In This Issue:

• Upcoming NBGA Summer Meeting in Fargo
• USDA Announced Disaster Relief for 2020-2021 Crops, Begins Emergency Relief Payments
• NBGA Weighs-In on Glyphosate Decision
• Virginia Tech Continues Work on Barley Breeding for Mid-Atlantic Region
• USGC: Meet U.S. Malt Event Showcases Advantages, Quality of U.S. Barley in China
• Biotech & Barley: A Webinar Hosted by AMBA Exploring Innovation in the Industry

Upcoming NBGA Summer Meeting in Fargo

NBGA's Summer Board of Directors meeting will be next month in Fargo, ND. 

Accommodations have been arranged at:

The Jasper Hotel

215 Broadway N.

Fargo, ND 58102

(701) 532-2150

Register yourself on our website, here.

If you still need to reserve a hotel room, contact Blair Elias, here.

Monday, June 20

Travel day, arrivals

Tuesday, June 21

All day meetings, Board dinner

Wednesday, June 22

Half day meetings, departures

USDA Announced Disaster Relief for 2020-2021 Crops,

Begins Emergency Relief Payments

On May 16^th, USDA announced disaster assistance payments for crop producers, including barley, for losses suffered during 2020 and 2021 crop years. The full notice and related material can be found here:

Emergency Relief Program (usda.gov)

In September 2021 Congress enacted a bill that included $10 billion for agriculture disaster assistance. USDA is implementing this assistance as the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) and will be implementing it in two phases.

To simplify the delivery of ERP Phase 1 benefits, FSA will pre-filled application forms with producers crop insurance and NAP data that is already on file because they received a crop insurance indemnity or NAP payment. Phase I of ERP will cover producers that had a crop insurance or NAP indemnity in 2020 or 2021. Phase II will include producers that did not have insurance or sustained shallow losses that did not trigger a crop insurance indemnity. 

NBGA Weighs-In on Glyphosate Decision

In response to the brief issued by the U.S. Solicitor General to the Supreme Court advising the Court not to take up a case regarding glyphosate cancer claims, NBGA joined 53 agricultural organizations in a letter to President Biden urging the Administration to withdraw the brief and to consult with the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding the implications of the decision for food production, environmental sustainability, and science-based regulation.

 In the brief, the Solicitor General expressed in a significant departure from previous, bipartisan administrative policy, that certain aspects of state labeling requirements, including chronic health claims, are not preempted by federal law. 

Virginia Tech Continues Work on Barley

Breeding for Mid-Atlantic Region

With funding support from the Maryland Grain Producers, the Virginia Tech Barley Breeding program aims to develop high yielding, disease resistant barley cultivars adapted to the mid-Atlantic and southeastern U.S. region and with qualities designed for malt, feed and food. The growth of craft malting, brewing and distilling industries in the mid-Atlantic and eastern U.S. has driven demand for locally grown malt barley varieties adapted to the east coast.

The main goals of this research is to: 1) assess and improve yield potential and other desirable traits such as disease resistance, grain composition and quality of barley having diverse end uses; 2) develop barley cultivars comparable to or better than current high yielding cultivars Atlantic, Secretariat, SB255, and Thoroughbred using both conventional and marker assisted breeding methods and; 3) implement a program to develop barley varieties with greater marketability in both domestic and foreign markets and, thereby, make barley an economical cash crop. 

The Virginia Tech Barley Breeding Program released a forage barley (VA16BFHB-268 NA) cultivar, in March of 2021 as a replacement for 'Nomini' (released in 1991) winter barley cultivar. Cultivar VA16BFHB-268 NA is awnless (beardless) like 'Nomini', which makes it more palatable than awned cultivars. It has an excellent nutritional profile compared to available commercial awnless cultivars. One other advanced feed barley line VA17B-166 is also being considered for potential release in 2022. Four elite double haploid malt barley lines are being evaluated as potential release candidates. The Virginia Tech Barley Breeding Program will continue to develop and evaluate new barley lines derived from crosses made between hulled cultivars and breeding lines with a number of our outstanding malt barley lines.

USGC: Meet U.S. Malt Event Showcases Advantages,

Quality of U.S. Barley in China

To create a better understanding of the global and U.S. barley markets, the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) China office recently hosted a second Meet U.S. Malt webinar for barley importers, maltsters and brewers in the country.

Since 2019, the Council’s staff in China has actively looked for opportunities to promote U.S. barley malt in the rapidly growing Chinese craft beer industry. The market has a demand for quality and variety, but participants have had little familiarity with the advantages of U.S. barley before Council programming. The webinar was the organization’s initial step to create a barley program in the country, and it has now become an annual event. During the program, Nathan Boll, USGC barley sector director and chairman of the North Dakota Barley Council, discussed his experiences in the field. Attendees also heard updates on U.S. barley market trends, export supply chain and global barley supply and demand. The webinar welcomed approximately 120 attendees, many of whom expressed great interest in incorporating U.S. barley into their work.

“We are hoping to see big growth in planting acreage in the U.S. to have more barley available for the export market,” said Paul Huang, deputy general manager of Junjie, a feed raw materials trading company. “I now have a clearer sense of the global barley market because of the webinar, and I thank the Council for its efforts in promoting the barley trade between the U.S. and China.” With the Chinese craft beer industry continuing to grow, the Council looks forward to sharing the benefits of U.S. barley with buyers and end-users in China. “China is the biggest barley importer in the global market, and there are interests and demand for U.S. barley,” said Wennie Liu, USGC program manager in China. “We are hoping to generate more potential imports for U.S. barley and malt through our activities here, which allow end-users of the Chinese livestock and beer industries to gain a better understanding of the quality and current market situation for barley and malt.”

Biotech & Barley: A Webinar Hosted by AMBA Exploring Innovation in the Industry

More information is available  on AMBA's website,

click here to learn more!