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Ethiopia is one among the nations that possesses the largest number of livestock population in the African continent estimated to be 33 million cattle, 24 million sheep and 18 million goats. In contrast to the huge livestock resource, the livestock productivity is however, found to be very low. The major biological and socio-economical factors attributing to the low productivity includes: the low genetic potential and performance, poor nutrition (in quality and quantity terms), the prevailing of different diseases, traditional way of husbandry systems and inadequate skilled manpower, among others. Ethiopia is one of the African countries where tuberculosis is wide spread in both humans and cattle and the endemic nature of tuberculosis in humans and cattle has long been documented. The disease is considered as one of the major livestock diseases that results in high morbidity and mortality, although the current status on the actual prevalence rate of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) at a national level is yet unknown. Detection of BTB in Ethiopia is carried out most commonly on the basis of tuberculin skin testing, abattoir meat inspection and very rarely on bacteriological techniques. Recently undertaken studies indicated the prevalence rate of BTB with a range of 3.4% (in small holder production system) to 50% (in intensive dairy productions) and a range of 3.5% to 5.2% in slaughterhouses in various places of the country. BTB in cattle remains to be a great concern due to the susceptibility of humans to the disease. The infections mainly take place by drinking raw milk and occur in the extra-pulmonary form, in the cervical lymphadenitis form in particular. The aim of this paper is to review the status of BTB in Ethiopia in relation with the existing animal husbandry systems and abattoir meat inspection surveillances. Control measures, economic impacts and the zoonotic aspect of the disease are also briefly addressed.

Harvester technologies represent the second most common logging system in the Czech Republic. The high productivity of this technology is very necessary to cover its acquisition and operational costs. A human factor - a machine operator is the most important factor that surely influences the machine productivity. That is why the aim of this study is as follows: to analyze the mutual dependence of machine operator's education and working experience and harvester and forwarder productivity. The analysis proves that the operator's education and even more his working experience are very important. The time of harvesting work stages was measured when the harvester was operated by an operator with two-year working experience and by an operator with no experience. The average time difference between the harvester operators was 64.9 seconds in one work stage. The statistical significance of different operation times was confirmed during technically demanding segments in the working stage (the boom out the felling head and tree processing). Operators with the same working experience in forestry mechanization - about 13 years but with different education carried out the haulage work stage. In this case, the statistical significance between calculated differences was not proved. This fact proves that the operator's working experience is more important than his education.

The paper characterizes the natural conditions and current state of floodplain forests in the area of Litovelské Pomoraví and proposes the protective management of the area in accordance with the European Natura 2000 system. The paper describes the geographical location and the natural conditions of the area of interest (climate, geology, geomorphology, hydrology and flood regime, soils, and vegetation). Six groups of geobiocene types were identified, classified and described in detail. Assessment of the ecological stability of the forest stand was carried out using biogeographical differentiation of the landscape and the outline of the forest ecosystem management is drawn based on the differentiation of the protected landscape area into zones with various levels of protection.

The common currency Euro is considered one of the biggest achievements of the European political and economic integration. However, it is necessary to stress that Euro was always first and foremost a political feat. Economists by and large pointed out that the EU - even in its 1992 reincarnation - is not an optimum common currency area (OCA). But politicians and some economists hoped that the existence of Euro itself may accelerate the processes toward the OCA. However, this did not happen and the divergence processes inside the Eurozone accelerated after 1999. Today, the Eurozone stands near the crossroad - where some countries may be increasingly tempted to leave.

The agricultural production in less favoured areas (LFA) should, first of all, fulfil the non-production goals, as is the nature and environment protection and job opportunities generation. These goals could be achieved within the conditions of sustainable agricultural production systems. This paper is aimed on the analysis of how the companies operating in marginal conditions realize commercial principles and targets specified for the LFA conditions. The obtained knowledge indicates that the managers of majority of the companies do not respect the recommendations and persist in the intensive production in spite of the unfavourable conditions.

For the first time in the Czech Republic, bacteria identified as Pseudomonas marginalis, Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum and Pseudomonas putida were isolated from tubers of Zantedeschia spp. with symptoms of tuber soft rot. The symptoms occurred on mother tubers as well as on new daughter tubers of different calla lily hybrids with yellow spathe, calla lily cv. Mango with bright orange spathe and Zantedeschia rehmanii with pink spathe. The percentage of diseased plants of the total plants in the plot was around 10%. When inoculated into potato tuber slices, strains of P. marginalis and P. c. subsp. carotovorum produced soft rot. Pectolytic activity of P. marginalis strains was less intensive than that of the P. c. subsp. carotovorum strain. The results confirm that bacterial soft rot of Zantedeschia spp. may have several causes.

