Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the major cereals of the world. Farmers must produce wheat with good yield and quality to meet the high demands for wheat flour. To reduce disease and increase wheat yield, cultivars have been developed by replacing the short arm of chromosome 1B of wheat with the short arm of the 1R chromosome from rye (Secale cereale L.). This wheat-rye translocation, 1B/1R, carries linked genes which makes these wheat cultivars more disease resistant and higher yielding. Unfortunately, the 1B/1R translocation in hard wheats has been shown to produce undesirable characteristics such as dough stickiness and reduced mixing tolerance. Many promising wheat lines have been developed by crossbreeding 1B/1R Jines with soft wheat in hopes of producing a 1B/1R soft wheat of good quality for use in soft wheat products. The purpose of this research was to determine the end use quality of flours from soft red winter wheats possessing 1B/ 1R.

Fourteen soft wheat varieties (7 without 1 B/1 R and 7 with 1B/lR) grown in two Virginia locations, Warsaw and Blacksburg, were assessed for flour quality and dough stickiness. Four pairs of the experimental wheats were sister lines. Flour quality was evaluated by means of protein content, farinograph analysis, cookie spread and protein analysis. Dough stickiness was measured using the "Schwarzlaff-Shephard Dough Stripping Method", specially designed for this study. It is the first method of its kind to measure dough stickiness quantitatively. Results indicated that the 1B/1R translocation, in general, had no adverse effect on flour quality and dough stickiness of the experimental wheats and even improved mixing tolerance and stability of the wheat flour doughs. The results of the study indicate that flours of 1B/lR wheats can be used in commercial soft wheat bakery formulas.