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Wheat checkoff measure passes
PIERRE, S.D. (AP)--A fee that South Dakota farmers pay to support Wheat research and marketing should be increased, the House Agriculture Committee decided Feb. 17.
The Wheat checkoff, as the fee is called, is now 1 cent for each bushel of Wheat that farmers sell. SB135, unanimously ushered to the full House, would set the checkoff at 1.5 cents.
Rep. Barry Jensen, R-White River, said the higher fee would boost revenues for the South Dakota Wheat Commission by about $500,000 a year.
The commission's annual budget has averaged about $950,000 over the past decade.
Wheat is the first farm product in South Dakota to be tabbed for a checkoff program, Jensen said.
Rick Vallery, executive director of South Dakota Wheat Inc., said the checkoff was last raised in 1988. The fee began at one-third cent per bushel in 1961 and has gradually been raised over the years, he said.
Checkoff funds supplied by the Wheat Commission to South Dakota State University have resulted in many new varieties of Wheat that have substantially increased production of the crop in the state, Vallery said.
He said average yields of winter Wheat in South Dakota four decades ago were 18 to 19 bushels an acre and average spring Wheat yields were about 14 bushels an acre. Vallery said winter Wheat averaged 45 bushels an acre last year in the state and the spring Wheat yield was 47 bushels.
Extra money from the increased fee also can be used for other research and to continue efforts at selling more Wheat abroad, he said.
Stanley Porch, who farms and ranches near Wanblee, also testified in favor of SB135, which was passed earlier by the state Senate.
"The increase in the checkoff will allow the Wheat Commission to fully fund research and development," said Porch, a former member of the commission and a past chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates.
Date: 2/23/05
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