Wheat board petitions available

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Nominating petitions are now available for eligible wheat producers interested in becoming a candidate for the Illinois Wheat Development Board.

Those interested can obtain petitions from the Illinois Wheat Association or the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The deadline to return completed petitions to IDOA is Sept. 15.

Interested producers must be of legal voting age and be affected producers of wheat residing in the district for which they are nominated.

Petitions must contain the signature of at least 50 or 5%, whichever is less, of the eligible producers residing in the candidate’s district.

Affected producers may also request petitions to become a candidate for three at-large board member positions. Candidate petitions must carry the signature of at least 50 or 5%, whichever is less of the affected producers statewide.

The Illinois Wheat Development Board election will be held on Oct. 30. For more information, visit the Illinois Wheat Association at https://www.illinoiswheat.org, and the Illinois Department of Agriculture at https://agr.illinois.gov.

“I encourage interested producers to engage in this process, to take an active role in shaping the future of the wheat industry,” said Jerry Costello II, IDOA director.

“As the 10th largest producer of wheat in the U.S., Illinois holds a strong position with great potential for growth.”

During an interview at the Summer Wheat Forum on July 31 in Greenville, Illinois Wheat Association President John Howell, of Red Bud, reflected on the efforts of developing a checkoff program.

“When we started the work towards that a couple years ago, there were a couple individuals that said, ‘You’ll never get that through. That’ll never pass. We’ve tried multiple times. You’ll never get it through,’” Howell said.

“I’m kind of maybe that hard-headed individual that kind of takes that as a challenge. I think some of the other folks that served on the committee thought we can do this if we really put our heads together and we build a program that’s really going to benefit wheat growers, there shouldn’t be much opposition to it.

“We made the program voluntary, so if you don’t want to participate, you can seek the refund, and we tried to break the districts up that both matched geography-wise, but also wheat acre-wise.

“We just tried to do everything that morally seemed the right thing to do and we wanted to focus on promotion of wheat and finding more end-use products for wheat and additional markets. That’s an objection to raising wheat north of here. There’s where do I sell it to, there’s no terminals, there’s no elevators that buy wheat. So, finding that kind of those markets is important.

“There are also always more management ideas or more research to be done.

“There are a lot of people to thank. Illinois Farm Bureau was instrumental in helping us, the Illinois Soybean Association, Illinois Corn Growers Association, everyone. It was a group effort, and a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into it.

“The IDOA has been integral in guiding us on the right things to do and making sure we’re doing everything legally by the book that we needed to, so we couldn’t be happier.”

For more information, visit the Illinois Wheat Association at https://www.illinoiswheat.org, and the Illinois Department of Agriculture at https://agr.illinois.gov.

Checkoff Vote

The establishment of a board is the next step after Illinois wheat producers approved a wheat checkoff program to the state by a 207-69 vote this past April.

The farmer-funded initiative aims to enhance wheat production, develop new markets and boost demand for wheat products.

Farmers can opt to pay 1.5 cents per bushel, which will be used to fund research, market development and promotional activities benefiting the entire wheat industry.

This program is refundable for those opting not to participate. A refund application can be submitted within 60 days after the deduction from the sale of the wheat.