By reference to the Eternal Rye trial in Halle, Germany, as an example, it is demonstrated that long-term trials provide indispensable information for contemporary and future land use research. These trials serve as tools for the examination of cultivation measures or the effects of climate on nutrient dynamics and mobilization, microbial biodiversity, mineral composition or soil formation processes. They are therefore essential for the evaluation of land-use strategies or climatic change and, because of that, can provide more accuracy in related political considerations.

Emmer and spelt are two hulled wheats that were widely grown in Spain until the latter 1960s. Twenty-nine emmer and twenty-six spelt lines obtained from Spanish accessions of these hulled wheats were analysed for quality traits and endosperm storage protein composition. The results showed a wide range of variability in these traits. Likewise, a certain association between some alleles of these proteins and the SDS-sedimentation volume has been detected.

Skeletal muscle growth is determined by the number of prenatally formed fibres and by the degree of their postnatal hypertrophy; i.e. prenatal development may influence the postnatal growth. Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was used to identify genes more expressed in fetal hind limb muscles of Piétrain pigs (44 days of gestation) compared to the adult biceps femoris. Six potential functional candidate genes (CNN3, DCN, FBN2, POSTN, SPARC and YWHAQ) were selected to verify the SSH results using real-time RT-PCR. Expression levels of the studied genes were significantly higher (P< 0.05) in the fetal muscle compared to the adult muscle. FBN2 and POSTN exhibited the highest mRNA levels (mean relative ratios were 182.7 and 121.6, respectively). The studied genes may play an important role in muscle biology and may be candidates for muscling traits.

Beechnuts from three Fagus sylvatica lots were dried at 20°C to 5-6% or 8-9% (fresh weight basis) moisture content and stored at -7°C or -22°C for 3.5 or 4.5 years in sealed polyethylene bags containing air and routinely used for the long-term storage of beechnuts or vacuumed (de-aerated) polyethylene bags with air removed before sealing. The germination and viability (tetrazolium test) of beechnuts were determined according to the Czech Technical Rules (1997) once a year during storage. The results were subjected to factorial ANOVA and the means were compared using the Scheffe test at P > 0.05. Compared to beechnuts dried to an 8-9% moisture content a significant decrease in both germination and viability occurred in beechnuts dried to a 5-6% moisture content regardless of how long the beechnuts were stored. However, the effects of the other treatments (type of storage bag, storage temperature) were not significant.

To determine the countryside, different criteria can be used from the simplest one - the population density - to more complex ones like the economic indicators or the combination of factors characterizing the particular types of municipalities or regions. Generally, it is possible to divide these indicators into subjective and objective ones and further to categorize them according to other properties. The objective of this article is to collect as much information as possible about the methods of defining the borders of rural areas used in the Czech Republic and to set these criteria into a system. We would like to evaluate the applicability of these criteria and to state the advantages and disadvantages of their use. The article also compares statistical data related to the selected features characterizing countryside.

The aims of this study are to determine the cooperation of milk producers and to analyze the milk marketing structure in Menemen-Izmir, West Turkey. According to the results of this study, 70% of the producers are the shareholders of the cooperatives, 49.2% of the producers are members of the National Chamber of Agriculture. In this study, 47.20% of total milk production in the farms is marketing to street sellers, 36.11% is marketing to small scale milk processing plants, 10.1% is marketing directly to consumer and 6.6% is marketing to dairy factories. Also, feed prices in the market are 5% higher than the prices of cooperatives. The main problems related to organization and marketing together are the lack of knowledge in production, low milk prices and the high cost of production.

The article is focused on the importance of using the variant calculation methods in the management of companies' performance under the conditions of multifunctional agriculture. It mentions the difference between the calculations formed for the needs of valuating the production in the financial statements and the managerial calculations. Attention is paid to overhead costs in agriculture, their development is depicted with tables and graphs. The development of overhead costs during the time period of 1997-2006 is presented in crop production and outputs of wheat and rapeseed, in livestock production in Slovakia and in the outputs of cattle (6-24 months) and pigs (1-12 months). The fastidiousness of market environment of the globalized economies requires a gradual transformation from the classical calculation system into the managerial calculation system, which provides a multidimensional insight into the product as well as the market. The sequence of establishing the variant calculation methods is also introduced together with the reasons of under-valuating calculations in the managerial practice.

