Area agriculture commodity commission candidates face Nov. 30 filing deadline

TOPEKA -- Grain growers in eastern 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, 2009, filing deadline.

The 2010 election will cover districts seven, eight and nine, or the eastern third of Kansas.

District eight includes Anderson, Chase, Coffey, Douglas, Franklin, Geary, Johnson, Linn, Lyon, Miami, Morris, Osage, Shawnee and Wabaunsee 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 2010 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:

• Kansas Corn Commission at (785) 448-2626 or www.ksgrains.com/kcc/
• Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission at (866)-457-6456 or www.ksgrainsorghum.org/
• Kansas Soybean Commission at (785) 271-1030 or www.kansassoybeans.com/
• Kansas Sunflower Commission at (785)-565-3908 or www.kssunflower.com/
• Kansas Wheat Commission at (785) 539-0255 or www.kswheat.com
• Kansas Department of Agriculture at (785) 296-3556 www.ksda.gov/kansas_agriculture/content/152.