Comment on FR Doc # 2011-25468

US Barley Standards ANPR Comments Submitted to USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration by American Malting Barley Association, Inc. Milwaukee, WI The American Malting Barley Association, Inc. (AMBA) is a nonprofit trade association with the goal of ensuring an adequate supply of high quality malting barley for the malting and brewing industry. AMBA offers the following comments in response to the request for public comment on the United States Standards for Barley published in the October 4, 2011 Federal Register, 7 CFR Part 810. We thank the USDA-GIPSA for the opportunity to express our views on potential revisions to Barley grading standards which were last updated in 1997. Nearly 56% of barley used domestically is purchased for malting and brewing and our views reflect the current practices and quality requirements for these sales. AMBA feels that the historical differences between two-rowed and six-rowed malting varieties have declined significantly in recent years with current varieties being grown and production practices, and that this fact should be realized in barley standards. Our comments on specific grading practices are followed by two sets of tables and text. The first set contains current grading requirements (Tables 1 & 2 of the Grain Inspection Handbook, Book II, Barley, page 2-2) and factors (Table 9 of the Grain Inspection Handbook, Book II, Barley, page 2-21) for malting barley and the second outlines our opinion on revised tables (Tables 1, 2 & 9) for subclasses of malting barley. Changes are highlighted with red text. Six-rowed Blue Malting Barley: Blue aleurone barley is no longer used by the US malting and brewing industry and there are no current blue aleurone malting varieties being grown in the US for export. It is extremely unlikely that the industry will be using blue aleurone varieties in the future. Therefore, the Six-rowed Blue Malting Barley Subclass should no longer be used.