AAGIWA President Larry Kitchen reports that the Quality Management Program (QMP) Review Team assembled by FGIS continues its work toward a common template that all agencies could use in designing their quality manuals. Mr. Kitchen said he expects:

• The template will be directly related to Official grain inspection activities.
• Specific examples will be developed to provide agencies with guidance on how a particular document should be prepared.
• The template will indicate where a written procedure is required or what particular FGIS instruction should be referenced in writing the plan.

Bob Krouse with FGIS' Compliance Division in Kansas City added that the Team has identified about 11 program areas they feel should be included in the QMP. He said the goal of the program is to make official agencies quality self-reliant with minimum FGIS oversight.  

The timeline for the group, as laid out by Karen Guagliardo, Chief, Review Branch, Compliance Division, FGIS, is for the group to present its recommendations to FGIS management by April 18, 2008.

Signals from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicate the agency is planning to take a fresh look at its rules governing fall protection for workers, but any potential changes are probably several years away.

The National Grain and Feed Association, in its February 1, 2008 newsletter to members, said OSHA officials have told them the Agency will begin the process of collecting information for determining whether or how o revise its walking and working surfaces regulations related to fall protection, including at rail and truck receiving and load-out areas. (A complete copy of the NGFA article is attached.)

NGFA reported that OSHA is currently working on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on fall protection systems, although the NPRM is not scheduled for publication until April, 2008. The NPRM is typically used by government agencies to invite comments on whether there is a need to examine a particular issue If the agency then decides to pursue an issue, a series of government steps follow, including a proposed rule with a public comment period and concluding with the publication of a final rule. The entire process can be lengthy.

The issue has implications for everyone in the industry connected to rail car movements of grain. For AAGIWA, worker safety is a concern for employees who must be atop rail cars for stowage examinations and/or grain inspections.

CHAFF visited with Mark Daniels, Director of Safety and Health for CHS, Inc. of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota for his view on the issue. Daniels, pictured below, said the nature of the risk associated with working on top of rail cars has not changed over time. What has changed is the volume and load schedule - industry is currently loading more unit trains and faster than ever before, and that translates to more man-hours of load crew risk.

An important element influencing fall protection use is that railroads provide a premium when grain facilities achieve a 15 hou turn-around time with unit trains. This creates a powerful financial incentive to move quickly when a unit train arrives.

Fall protection, Daniels said, is a classic balancing act between efficiency and safety. Grain facilities prefer to ensure that 100 percent of the employees are safe 100 percent of the time. The reality, though, is that this is very difficult to achieve with a tight turnaround schedule or adverse loading conditions.

It costs about $10,000 per car length to provide fall protection. So the dilemma each facility faces is how much is enough? Some facilities with low volume may be able to do all the work inside the bounds of a single car length. Other high volume facilities may not be able to perform all the work inside a 10-car length of protection.

The challenge is that it is difficult to have fall protection available at all steps involved in the process. Those steps typically include the following:    

1. Inbound rail cars are frequently staged at the facility away from fall protection where they are opened and get a stowage exam or cleaning, as needed).
2. The cars are then rolled into the loadout as a "unit" or series of cars, depending on available trackage. Fall protection is frequently available at the loadout.
3. As loading is completed, cars are continually being advanced from the loadout to another staging area where the cars may be sampled prior to closing an sealing lids.

In summary, loading railcars has become a well synchronized, highly efficient process that requires the utmost regard for safety. While the risk of falls cannot be completely eliminated, it is incumbent on each facility to evaluate their loading practices and ensure risk is minimized by developing work practices which emphasize the use of protection and limit the frequency and duration of car top work away from the facility.

Daniels said the industry has made considerable progress in protecting more of the people more of the time, however, until everyone is protected at all times we live with the risk.

OSHA's upcoming consideration of new rules will undoubtedly direct the industry further down the path toward great fall protection .  

The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), in a statement released January 8, 2008, said it had advised the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that existing regulatory and industry frameworks, as well as prudent contracting practices, are sufficient to facilitate the trading of distillers grains, and that it would be inadvisable for the federal government to develop standards for biofuels products at this time.

In a statement submitted to USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), the NGFA said existing procedures for approving feed ingredients, as well as the NGFA's own Grain Trade Rules, Feed Trade Rules and Arbitration System, already provide parameters for the trading of distillers grains and other products from biofuels production.

"We believe that the existing government and industry frameworks are working well and provide for the effective trading of these products, and do not believe that any additional involvement by GIPSA is necessary to further enhance the marketing of grain inputs used for ethanol production or the resulting distillers grains products," wrote NGFA Biofuels Committee Chairman Michael F. Malecha, ethanol manager for NRG Development Co. Inc., a biofuels company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn.

Mike Strain, the first Republican ever elected to the position of Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, was sworn in on January 14. Strain, a veterinarian and rancher, had previously served in the Louisiana House of Representatives and is a past president of the Louisiana Farm Bureau and has ben active in the Louisiana Cattlemen's Association. Strain, pictured at right, succeeds Bob Odom who had served as Agriculture Commissioner for 28 years.

Odom first ran for the office as a reform candidate in 1979. After taking office in 1980, he rarely had a difficult race, winning re-election in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003. Later in his career he faced a number of personal allegations in connection with his duties as commissioner. He fought criminal corruption charges since August 2002, when he was indicted on 21 counts, including bribery and money laundering. A state judge dismissed all remaining charges in 2007, but prosecutors have appealed the ruling and asked that the case be reinstated.

