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USW officers begin new terms
The U.S. Wheat Associates Board of Directors honored wheat producer Ron Suppes, Dighton, Kan., as he turned over the Chairman's gavel to Michael Edgar, Yuma, Ariz., at its annual meeting July 28, 2008, in Kansas City, Mo. Also at the meeting, Janice Mattson, Chester, Mont., assumed the duties of Vice Chairman, while Don Schieber, Ponca City, Okla., assumed the Secretary-Treasurer position. USW is the industry's export market development organization funded by America's wheat producers and through cost-share funding provided by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. The organization elects officers for the next marketing year (June-May) at its Winter Board Meeting. "I have always been taught to do the best you can no matter what situation you face and to leave things in better shape than you found them," Suppes said. "I only hope that during my chairmanship those things have taken place and benefited our customers and U.S. wheat producers." Four generations of Suppes' family were at the meeting to help the organization celebrate his year as Chairman. USW committees and joint committees with the National Association of Wheat Growers also met and reported to the Board during the meeting. Several guests including Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Adrian Polansky, Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh, Kansas State University (Retired) and advisor to the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership program, and Mark Gold, Managing Partner of Top Third Marketing, Chicago, Ill., made presentations. The Board also heard updates from David Cleavinger, President of NAWG, Wildorado, Texas, and Marcia Scheideman, President of Wheat Foods Council, Denver. USW's next board meeting is a joint session with NAWG Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, 2008 in Dallas, Texas. U.S. Wheat Associates officer biographies Ron Suppes, Past Chairman, Dighton, Kan. Ron Suppes, a wheat grower from west central Kansas, has been a full-time farmer for the past 20 years. In addition to his representation of the Kansas Wheat Commission on the USW Board of Directors, Suppes is a member of the Kansas Agricultural Rural Leadership Class IV, Wheat Seminar Group, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, National Association of Wheat Growers, Farm Bureau, National Corn Growers Association and National Grain Sorghum Producers Association. Suppes is a board member of his local co-op. Ron's experience includes two years as an art instructor at Pratt High School and high school principal at Fowler and Scott Community High Schools in Kansas. Ron and his wife Shirley farm about 8,000 acres. Michael Edgar, Chairman, Yuma, Ariz. Michael Edgar is a native of the Imperial Valley of Southern California. He grew up in a farming operation near El Centro that produced wheat, cotton and alfalfa and fed cattle. He earned an associate degree in business at the local community college. He entered the grain business in 1979 and has engaged in all facets of the business during his career, emphasizing wheat. These include: Trading in cash and futures markets; contracting grain production for domestic and export markets; developing and servicing export markets; contracting for truck, rail and ocean transportation; management of grain variety breeding programs; and, managing grain seed businesses. Edgar has been employed by Barkley Seed, Inc. in Yuma AZ since 1988 and as general manager since 1995. The company operates facilities in central and western Arizona and in the Imperial and Central Valleys of California. It produces and sells certified seed of proprietary varieties of Desert Durum® wheat, hard red wheat and barley and specializes in contracting production of identity preserved grain for domestic and export markets. He is a member of both the Arizona Grain Research and Promotion Council and the California Wheat Commission. He was recently elected Chairman of U.S. Wheat Association. He also serves on the board of directors of WestBred, LLC and is a past president of the Seed Trade Association of Arizona. Michael lives in Yuma with his wife, Janice. He has three young adult children and three grandchildren. Janice Mattson, Vice Chairman, Chester, Mont. Janice Mattson has been an active member of several organizations including Montana Grain Growers Association, Montana Farmers Union, Montana Farm Bureau, Women Involved in Farm Economics, Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, the Association of Agricultural Production Executives, and Precision Agriculture Research Association. Janice served as a director on the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee from 2001-2007, holding positions on various national boards associated with this committee. Janice and her family operate a no-till, dryland spring and winter wheat farm and she says she has a financial interest to expand U.S. wheat export markets. Her farm area is constantly facing pests and abnormal weather patterns and although research and development of alternative varieties have been valuable, continued research needs to be done. She is an advocate for bringing this research back to work on the farm through our universities and Extension. Owning and operating her own farm has provided Janice with the opportunity to experience all aspects of the business from machinery operation to agronomic and economic decision making. Visits to farms around the world, in addition to recent participation in trade missions to Asia and Latin America, have provided her an appreciation for and better understanding of global agriculture. Janice earned a bachelor of science degree from Montana State University at Bozeman. She also completed The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers course. Janice is married to Carl Mattson and their family includes their son Vince and his wife, Kerry, and their daughter Megan, all of whom are involved in the family farm operation. Don Schieber, Secretary-Treasurer, Ponca City, Okla. Don Schieber is a former president of the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association and has served on the Board of the Newkirk Farmers Co-op and the Ark-Kay Soil Conservation District. He was a member of the first class of the Oklahoma Agricultural Leadership Program and still serves on its advisory council. He is a charter member and Secretary-Treasurer of Oklahoma Genetics, Inc., which is licensed to market new hard red winter wheat varieties developed and released by Oklahoma State University. Schieber Farms processes 250 to 300 thousand bushels of seed wheat every year. "I developed a love for producing seed wheat when I was the superintendent of the North Central Oklahoma Agronomy Research Station in Lahoma," Schieber says. "We have good customers in western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico." Schieber has also been a noted high school football official in Oklahoma, a "hobby" he started 38 years ago, the same year he married his wife Cecelia. U.S. Wheat Associates is the industry's market development organization working in 90 countries on behalf of America's wheat producers. The activities of U.S. Wheat Associates are made possible by producer checkoff dollars managed by 18 state wheat commissions and through cost-share funding provided by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service. For more information, visit www.uswheat.org or contact your state wheat commission. 8/18/08 Date: 8/13/08
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