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The effects of nitrogen treatment on crack formation during wetting in rice
P. OLI (1), M. Talbot (1), P. Snell (1), L. Pallas (1) (1) NSW Department of Primary Industries, Yanco, Australia.

Head rice yield is the most important quality measure in rice production. The presence of cracks in rice grains is a contributing factor to reduced head rice yield and altered functional properties. In the Australian rice breeding and quality program, cracks in dry, uncooked milled rice have been measured for many years; recently, measuring cracks in soaked rice has been identified as a better predictor of acceptable cooking properties, but this method is time consuming and very subjective. The main objective of this study was to develop an automated image analysis procedure using a digital camera and ImageJ to quickly quantify cracks in soaked grains to reduce operator error. The second objective was to understand the effect of nitrogen application on the wet cracking tendencies in rice grown in southeast Australia during 2014 and 2015. Koshihikari, a premium Japanese short grain variety, exhibited more cracks in wet grains than Opus, an Australian semi-dwarf short grain variety, for all treatments in 2014 and 2015. Nitrogen application showed lower wet cracking (37% and 40% compared to 47% for nil nitrogen) in Koshihikari whereas nitrogen application was similar for all treatments in Opus (38% and 42% compared to 39% for nil nitrogen). Our results indicated that Koshihikari is more susceptible to wet grain cracking than Opus and that nitrogen application and timing may be optimised to reduce cracking and thus improve consistent cooking quality.