Soybean request for checkoff referendum underway

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will conduct the Soybean Request for Referendum through May 31 in county Farm Service Agency offices.

The Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act requires USDA to conduct a Request for Referendum every five years to determine if producers want to vote on continuation of the Soybean Checkoff Program. The last Request for Referendum was conducted in 2019.

Individual producers and other producer entities may request a referendum at the county FSA office where their administrative farm records are maintained. Producers who do not participate in FSA programs may request a referendum through the county FSA office where they own or rent land.

To be eligible to participate, producers must certify and provide documentation that they produced soybeans and paid an assessment on their soybeans during the period of Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2023.

Producers may obtain Form LP-51-1, Soybean Promotion and Research Order Request for Referendum, by postal mail, fax or in person from their FSA county office. The form will be available on the United Soybean Board page of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service website — at https://tinyurl.com/wbxrz72j — through May 31.

Completed forms and supporting documentation must be returned to the appropriate county FSA office by fax or in person no later than close of business May 31. Mailed forms must be postmarked by midnight May 31 and received in the county FSA office by close of business on June 7.

USDA will conduct a referendum if at least 10% of the nation’s 413,358 soybean producers support a referendum. Not more than one-fifth of the producers who support having a referendum can be from any one state.

Notice of the opportunity to request a referendum was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 2.

The soybean checkoff program is administered by a 77-member producer board and is designed to expand uses of soybeans and soybean products in domestic and foreign markets.

The national program is financed by a mandatory assessment of one-half of 1% of the net market price of soybeans.

More information about the board is available at unitedsoybean.org. Producers may also contact Jason Julian, USDA agricultural marketing specialist, at 202-731-2149 or Jason.Julian@usda.gov.