Transgenic plums, Prunus domestica L. clone C5, were inoculated by bud grafting with Plum pox virus (PPV-Rec, recombinant strain originated from plum), PPV-Rec + Apple chlorotic leafspot virus (ACLSV), PPV-Rec + Prune dwarf virus (PDV), and PPV-Rec + ACLSV + PDV. Non-inoculated transgenic plums served as controls. Plants were grown in an open field for 5 years. They were evaluated by visible symptoms, by DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR. Mild PPV symptoms, diffuse spots or rings appeared two years after inoculation in some leaves of plants artificially inoculated with PPV-Rec, PPV-Rec + ACLSV, PPV-Rec + PDV, and PPV-Rec + ACLSV + PDV. Severe PPV symptoms appeared in leaves of shoots growing from infected buds used for inoculation. During the following three years, further weakening of PPV symptoms was observed in transgenic plants. In 2007, very mild PPV symptoms were found in only a few leaves, and over 60%, resp. 70% of the C5 trees showed no PPV symptoms. The presence of PPV was confirmed by ELISA, ISEM and RT-PCR. No difference in PPV symptoms was observed between PPV-Rec and combinations PPV-Rec + ACLSV, PPV-Rec + PDV, PPV-Rec + ACLSV + PDV. No symptoms of ACLSV appeared in combinations of ACLSV with PPV-Rec and PPV-Rec + PDV during 2004-2007, but the presence of ACLSV in leaves of transgenic plants clone C5 was proved by ELISA and RT-PCR. Neither synergistic nor antagonistic effects of ACLSV on PPV-Rec were observed. No symptoms of PDV appeared in combinations of viruses with PDV during 2004-2007. PDV was not detected by ELISA, and the presence of PDV was uncertain by RT-PCR in most of inoculated trees in 2006 and 2007. The results of RT-PCR will be further confirmed by sequence analysis and discussed. These results suggest a possible antagonistic interaction between PPV-Rec and PDV in plum clone C5.

Lucerne (Medicago sativa L. var. Palava), harvested at four successive dates over a 30-day period, was evaluated for chemical composition (dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, nitrogen-free extract, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin), amino acid contents and intestinal digestibility in dairy cows. Dry matter (r = 0.78), organic matter (r = 0.95), crude fibre (r = 0.91), neutral detergent fibre (r = 0.94), acid detergent fibre (r = 0.79) and acid detergent lignin (r = 0.48) presented positive linear correlation coefficients (r) with growth stage, whereas crude protein (r = -0.96), ether extract (r = -0.86) and nitrogen-free extract (r = -0.70) showed negative relationships. Total essential amino acid content decreased (r = -0.94) from 84.1 to 55.3 g/kg of dry matter with maturity, with r-values higher than -0.90 obtained between growth stage and contents of lysine, methionine, threonine and valine. With the exception of tyrosine (r = -0.68), r-values between growth stage and individual non-essential amino acids were all higher than -0.90. Total amino acid (r = -0.98) and nitrogen (r = -0.99) contents presented comparable tendencies with successive sampling times. Whereas no definite trends were detected for the amino acid composition of rumen incubated (16 hours) lucerne samples, the intestinal digestibility of total essential (r = -0.78), total non-essential (r = -0.58) and total (r = -0.69) amino acids as well as nitrogen (r = -0.99) decreased with growth. However, due to a small sample size (n = 4), most linear relationships between constituents and growth stage were insignificant. It can be concluded that, although limited in the sample size, this report presents information on the decrease in amino acid contents and intestinal amino acid digestibility as growth proceeds in lucerne (var. Palava) produced in the Czech Republic, which could be utilized in the feeding of ruminants.

The study analyses the growth of beech seedling fine roots and their development in the first five years. The research plots were established in 1997-2003 in community forests of Starý Plzenec (Western Bohemia, Czech Republic). The data are based on annual reviews of beech samplings extracted from surveyed plots. The whole root volume as well as the fine root volume is significantly (on a 95% significance level) growing during the first years after outplanting and there is not any disruption of growth immediately after outplanting.

