08/10/05 Wheat groups talk merger again

Boyd Schwieder and his family dry land farm and run a cow-calf operation near Idaho Falls. Now as the new Chairman of the US Wheat Associates Schwieder takes on the added responsibility of working with the foreign market development arm of the wheat industry. When a recent merger vote with National Association of Wheat Growers and the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee failed, Schwieder and others didn't let the issue die. Now USW is offering the wheat growers a compromise offer that's acceptable to North Dakota, Oklahoma and Montana, the trio that objected to the merger. SCHWIEDER "There was some changes made in it to accommodate those states. We will be meeting in Portland in October and that plan very likely could be voted on by the three organizations there in Portland." The most substantive change from the earlier consolidation proposal allows states themselves to determine the relative votes of each state`s two directors. Instead of a consolidation, the USW compromise calls for a merger, to facilitate the continuation of overseas offices and the overseas bank accounts maintained by U.S. Wheat Associates. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott