WI Corn Checkoff

Program Exceeds $1 Million

Wisconsin’s corn checkoff program collected a record amount of assessments from state producers last year after the legislature voted to boost the checkoff rate in 2007, USAgNet reports. During the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board’s annual meeting, officers announced that total assessment collections in 2008 were at $1.08 million. That’s compared to around $243,000 the year earlier.

“A combination of more acres harvested, and of course, the hike in the checkoff rate brought our revenues to record levels,“ said WCPB President Ken Rosenow.

The Wisconsin corn checkoff is administered by a board of producer-elected corn growers. In early 2007, they voted to increase the assessment rate from one-tenth of one-cent per bushel to a half a penny per bushel for corn sold commercially. That prompted lawmakers to draft a bill to put the changes into effect, which Governor Jim Doyle later signed. Prior to those changes. Wisconsin’s check-off amount was the lowest of all corn producing states in the country that used a checkoff system.