[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 19, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2838-2839]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00847]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration


Request for Public Comment on Services Currently Offered or 
Needed To Facilitate the Marketing of Grain and Related Products

AGENCY: Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, USDA.

ACTION: Request for Information.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Grain Inspection, 
Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) is informing the public 
that it is soliciting comments to ensure that current services reflect 
market needs to facilitate the marketing of grain and related 
commodities. Specifically, GIPSA is inviting comments from producers, 
handlers, processors, food manufacturers, exporters, importers, 
consumers, scientists, academicians, industry stakeholders, and other 
interested persons on how GIPSA can best facilitate the marketing of 
grains, oilseeds, rice, pulses, and related products or products made 
from them, including co-products of ethanol production, commonly 
referred to as distillers' grains, based on market-identified quality 
attributes. To ensure that standards and official grading practices 
remain relevant in the market, GIPSA invites interested parties to 
comment on the relevance of current standards, methods, and grading 
practices, and on potential market needs for new standards or services.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 18, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit your written or electronic comments on this 
notice to:
     Mail: R. Dexter Thomas, GIPSA, USDA, 1400 Independence 
Avenue SW., Room 2530, Washington, DC 20250-3604.
     Fax: (202) 690-2173
     Internet: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the 
on-line instruction for submitting comments.
    Instructions: All comments will become a matter of public record 
and should be identified as ``U.S. Services Offered for Grains Notice 
Comments,'' making reference to the date and page number of this issue 
of the Federal Register. All comments received become the property of 
the Federal government, are made a part of the public record, and will 
generally be posted to www.regulations.gov without change. Comments may 
also be viewed in the above office during regular business hours (7 CFR 
1.27(b)). Please call the GIPSA Management Support Staff at (202) 720-
6529 to make an appointment to read comments received. If you send a 
comment directly to GIPSA without going through www.regulations.gov, or 
you submit a comment to GIPSA via fax, the originating address or 
telephone number will be captured automatically and included as part of 
the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on 
the Internet. Also, all personal identifying information (for example, 
name, address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be 
publicly accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information.
    Electronic submissions should avoid the use of special characters, 
avoid any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses, 
since these may prevent GIPSA from being able to read and understand, 
and thus consider your comment.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anthony Goodeman at GIPSA, USDA, 1400 
Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC, 20250; Telephone (202)-720-
0228; Fax Number (202) 720-1015; email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Under the authority of the United States Grain Standards Act, as 
amended, and the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, as amended, GIPSA 
establishes standards for grains, oilseeds, rice, pulses, and related 
graded and processed commodities, regarding kind, class, quality and 
condition. The standards facilitate marketing and define U.S. grain and 
commodity quality in the domestic and global marketplace. The standards 
define commonly used industry terms; contain basic principles governing 
the application of standards, such as the type of sample used for a 
particular quality analysis; specify grades, grade requirements, 
special grades; and special grade requirements. Official procedures for 
determining grading factors are provided in GIPSA's Inspection 
Handbooks, which also include standardized procedures for additional 
quality attributes not used to determine grade, such as protein content 
and falling number. Together, the grade standards and inspection 
procedures allow buyers and sellers to communicate quality 
requirements, compare quality using equivalent forms of measurement, 
and assist in price discovery.
    GIPSA periodically reviews the standards to ensure they reflect 
marketplace needs. In 2007, when the U.S. ethanol industry was 
expanding rapidly, GIPSA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking (ANPR) titled ``The Role of USDA in Differentiating Grain 
Inputs for Ethanol Production and Standardizing Testing of the Co- 
Products of Ethanol Production'' (72 FR 39762). The ANPR sought 
comments from the marketplace asking if there were any additional 
services GIPSA should offer to facilitate the marketing of ethanol co-
products. Commenters overwhelmingly agreed that GIPSA should not 
intervene in standardizing testing of ethanol inputs and outputs. 
Commenters did state that an appropriate role for GIPSA was to continue 
approving rapid test kits for determining the concentration of 
mycotoxins. Accordingly, GIPSA did not initiate any rulemaking action 
related to the matters presented in the ANPR. However, GIPSA did agree 
to monitor the industry and remain actively engaged with the ethanol 
and co-product markets and to support the industry, as appropriate, in 
its efforts to successfully market ethanol co-products. Further, GIPSA 
has continued to approve rapid test kits for mycotoxins.

[[Page 2839]]

    The production of distillers' grains has continued to grow in 
recent years concurrent with increased ethanol production. GIPSA will 
broadly refer to ``distillers' grains'' as being any of the plethora of 
co-products generated by dry-mill ethanol plants, including distillers' 
wet grains (DWG), distillers' dried grains (DDG), distillers' wet 
grains with solubles (DWGS), distillers' dried grains with solubles 
(DDGS), and condensed distillers' solubles (CDS), unless otherwise 
specified. According to USDA's Economic Research Service, the United 
States produced an estimated 44.6 million metric tons of DDGS in the 
2014/15 crop year, compared to 12.4 million metric tons of DDGS in 
2006/07, when GIPSA's previous ANPR was first published. Increasing 
supply, two years of higher prices for competing feeds (soybean meal 
and corn), and successful foreign market development efforts by USDA 
and trade associations have led to a surge in DDGS exports from the 
United States. Exports now constitute nearly 25 percent of domestic 
DDGS production, totaling 11.0 million metric tons in the 2014/15 crop 
year, compared to exports of only 14.5 percent of production, totaling 
1.8 million metric tons in 2006/07.
    In order for U.S. standards and grading procedures to remain 
relevant, GIPSA is issuing this Request for Information to invite 
interested parties to submit comments, ideas, and recommendations on 
GIPSA's role in the marketing of grain, oilseeds, and related 
agricultural products, including distillers' grains. All interested 
persons are specifically encouraged to comment on the following issues 
related to this notice:
    1. Are there any market-identified quality attributes that GIPSA 
does not currently describe (or provide testing) that would facilitate 
the marketing of grain, oilseeds, and related products?
    2. What role should GIPSA take, if any, in standardizing the 
testing of inputs and outputs of ethanol co-product processing? Has 
anything changed in the marketing of ethanol and ethanol co-products 
since GIPSA's last ANPR in 2007 related to standardization, product 
description, or quality assessment?
    3. Are there any other services that GIPSA could offer to 
facilitate the marketing of grain, oilseeds, or related products?

    Authority:  7 U.S.C. 71-87K; 7 U.S.C. 1621-1638D

Larry Mitchell,
Administrator, Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.
[FR Doc. 2016-00847 Filed 1-15-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3410-KD-P