USDA has announced that the next meeting of its Grain Inspection Advisory Committee will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 13-14, 2008. The meeting will be held at the Marriott City Center. AAGIWA Vice President Mark Fulmer, Lincoln Inspection Service, serves on the Committee.

FGIS is beginning to make plans for a farm gate survey of corn quality for later in 2008. John Giler, Director, FGIS Field Management Division, said it would similar to the grain sorghum survey, which is in its second year, and to the soybean study which is in its first year. One goal for the corn survey would be to look at the level of BCFM delivered from the farm and to get a more accurate assessmnt of the individual components that comprise BCFM.   

As background, for the sorghum survey GIPSA designed a statistically-sound program to capture first-point-of-sale, or farm gate inspection data for grain sorghum. Based on production in all sorghum producing States, GIPSA determined that 1,010 samples were required for statistical validity. GIPSA personnel contacted local grain elevators (based on Farm Service Agency records) in sorghum producing States to ask for assistance in providing samples to an official agency (selected through a competitive bid process) for grading. Prior to or at the beginning of the local sorghum harvest, GIPSA sent enough shipping materials to participating elevators to capture over 1,500 samples.

AAGIWA's Board of Directors met by conference call on January 23 to approve plans for the association's annual meeting which wil be held April 27-30, 2008 at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, Kansas. The meeting schedule is shaping up as follows:

A flyer with further information on the meeting is attached.

At the suggestion of FGIS, AAGIWA leaders will be meeting with the FGIS senior management team over dinner in Kansas City on February 5. The dinner meeting will afford AAGIWA leaders the opportunity to meet Tom O'Connor, the new Director of FGIS' Compliance Division. Current meeting attendees, in addition to Mr. O'Connor, are expected to be:

From FGIS:

• David Shipman, deputy administrator
• John Giler, Director, Field Management Division
• John Sharpe, Director, Technical Services Division
• Karen Guagliardo, Chief, Review Branch, Compliance Division
• Marianne Plaus, Chief, Market and Program Analysis Staff
• Byron Reilly, Office of International Affairs
• Dana Stewart, Sssistant to the Deputy Administrator

From AAGIWA:

• Larry Kitchen (president), Missouri Department of Agriculture
• Mark Fulmer (vice president), Lincoln Inspection Service
• Tom Dahl (Immediate past president), Sioux City Inspection and Weighing
• Dave Reeder (secretary treasurer), Fremont Grain Inspection
• Tom Meyer, Kansas Grain Inspection Service
• Greg Hoelck, Hastings Grain Inspection Service
• Bob Petersen, AAGIWA staff

AAGIWA President Larry Kitchen said the association was pleased FGIS would suggest this opportunity to become acquainted with anew, key member of the Agency's senior management team. Kitchen pointed out that these types of opportunities to meet and discuss issues in a more casual setting can help build stroger working relationships that benefit the entire official system.

AAGIWA members Mark Fulmer, Lincoln Inspection Services, Dave Reeder, Fremont Grain Inspection, and Tom Dahl, Sioux City Grain Inspection and Weighing, will present two educational sessions during the course of the GEAPS annual meeting and technical conference in Omaha, February 23-26. Dave Reeder said both sessions would be held on February 25 and one 45-minute session will present an overview of the corn inspection/grading process with some hands-on examples. A similar session will follow on soybean inspection/grading. These AAGIWA members, in addition, will be staffing a booth at the GEAPS trade show.

GEAPS' expects the annual event to be the largest in its 79-year history. The event is expected to draw more than 2,000 people from around the world. It will feature 55 expert speakers and 30 hours of educational programs. The exposition, showcasing new products and services, will include approximately 375 booths, shattering the previous record of 300.

AAGIWA Secretary-Treasurer Dave Reeder reports that membership renewals are coming in at a brisk pace. Renewing members and their voting representatives as of January 31, 2008 are as follows:

Amarillo Grain Exchange, Cash Burris
Cairo Grain Inspection, Robert Fronabarger
Central Iowa Grain Inspection Corp., Kevin Bredthauer
Champaign-Danville Grain Inspection Dept., David Ayers
Enid Grain Inspection Company, Barry Hibbets
Fremont Grain Inspection Dept., Dave Reeder
Hastings Grain Inspection, Greg Hoelck
Kankakee Grain Inspection, Michael Fegan
Kansas Grain Inspection, Tom Meyer
Lewiston Grain Inspection, Edythe Matchey
Lincoln Inspection Service, Mark Fulmer
Midsouth Grain Inspection, Joseph Cupples
Minot Grain Inspection, David Thom
Missouri Dept. of Agriculture, Larry Kitchen
Montana Department of Agriculture, Craig Essebaggers
Northern Plains Inspection, Paul Bethke
North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. Mike Adams
Sioux City Inspection & Weighing, Tom Dahl
Tri-State Grain Inspection, Damon Sampson
Washington Dept of Agriculture, Randy Deike
Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Carl Avery
AgTrax Technologies, Jeff Jackson
Charm Sciences, Gerard Ruth
GSF/Dickey John, Rich Flaugh
Neogen, Paul Pfeiffer
Romer Labs, Charlie McGuill
Seedburo, Tom Runyon

Reeder said members should be aware that there is a new address for membership renewals. Those should go to:

Dave Reeder
Fremont Grain Inspection
603 East Dodge Street
Fremont, NE 68025.

Looking for a way to move that used equipment you are no longer using? Place an ad in CHAFF - the most well-targeted publication for used inspection equipment. The advertising cost for members begins at $100. Ads for the March issue must be submitted by February 25th. Those ads should be sent to Bob Petersen at bob.petersen@aagiwa.org

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