10/05/05 Wheat industry merger vote fails

10/05/05 Wheat industry merger vote fails

Farm and Ranch October 5, 2005 During their fall meeting this week in Portland, Oregon, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Wheat Growers voted down a proposal to merge with U.S. Wheat Associates and the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee. Association president Sherman Reese of Oregon, says the vote was 18 against, 11 in favor, of a proposal put forth by U.S. Wheat Associates. Reese: "Technically at least, that proposal is dead. There was a lot of sentiment around the table to continue and find a way to accommodate the concerns of the states that voted no. And those concerns mainly centered around a couple of items. One is of course the weighted vote issue and how to meet the needs of those states that feel like they have to vote their money on the commission side versus those states think that at the national level the votes should be more equally distributed between the growers and the commission." Following the vote the NAWG Board passed a motion to have the U.S. Wheat and NAWG boards meet at the earliest opportunity to reconcile differences. Reese says it could be difficult to get together before the Wheat Industry Convention early next year because its winter wheat seeding time and then national officers will be traveling attending state conventions. Earlier this year a compromise consolidation plan that would have given equal votes to commission and association representatives on a combined board was narrowly defeated by members of U.S. Wheat Associates even though the boards of all three national groups had previously approved the plan. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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