Wheat growers will likely see a change in how promotional fees are assessed. Under current statute, the promotional fee is a flat one and one half cents per bushel of wheat sold. House Bill 1081 proposes changing it to an equation based on the value of the net market price per bushel. Senator Larry Tidemann speaks in favor of the measure on the Senate floor.
“Over the past years, the number of acres of wheat have gone down. Technology has changed the landscape of agriculture and corn and soybeans have moved into wheat country. The wheat acres have gone down almost a million acres. If you take that times the bushels at that current rate of 1.5 cents, that shows there’s a decrease of revenue, which means you cannot do as much with those check-off dollars because you have less dollars to work with,” Tidemann says.
Tidemann says the promotional fees go toward crop research at the public universities. He says without this calculation change, there is less ability to enhance development of new varieties. House Bill 1081 passed the full Senate 32 to 3 and now heads to the Governor’s desk for final approval.