic and export markets. They can be relatively easily controlled by chemical seed treatments. Due to the availability of effective chemical control, the reaction of wheat cultivars to bunts has so far not been an important trait for plant breeders in some areas of the world. However, if synthetic chemicals are not allowed, like in organic farming, untreated seed may quickly lead to a build-up of bunt to levels that render the crop unmarketable. The use of wheat cultivars partially or fully resistant to bunts could greatly contribute to ease the bunt problem. The reaction of winter wheat cultivars was evaluated in field tests. Seeds of winter wheat were inoculated with teliospores of <i>T. caries</i>. The reaction to <i>T. controversa</i> was studied under heavy natural infestation with spores in the soil. With <i>T. caries</i>, the heaviest infection was found in cvs Drifter and Ebi, while cvs Nela, Brea and Samanta had the lowest. The average level of infection with <i>T. controversa</i> was higher than that of <i>T. caries</i>. The cvs Niagara, Brea and Versailles had significantly lower numbers of bunt ears of <i>T. controversa</i> in 2002. The incidence of both bunts in grain samples that had not been cleaned and sorted after harvest was monitored for 4 years. A total of 1 058 samples collected from various locations in the Czech Republic were analysed for the presence of bunt spores and the species determined. The investigation demonstrated a rather widespread occurrence of bunts across the Czech Republic, with <i>T. controversa</i> being more frequent.

In the Czech Republic, three closely related species of the genus Tilletia belong to pathogens that cause significant losses of wheat crops by replacing grains with a mass of teliospores. A quantitative real-time qPCR assay using SYBR Green I has been developed to quantify the amount of T. caries and T. controversa mycelium in apical meristems of different wheat varieties. The real-time PCR reaction was validated by evaluating selected extraction methods, examining the specificity of designed target-specific IGS primers and verifying the optimised amplification reaction on naturally infected wheat plants. The PCR detection limit for the specific identification of fungal DNA was 0.22 ng of mycelium, and the negative correlation between the target DNA quantity and cycle threshold (Ct) was high with a coefficient of determination of R2 = 0.992. The developed method was used to quantify pathogens mycelium in five wheat varieties in the range from 0.34 ng to 15 µg per one growing tip.

Acrylamide, a monomer with neurotoxic and potential carcinogenic effect, is formed via the Maillard reaction in heat-treated carbohydrate-rich foods. The major acrylamide precursors are reducing sugars and the amino acid asparagine. The aim of this study was to analyse effects of nitrogen nutrition, leaf disease control, wheat genotype and their interactions on acrylamide precursors content in wheat flour. Asparagine content was generally increasing at higher nitrogen doses, and nitrogen dose increase from 0 to 180 kg/ha increased the asparagine content to about 250%. The highest asparagine levels were determined at early spring nitrogen application. In the year 2006 with high leaf disease infestation, fungicide treatment decreased asparagine content particularly at higher nitrogen doses. In 2007, the effect of leaf disease control did not express in respect of very low infestation level. Close relationship between protein content and free asparagine in wheat flour was determined when leaf disease stress (fungicide treatment) and drought stress (year) were constant. Asparagine content was strongly influenced by wheat genotype and the differences between genotypes exceeded 200%. Effect of higher intensity was lower as compared to nitrogen nutrition, with regard to compensatory effect of fungicide treatments. Glucose content in wheat flour decreased both with fungicide treatment and total intensity level. Nitrogen dose increased glucose content up to 120 kg N/ha. Higher nitrogen doses decreased glucose content to initial level.

Over the last fifteen years some changes occured in spectrum of cereal's pathogens in CR. Increased the importace of wheat and barely virus diseases ( Barely yellow dwarf virus, Wheat dwarf virus), Mycosphaerella graminicola and Pyrenophora tritici-repentis - agens of leaf spots of wheat. Every year we find headblight (Fusarium spp.), but the importance of it strongly depends on the weather in the concrete year. Slowly, but continually spreading pathogen is Tilletia controversa. For the future we expect approximately equal occurrence of cereal diseases, continuig changes of the importance of the individual pathogens depending on changes of climate and new varieties.

High-quality seed is a basis of successful plant production. The seed quality is also associated with protection against seed-borne diseases. This protection includes seed dressing fungicides as part of the integrated protection system. The paper gives results of the protection against bunts, viral diseases, snow mould, take-all and leaf stripe disease.