In the locality Hnilé Blatá (the High Tatras Mts.), the structure was measured of root branches in the windthrown spruces (Picea abies [L.] Karst.). After cleaning the root plates, the number, diameter, and length of individual root branches were measured. Individual root branches were classified into twelve diameter classes - according to their diameters measured in the middle of the root branch length. We found out a high frequency of the root branches in the first three root-diameter classes; the values of the average frequency of root branches smoothly declined with their diameters increasing. We found out the lowest mean values of the root branch length in the first two root diameter classes. However, the values of total average length of root branches were the highest in the first root diameter class and these values continually decreased with increasing values of the root branch diameter. On the basis of the high values of root frequency and of total root length in the thinnest root-diameter classes, it seems that the spruce trees growing in gley soil form a similar root structure as those growing in podzolic brown soil.

Land market has started to develop extremely in the Czech Republic since 2002. The annual sale and purchase of estates represented 0.2% of the total land resources between 1993-2001. The sale and the purchase have represented 2.9% of total land resources after 2002 and especially after the EU accession of the Czech Republic. These values of sale are the highest from the EU countries. On the other side, land prices decreased slightly in comparison with the prices before the EU accession. Prices of agricultural land are significantly lower than in the EU 15.

The submitted paper analyses the development of food industry in the Czech Republic in 2000-2006, its position (in 2006) and development trends of main economic indicators compared to the development of manufacturing industry. In comparison with the dynamic development of Czech manufacturing industry, key position of food industry has decreased. The monitored food sector has heterogeneous structure with regard to branches. In connection with these differences, development trends of separate branches are fluctuating but labour productivity of the food sector as a total has markedly accelerated.

The experiments were conducted to study the effects of arsenic-contaminated irrigation water, zinc and organic matter on the mobilization of arsenic in an Aeric Endoaquept in relation to rice (cv. IET 4786). The results show that the amount of extractable arsenic increased with the progress of submergence decreased with zinc application. The magnitude of such decrease varied with the Zn amount, being greater (0.70 to 1.08 mg/kg) in the treatment where zinc was applied at the rate of 20 mg/kg. With regards to organic matter application, the arsenic content in soil markedly decreased, especially with farmyard manure application. The results of the greenhouse experiment with exposure of graded doses of arsenic to rice suggest that the upper toxic limit of arsenic in soil was 10 mg/kg for rice. The results of the field experiment show that the grain yield of continuous flooding (4.84 t/ha) and intermittent flooding up to 40 days after transplanting followed by continuous flooding (4.83 t/ha) with the application of ZnSO₄ at the rate of 25 kg/ha did not vary significantly. The lowest grain yield (3.65 t/ha) was recorded in the treatment where the intermittent flooding was maintained throughout the growth period without the application of zinc. The amount of arsenic was, however, much lower in the treatment where intermittent flooding was maintained throughout the growing period combined with zinc sulphate application.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of cage stocking density on egg yield, some egg quality traits and plumage condition in laying hens. Eighteen weeks-old 264 ISA-Brown pullets were divided into four cage density groups. The densities were 2 000, 1 000, 667 and 500 cm² per hen (by allocating 1, 2, 3 and 4 hens per cage; floor area 40 × 50 cm) with 48, 30, 24 and 21 replicate cages, totally 123 three-tier battery cages. During the experimental period from 18 to 53 weeks of age, all birds were provided illumination for 16 hours a day. The hens were fed a diet containing 11.7 MJ ME/kg and 180 g CP during the period of 18 to 40 weeks of age and 11.3 MJ ME/kg and 170 g CP during the period of 41 to 54 weeks of age. Feed and water were available for ad libitum. Egg yield, mortality, live weights at 50% egg production age and at the end of experiment, pecking related mortalities, some egg quality traits and plumage condition were recorded weekly. Hen-housed egg production, egg mass, viability, and live weights were significantly decreased by higher densities. Most of the egg quality traits were not affected by cage densities. Pecking related mortalities increased in cage densities of 667 cm² and 500 cm² per hen compared to the other densities (P < 0.05) while plumage scores were higher in all body parts of hens kept in cages of 2 000 cm² and 1 000 cm² densities compared to the higher densities. The results showed that brown laying hens should be kept in cages having 1 000-2 000 cm² densities in order to improve their welfare and performance.

