Variety selection is a key to sustainable agriculture and makes an important contribution to ecology and economy, to biodiversity and to the quality of the harvested products

The Descriptive List of Varieties provides comprehensive information on the "land cultural value" of crop varieties for food and technical use. For a variety to have "land cultural value," an improvement in cultivation (e.g., better resistance to pests), in the utilization of the harvested crop, or in the utilization of the products obtained from the harvested crop must be expected compared to comparable varieties(§50 Seed Law).

The availability of comprehensive objective data on these plant varieties, with optimized site-adapted selection by farmers, also contributes to varietal biodiversity. The differentiated evaluation provides farmers in the various climatic regions of Austria with a tool for optimized variety selection in the form of the "Descriptive List of Varieties". The outstanding access figures to the homepage of the Federal Office for Food Safety (BAES) also testify to the high acceptance and thus impact of the Descriptive List of Varieties. The information offered by the BSL about new - but also proven - varieties is disseminated to interested farmers via the trade press, the field cultivation guides in cooperation with the Chambers of Agriculture and via the Internet.

In addition to the yield potential of the varieties, the quality, tolerance and agronomic characteristics in different environments are of particular importance in the context of BSL. For example, the resistance of winter wheat varieties alone to nine different plant diseases is evaluated under natural as well as artificially infected conditions.

Based on the multi-year data from the variety approval, subsequent comparative variety trials, as well as through the crop rotation and variety biodiversity of the respective crop type, farmers can make a targeted variety selection. As a result, the use of plant protection products can usually be significantly reduced or even avoided. Optimized crop rotations enable reduced fertilizer application without yield losses and improved nitrogen efficiency. As a result, fewer climate-damaging greenhouse gases are produced and nitrate pollution of groundwater and surface waters is reduced.

Exploiting the high and stable yield potential and breeding progress of new varieties (approx. 1% yield increase/year) also makes an important contribution to food security. The use of more tolerant varieties can reduce fungal contamination of the crop and its pollutant content due to the reduced use of pesticides. This significantly reduces the undesirable contamination of food and feed with mycotoxins (mold toxins). Plant production geared to sustainability and based on conscious and critical choice of varieties thus makes a significant contribution to food security and food safety, but also to the competitiveness of domestic agriculture.

For breeders and applicants of varieties of the most important agricultural crops such as cereals, grain maize, sugar beet, forage grasses, etc., variety approval determines the associated EU-wide marketing rights. The testing of the "land cultural value" is done in an extensive two to three year value testing in different environments in Austria. The varieties listed in the EU catalog of varieties (tested from Finland to Cyprus) are basically available to Austrian farmers. From this population, varieties are selected and tested under Austrian environmental and production conditions by us or the Federal Office for Food Safety. This results in the site-adapted varieties of the Austrian Descriptive Variety List. The testing also ensures the highest production and product safety as well as environmental and product quality.

Especially for farmers, the comparative variety description and the information derived from it are a valuable basis of business relevance. The great demand for our information offer in the field of varieties for agricultural crops is also reflected in the increasing number of accesses to the Descriptive List of Varieties as well as to the interactive Variety Finder.

Our information offer of the Descriptive List of Varieties is continuously evaluated and improved. The data available on crop varieties and their seed creates the possibility of sustainably integrated crop production and land management.

Cereals and their milled products are an essential part of the domestic and global diet with a wide range of uses. The "true" cereals - as opposed to pseudocereals - are cultivated plants from the botanical genus of sweet grasses, which are mainly cultivated for their grain fruits for the production of food (flour and bread). In addition, cereals are also used as whole plants, on the one hand as animal feed, and on the other hand increasingly for industrial use as biogenic raw materials and energy suppliers.

Depending on the intended use, different demands are made on the quality of the grain. The knowledge of various parameters enables you to better assess the product quality and the optimal use, e.g. suitability of wheat flour for certain products such as cookies or bread rolls. We have a wide range of methods at our disposal, including the analysis of parameters relevant to quality and safety. Our services include the analysis of cereal grains and milling products.

We offer the following analyses:

Whole grain analyses:

• Rapid determination of moisture, protein and ash by NIR spectroscopy.
• Hectoliter weight (HLG)
• thousand grain mass (TKM)
• Grading (especially for malting barley)

Value-determining ingredients:

• Crude protein
• Starch and sugar content (mono-, di- and oligosaccharides)
• Ash content (grading of mehlytpe[1])
• Dietary fiber[2] or fiber content[3]
• Crude fat (especially for oats)
• Amino acid profile
• Yellow pigments (especially for durum)

[1] according to L Codex Alimentarius Austriacus chapter B 20 Milled and hulled products [2] relevant for food [3] relevant for feed

Quality determining characteristics for wheat:

• Falling Number
• Moist gluten
• Sedimentation according to Zeleny
• Farinogram (kneading properties)
• Extensogram (elongation properties of the dough)
• Alveogram (elongation properties of the dough)

Safety-relevant characteristics:

• Mycotoxins
• Pesticides
• Ergot alkaloids (ergot)

Antinutritive ingredients:

• Amylasetrypsin inhibitor activity