| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | CONTACT: Craig Essebaggers |
| May 18, 2006 | (406) 452-9561 |
More Services, Same Prices Proposed in New Grain Lab Rules
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Proposed administrative rule changes published for the State Grain Laboratory this week aim to enable the state's only federally licensed grain testing facility to offer better service and more options for both domestic and foreign customers.
Producers and grain elevators no longer will pay extra for information regarding the presence of damaged kernels, foreign materials, shrunken kernels and total defects, according to Craig Essebaggers, the State Grain Laboratory bureau chief. He said expanding the reports under the existing $8 per sample fee should increase the number of samples submitted to the lab, thereby producing about the same income as the previous fee schedule.
Other changes include a new test for gluten strength, called the Wet Gluten Test. It is used by some overseas customers along with more common protein testing to measure desirable baking characteristics.
Analysis for vomitoxin in wheat, malt and feed barley will now include quantitative reporting in parts per million. Prior tests for this toxin, caused by fusarium head blight in grain, simply reported its presence in the sample.
The new fee schedule will list three different tests for malt barley germination. Different companies prefer different test procedures and, while all three tests were previously available, they were not listed as options in the laboratory's rates, Essebaggers said.
The laboratory also will offer Saturday and extended grain sampling hours, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., if a sampling appointment is scheduled the previous day. Grain elevators have requested longer hours and Saturday service, particularly during the busy harvest and grain marketing season, according to Essebaggers.
"All of these changes will prove to be beneficial to producers and grain elevators that the State Grain Laboratory is designed to serve," said Nancy K. Peterson, director of the Montana Department of Agriculture.
The department also is working with the Federal Grain Inspection Service, which licenses the laboratory, to determine whether official reports of sample analysis might in the future be sent by email or some other method rather than sending the certificates by traditional mail, Peterson said.
A copy of the proposed rule changes can be found on the department website at: http://agr.mt.gov/reference/administrativeRules.asp. Views about the proposed amendments can be expressed via email to Joel A. Clairmont, the department's deputy director, at agr@mt.gov or by fax at (406) 444-5409. Comments must be received by June 15, 2006.
Additional information about the State Grain Lab can be obtained from Craig
Essebaggers at (406) 452-9561.
