Michigan’s Corn Producers Vote Down Proposed Assessment Increase

Feb 29, 2024

Michigan’s corn producers have voted down a proposed assessment increase under the state’s Agriculture Commodities Marketing Act, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development announced today which ran the referendum for the Corn Marketing Program.

MDARD received a total of 1,317 ballots with 107 of those ballots being disqualified as invalid. Of the valid 1,210 referendum ballots to determine whether to increase the assessment of Michigan corn by additional $0.01 per bushel, 583 producers voted yes (48 percent) representing 41,612,583 bushels of corn (43 percent) and 627 producers voted no (52 percent) representing 55,402,313 bushels of corn (57 percent).

For the amendment to pass, more than 50 percent of the producer votes cast, representing more than 50 percent of the total number of bushels represented on the cast ballots, must approve it.

The assessment remains at $0.01 per bushel of Michigan corn as supported by growers during the 2023 referendum.

Source : michigan.gov

Video: A chain harrow is a game changer

Utilizing a rotational grazing method on our farmstead with our sheep helps to let the pasture/paddocks rest. We also just invested in a chain harrow to allow us to drag the paddocks our sheep just left to break up and spread their manure around, dethatch thicker grass areas, and to rough up bare dirt areas to all for a better seed to soil contact if we overseed that paddock. This was our first time really using the chain harrow besides initially testing it out. We are very impressed with the work it did and how and area that was majority dirt, could be roughed up before reseeding.

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