News Release

October 13, 2011

Contact:
Mary Geiger
Communications Director
Kansas Department of Agriculture
(785) 296-2653 phone
Mary.Geiger@kda.ks.gov

Commodity commission candidates face Nov. 30 filing deadline

TOPEKA − Grain growers in western Kansas who plan to campaign for a seat on one of the  state’s five grain commodity commissions — corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat or sunflowers — should be gathering petition signatures now to meet the Nov. 30, 2011, filing deadline.

The 2012 election will cover districts one, two and three or the western third of Kansas.
 
District one includes Cheyenne, Decatur, Graham, Norton, Rawlins, Sheridan, Sherman and Thomas counties. 

District two includes Gove, Greeley, Lane, Logan, Ness, Scott, Trego, Wallace and Wichita counties.

District three includes Clark, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Meade, Morton, Seward, Stanton and Stevens counties.

To be eligible to run for any of the five commodity commissions, the candidate must have been actively engaged in growing corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, wheat or sunflowers within the preceding five years.

Candidates must gather 20 signatures from eligible voters to be included on the 2012 ballot.   No more than five signatures from any one county can be used to qualify a candidate.  Eligible voters are Kansas residents who will reach age 18 before the election and who have grown corn, grain sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers or wheat for the last three years. 

Candidate registration packets are available from the Kansas Department of Agriculture or the grain commodity commissions. 

More information is available from the Kansas Corn Commission at 785-448-2626 or www.ksgrains.com/kcc/; the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission at 785- 341-6433 or www.ksgrainsorghum.org/; the Kansas Soybean Commission at 785-271-1030 or www.kansassoybeans.com/;  the Kansas Sunflower Commission at 785-565-3908 or www.kssunflower.com/; the Kansas Wheat Commission at 785-539-0255 or www.kswheat.com; or, the Kansas Department of Agriculture at 785-296-3556 or www.ksda.gov/kansas_agriculture/content/152.