The type was evaluated in 5 424 young animals of twelve beef breeds. Ten type traits were evaluated: height at sacrum (HS), body length (BL), live weight (LW), front chest width (CW), chest depth (CD), pelvis (P), shoulder muscling (SM), back muscling (BM), rump muscling (RM) and production type (PT). The traits represent two groups: (1) traits scoring body measurements and body capacity (HS, BL, LW, CW, CD, P) and (2) traits scoring muscling (SM, BM, RM, PT). These fixed effects were included in the model: breed, sex, HYS, mother's age, linear regression on age at evaluation and average gain from birth to evaluation. Fixed effects in the model explained 40% to 60% of variability. The highest values of heritability coefficient were estimated for HS (h² = 0.51) and LW (h² = 0.50). BL had the lowest values of heritability coefficient (h² = 0.25). The values h² = 0.25-0.32 were calculated for the traits scoring body capacity (CW, CD, P). The range of values for muscling traits was h² = 0.26-0.35. The coefficient of heritability for PT was h² = 0.34. All traits scoring muscling and PT showed high genetic correlations (r_g > 0.95). The traits scoring body capacity (P, CW, CD) were highly genetically correlated with muscling r_g > 0.83. Breeding values were determined by a multi-trait animal model. Standard deviations of breeding values were higher in HS (s_BV = 0.71) and LW (s_BV = 0.84), which was connected with a different method of evaluation of these traits. They were in the range of 0.19 (BL) to 0.30 (RM) in the other traits.

Nine identification RAPD markers (Moravcová et al. 2003) were used to distinguish 24 clones and grapevine cultivars. No polymorphism was detected among all the tested clones of Chardonnay, Pinot gris and Zweigeltrebe from Polešovice. Pinot noir, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc and Pinot Meunier were indistinguishable within clones, they also showed the identical RAPD profile within cultivars (except discussed sample No. 26). On the other hand, Auxerrois as a relative to cultivars of Pinot group showed unique patterns and may be classified as a different cultivar. Some irregularities within the cultivars of Pinot family from Oblekovice were also found, several of them gave different results from those expected: Pinot blanc sample 26 has the RAPD profile typical of Chardonnay. A new abnormal RAPD pattern as a marker of typical Chardonnay and Pinot profiles was observed in two cases. While RAPD banding patterns could not distinguish between the known clones, they were useful for distinguishing between phenotypically similar cultivars and for assessing the origins of cultivars thought to have originated as sports.

The power requirement of tillage implements is an important design consideration particularly for animal-drawn implements where the power is limited. The paper presents the possibility of reduction in the draught requirements of animal-drawn mouldboard plough by using enamel coating on the soil-engaged components such as the mouldboard, share and the landside. Trials were conducted to compare enamel-coated Maun Series single mouldboard plough (manufactured by Zimplow Limited, Bulawayo,Zimbabwe) with similar uncoated plough, both animal-drawn, under comparable working conditions. Experiments were done at 25% and 32% d.b. soil moisture content on a red clay soil inZimbabwe. The parameters measured in evaluating the draught performance of both ploughs were the tractive effort (pull), speed of ploughing, depth and width of ploughing, and soil conditions (i.e. soil moisture content, soil bulk density and soil penetration resistance). It was found that for similar working conditions the enamel coating reduced the specific draught by 20 to 26% depending upon soil moisture content.

The effects of droplet spectra, spray volume, and the addition of an adjuvant to the spray solution against Phytophthora infestans were evaluated using contact fungicides, mixtures of contact and systemic fungicides, and a contact fungicide + an adjuvant. Six droplet spectra, ranging from VMD = 183 µm to VMD = 939 µm, were used. The spray volumes were 300, 450 and 600 l/ha for the contact fungicides, and 300 l/ha was used for the mix of contact with systemic fungicides. No significant differences in efficiency were observed between different droplet spectra when used for the mix of contact with systemic fungicide treatments. However, the efficiency of treatments with a contact fungicide significantly increased with smaller droplet spectra. The larger droplet spectra required larger spray volumes for greater efficiency. The addition of the adjuvant (pinolene, 96%) to the spray solution of the contact fungicide caused the efficiency to be similar for all droplet spectra. The effect of droplet spectra is more pronounced in contact compounds. The translocation of the systemic compounds and the ability of the surfactant to improve the coverage with contact compounds may be the main mechanisms that counteract the effects of larger droplet spectra and lower leaf coverage.

The aim of this study was to investigate the contamination of beer of Slovak origin with fumonisins. A suitable analytical procedure was suggested - the limit of detection at the level close to 1 µg/l was achieved for both fumonisins B₁ and B₂. The recovery was determined at 93% for fumonisin B₁ and at 78% for fumonisin B₂. Fluorescence detection was used after derivatisation with a mixture of o-phthaldialdehyde and 2-mercaptoethanol. Phosphate buffer usually applied resulted in a poor separation of derivatised fumonisins. Peak splitting was observed depending on the pH of the eluent. The pH value of 2.6 was found suitable for the peak splitting elimination. A convenient gradient elution metod was suggested avoiding the possible interference in fumonisin contents determination. For the preparation of samples, immunoaffinity cleaning procedure was applied. Beer samples from all domestic producers were analysed. The content of fumonisins determined was under the limit of detection in all cases. All the beers tested were produced from the barley grown in 2003.