Environmental factors influence the growth, survival, dissemination and hence the incidence of Fusarium fungi and the disease severity. The knowledge of the quantitative and qualitative effects of environmental factors and growing practices on initial infection, disease development and mycotoxin production is important for prediction of disease severity, yield impact and grain contamination with mycotoxins. The objective of this study was to design a model for prediction of deoxynivalenol (DON) content in winter wheat grain based on weather conditions, preceding crop and soil cultivation. The grain samples from winter wheat field experiments conducted in 2002-2005 to determine the effect of preceding crop in combination with soil cultivation on Fusarium head blight infection were analysed for the DON content. Average daily weather data (temperature, rainfall, relative humidity) were collected using an automated meteorological station and analysed separately for April, May and a 5 days period prior to the beginning of flowering and 5 days after the beginning of flowering. The correlation coefficients of DON content to weather data were calculated for monthly data prior to heading and 5 days data prior to and after the beginning of anthesis. Highest positive correlation coefficients were found for sum of precipitation in April, average temperature in April, and sum of precipitation 5 days prior to anthesis. Significant negative correlation was found for average temperature in May and average relative humidity 5 days prior to anthesis. Using the data from this experiment, we trained neural networks for prediction of deoxynivalenol content on the basis of weather data and preceding crop. The most appropriate neural network model was then coupled with AgriClim model to simulate spatial and temporal variation of DON content in wheat samples for south Moravia and north-east Austria area.

Nine cultivars of winter wheat were compared in organic and conventional crop rotation systems. Bread-making quality was evaluated using three parameters [thousand-kernel weight (TKW) in g, volume weight in g/l, protein content in %]. Grain yield, TKW and protein content of winter wheat in organic cropping system were significantly lower as compared to any intensity in conventional cropping system. However, clover as a preceding crop to winter wheat in organic crop rotation ensured a sufficient amount of nitrogen for grain yield, which was 6.72 t/ha on average of the three years. The requirement of the Czech national standard for bread wheat minimum value of protein content (11.5%) was met in conventional crop rotation in all cases. Average value of protein content in organic crop rotation met this limit too, but it was below the required value in two cases. The required value (760 g/l) of volume weight was met in majority of cases in organic crop rotation. The following species of the genus Fusarium were found: F. culmorum, F. graminearum, F. poae and F. avenaceum. All samples were screened for the content of deoxynivalenol (DON). There was no significant difference in the DON content between winter wheat grain from organic crop rotation and conventional crop rotation at high intensity.

In field trials, the fungicide efficacy ranged between 25.5 and 43.6%. The application of Silwet adjuvant increased the fungicide efficacy on average of all treatments by 9.55%, 24.45% and 13.03% in 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively. A very important finding is that at an increased efficacy of applied fungicides, the residues of these products did not increase in grain.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) infection, occurrence of Fusarium spp., deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEA) contents, quantified presence of F. graminearum and F. culmorum pathogens expressed as a value of FPE (Fusarium protein equivalent) and the content of visually scabby kernels (VSK) were studied on winter wheat cv. Sulamit grown in 2006 and 2007 at one location in treatments differing in preceding crop and soil tillage. In 2007, significantly higher levels were assessed for FHB infection, VSK and DON content in comparison with those in 2006; in contrast, the FPE was significantly lower. The ZEA content did not significantly differ between the two crop years. Significant relationships DON/FPE, DON/FHB, DON/ZEA and ZEA/FPE were found in both years. The DON/VSK and ZEA/VSK relationships were significant for heavily infected grains only. The relationship FHB/ZEA was significant only in 2007. The predominating species in both years was F. graminearum.

The criteria for evaluation of bread wheat quality have recently been completed with limitations of Fusarium mycotoxins content due to health safety. The limits for deoxynivalenol (1250 mu g/kg) and zearalenone (100 mu g/kg) came in force on 1 July 2006. Ones of main problems in+ practical implementation of this legislation (Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006) are a number and costs of performed analyses. A reasonable approach seems to measure the content of mycotoxins in cereals based on risk analysis when causal factors of their occurrence are considered. The relationships between the quantified presence of mycotoxin producers F. graminearum and F. culmorum (expressed as a value of FPE - Fusarium protein equivalent), the content of visually scabby kernels (VSK) and a level of mycotoxin contamination were examined. Effects of the preceding crop and soil tillage system on the content of Fusarium mycotoxins (deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, T-2 and HT-2 toxins, nivalenol and fusarenon X) were studied in winter wheat in field experiments. Close correlations between the contents of the two legally observed mycotoxins DON and ZEA as well as between the DON content and FPE value were found. The relationship between DON and VSK content was significant for heavily infected grains only. Maize as a preceding crop was confirmed to be a highly risk factor, particularly in combination with reduced soil tillage.

Toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi representing Fusarium genus are common contaminants in cereals worldwide. To estimate the dietary intake of these trichothecene mycotoxins, information on their fate during cereal processing is needed. Up-to-date techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for the analysis of seven trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, HT-2 toxin, T-2 toxin, 15- and 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, and fusarenon-X) in bread production chain (wheat grains, intermediate products collected during milling and baking process, breads). Regardless of whether the grains were naturally infected or artificially inoculated by Fusarium spp. in the field, the fractions obtained from the grain-cleaning procedure contained the highest mycotoxin levels. During milling the highest concentrations of deoxynivalenol were found in the bran, the lowest in the reduction flours. Baking at 210 degrees C for 14 min had no significant effect on deoxynivalenol levels. The rheological properties of dough measured by fermentograph, maturograph, oven rise recorder, and laboratory baking test were carried out, and based on the obtained results the influence of mycotoxin content on rheological behaviour was investigated.