In the Hajdúság region, we examined the response of the winter wheat variety GK Öthalom on crop year and soil moisture (in terms of yield, diseases, lodging). The most unfavourable yield was obtained in an average crop year (6819 kg ha-1), while much lower yield were recorded in rainy (5175 kg ha-1) and dry crop years (4343 kg ha-1). In rainy crop years, the extent of leaf, stem and ear diseases increased and lodging intensified. On the contrary, there were no significant differences in these parameters in dry and average crop years. The optimum fertiliser dose was N90+PK in dry crop years, N60+PK in wet crop years and N150+PK in average crop years, while the yield surpluses of fertilisation also showed significant differences (1173 kg ha-1, 2189 kg ha-1 and 3800 kg ha-1, respectively). Of the various soil moisture values, those obtained at the time of flowering (in May) could be used the best for characterising crop year from the aspect of wheat yield. Water shortage in May was 254 mm in dry crop years (maximum yield: 4.3 t ha-1), 25 mm in the wet crop year (5.2 t ha-1) and 92 mm in the average crop year (6.8 t ha-1). WUE values can be used accurately and objectively to describe crop year and fertilisation. In all crop years, the WUE values of optimum fertiliser treatment significantly exceeded the values of the control treatment.

Keywords: winter wheat, crop year, soil moisture, yield, WUE