The paper is focused on the quantitative analysis of the price transmission and on its use for the estimations of the direct price elasticity of the vertical-derived demand functions. The price transmissions were examined between the commodity markets for the food grain and the consumer markets for the bakery products and flour. The data (1995-2002) were taken over from the Czech Statistical Office (CSO), the Price Statistics (PS) and the Statistics of Family Budgets (SFB). The intensity of the inter-market price transmission was assessed by means of the coefficients of the price transmission elasticity (EPT). For enumerating of EPT, the regression linear models were developed. The explicit as well as the implicit time-definition in the models was tested. The explicit dynamic construction was carried out on the basis of the stationary process with the parabolic trend. After the determination of trend functions, the seasonal component in used time-series was thoroughly investigated by means of the harmonic analysis (G-tests of the individual extremes of the developed periodograms). The implicit dynamization of the linear models was solved on the basis of the first differences of appropriate commodity prices, respectively price levels on the consumer market. For the quantification of the price transmission elasticities, directly dynamized models there were only used only because the model unambiguously achieved better values of characteristics of the statistic verification (correlation index, F-test, T-test). These models also satisfied the economic assumptions in the sense of the vertical price transmissions between the observed market levels and the preservation of the law of diminishing demand. Based on the linear models of the price transmission with parabolic-trend stationarization, it was found out that within the observed period (1995-2002) EPT between commodity market with the food wheat and consumer market with the bakery products and flour reached the average level of +0.1602%. Within the same period, the value of EPT between commodity market with the rye and consumer market with the bakery products and flour reached the average level of +0.1067%. These coefficients were subsequently used together with coefficients of the own price elasticity of consumer demand for the bakery products and flour (ε) to the estimations of the own price elasticity of the commodity demand for food wheat and rye (e). In accordance with the construction of these estimations: e = ε × EPT, it was found out that the average level of the own price elasticity of the demand for food wheat (respectively rye) is about -0.0659% (respectively -0.0441%). Both observed secondary demand functions are therefore strongly inelastic with respect to the reaction on the direct price changes. The commodity demand for the rye seems to be more inelastic.

European winter wheat landraces and obsolete cultivars (121 accessions in set I and 101 accessions in set II) with modern check cultivars were evaluated in three-year field trials. Increased spike productivity in modern cultivars could be attributed mainly to increased number of grains in spikelet and increased HI, whereas TGW has marginal effect. Old cultivars had on average by 2-3% higher crude protein content in grain than modern ones. Among selected 10 characters, relatively wide diversity (C.V. 11-20%) has been estimated in spike length and characters of spike productivity (except of grain weight with C.V. close to 9%). It was difficult to distinguish the cultivars according to the country of origin, however, earliness and lower spike productivity seems to be characteristic for South-East origin whereas cultivars from North-West Europe showed opposite characters. Correlation analyses showed close relations between earliness in heading and in maturity and negative relation between late heading and grain filling period, which was positively correlated with TGW and HI (r = 0.26 to 0.38). Number of grains in spikelets was highly correlated with spike productivity and HI (r = 0.62 to 0.69) whereas relations between these two characters and TGW were lower (r = 0.20 to 0.51). Spike productivity characters, except of TGW, are in negative correlation with crude protein content in grain (r = -0.34 to -0.50). Regression analyses confirmed that main determining character for the spike productivity is number of kernels in spikelet (about 40% of variation) while effects of TGW are about half-size. Crude protein content was positively affected by plant height (15-30% of variation) impact of grain weight per spike was lower (14-17% of variation) and negative. Potentially valuable donors of earliness and longer grain filling period were identified for further studies and/or utilization in breeding programs. As especially valuable character can be considered very high crude protein content (around 18% in cvs Berg-land, Ukrajinka, Sippbachzeller, Innichen Nr. 25001 and Barbu du Finistre). High crude protein content combined with relatively good spike productivity and/or long grain filling period or earliness was found in cvs Visperterminen 640 E, Hatvan, Szekacz 1242, Berchtesgardener Vogel, Ble du Lot and Barbu du Finistere.