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New Illinois Wheat Checkoff brings crop in line with other commodities

A southeastern Illinois farmer says the state’s new wheat checkoff brings the crop in line with other commodities.

Don Guinnip, who farms in Clark County and served on the checkoff organizational committee, tells Brownfield, “We have a state corn check off, and then we have the national soybean check off, which Illinois is part of.”  He says, “There is a beef check off, there’s a milk production check off. So, a lot of the commodities have some kind of a program to assist in marketing, and research and development, and the wheat check off will be similar to those.”

He says the voluntary penny and a half per bushel assessment approved by a vote of the state’s wheat growers will be primarily dedicated to advancing wheat production.

“When we were talking to farmers about doing this, research was the number one issue that always came up.”  He says, “We need more research. We need to work on these problems we have with wheat production and marketing.”

Guinnip says it’ll be a farmer-led initiative.

“The elected board, which will be 9 producers, there’ll be 6 districts and three at large. They will make those decisions and kind of guide it,” he says.

He says the election of members to the Illinois Wheat Development Board is expected this fall with the program going into effect January 1st, 2026.

AUDIO: Don Guinnip – Illinois farmer