Your Checkoff Dollars at Work
Each year during the first week of December the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee’s (MWBC) board of directors conducts our annual budget meeting. This year was no different than any other year, that is except for the thousand-pound gorilla in the room! Devastating drought led to lower-than-average outputs, which has caused for a significant decrease to our overall budget.
As you know a major part of what we do here at the MWBC is directly fund scientific research that improves quality, production, and best farm practices. The lack of funding has resulted in cuts to existing research and minimal funding for new projects. Although far from ideal, times of economic turmoil can lead to unique opportunities.
The MWBC board members put in some long hours hashing out solutions to the significantly decreased budget. Long standing board member Denise Conover said, “This is the best thing that has ever happened to the committee.” She said this knowing that tight years help board members make better decisions which carry over to even stronger decisions in good years.
Overall, there is no reason for concern as our committee has long planned for drought and has reserves in place for times like these.
Here is a figure that is often overlooked. With seed money from the MWBC, researchers can secure much larger grants from private industry and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Throughout the past 7 years the MWBC has invested $12.3 million dollars into research and studies that were used to get preliminary data. This data is then leveraged to secure both private and public investments which in turn can more than double your initial check-off dollar investment. Grants such as the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA Agricultural Research Service- Pacific West Area, and the US Cooperative State Research Education and Extension are typically targeted.
The $25.9 million dollars is only a figure of direct investment in studies that the committee has taken part in. This figure is much larger, as spin off studies can result from preliminary data.
The MWBC typically commits 50% of our yearly funds towards research. The 2022 research season will continue to get that allotment. A target of the committee has been to leverage your check-off dollars to get additional funding for the Montana State University (MSU) plant science department. “MSU’s plant science team has been diligently writing grants to multiply Treasure State producers’ investment,” said Cassidy Marn, Executive Vice President of the Wheat and Barley Committee. “Our goal is to expand this gap, provide seed money and write as many letters of support as we can.”