The Canadian Grain Commission has announced new grading changes for the upcoming 2024-25 crop year that it says will better meet the needs of the grain sector in Canada and grain buyers around the world.
Among the changes are new variety designation lists for food barley, and updates to the assessment of seed coat discolouration in soybeans.
According to a CGC release, food barley varieties are unique and different from malting or feed barley varieties due to the distinct quality features desired for food, such as high beta-glucans. And to ensure Canadian producers and the agriculture sector can realize the benefits of developing and growing these varieties, the CGC is creating variety designation lists for Barley, Canada Eastern Food, which will take effect on July 1, 2024, and Barley, Canada Western Food, which will take effect on Aug. 1, 2024.
Meanwhile, as part of the CGC grain grading modernization project, the official Grain Grading Guide will be updated to clarify the assessment of seed coat discolouration in soybeans, effective Aug. 1, 2024. The changes include updates to definitions and grade determination tables for factors related to soybean staining. The CGC will also be adding new photographs to the web version of the guide to assist in the evaluation of seed coat discolouration.
Finally, the CGC said it is reformatting the Grain Grading Guide to be clearer, more user friendly and accessible. Effective Aug.1, 2024, grain grades will be moved to column (vertical) format and grain grading factors will be listed in row (horizontal) format. This change will be to the formatting only and won’t change any grading factors or tolerances.
The new and previous versions of the tables will be available in the online version of the Grain Grading Guide for at least six months to help with the transition.
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