It looks like there was very little interest on the part of soybean growers to request a new referendum according to the results of the latest opportunity as announced by USDA.
USDA received only 759 request for referendum forms at county Farm Service Agency Offices, which reflects approximately one tenth of one percent of all eligible U.S. soybean farmers. Had 10 percent of the 589,182 eligible farmers – with no more than one-fifth of the 10 percent coming from any one state – requested a referendum, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture would have conducted the referendum on the soybean checkoff within 12 months.
USDA requires a soybean checkoff request for referendum period every five years. The most recent period took place from May 4 to May 29.
“These results reaffirm that U.S. soybean farmers strongly support our soybean checkoff,” says USB Chairman Chuck Myers, a soybean farmer from Lyons, Neb. “Our effective, efficient and farmer-driven program will continue to strive to maximize the return on investment of each checkoff dollar to ensure that U.S. soy is the highest quality and most competitive in the global marketplace.”
Farmers certifying that they paid the checkoff, which is one-half of one percent of the price per bushel sold, at any time during a period beginning Jan. 1, 2007, and ending Dec. 31, 2008, were eligible to participate in the petition for a referendum. Eligible farmers who did not want a referendum did not need to take any action.