TOPEKA -- The Kansas Department of Agriculture today announced that ballots

to elect commissioners to the state’s five commodity commissions – corn, grain

sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat – are in the mail to registered voters

in districts one, two and three in the western third of the state.

District one includes Cheyenne, Decatur, Graham, Norton, Rawlins, Sheridan,

Sherman and Thomas counties.

District two includes Gove, Greeley, Lane, Logan, Ness, Scott, Trego, Wallace

and Wichita counties.

District three includes Clark, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Hamilton, Haskell,

Hodgeman, Kearny, Meade, Morton, Seward, Stanton and Stevens counties.

District one – Brian Baalman, who grows corn, sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers

and wheat in Sheridan County. Baalman currently serves as president of the

Kansas Corn Growers Association and on the Kansas Corn Commission.

District two – Harvey Heier, who grows corn and wheat and raises cattle in Gove

County. He currently serves on the Kansas Corn Commission, is a member of

the Kansas Corn Growers Association and Kansas Farm Bureau, and has served

nine years on his local co-op board.

No candidates are running for commissioner in district three.

Candidates for the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission

District one – Richard Calliham, who grows corn, grain sorghum, soybeans,

sunflowers and wheat in Thomas County. He has a degree from Fort Hays State

University and is a member of the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association

and Kansas Farm Bureau. He currently serves on the Kansas Grain Sorghum

Commission.

District two – Greg Graff, who grows grain sorghum, corn and wheat on his family’s

farm in Wichita County. He is a graduate of Kansas State University and he

currently serves on the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission.

No candidates are running for commissioner in district three.

District one, two and three – Kurt Maurath, who grows, soybeans, corn, sorghum,

wheat and sunflowers near Oakley in Logan County. He has represented the

western third of Kansas on the Kansas Soybean Commission for six years, and

he is on the Logan County Farm Bureau board.

No candidates are running for commissioner in districts one, two or three.

District one – Brian Linin, who grows wheat in Sherman County. He is a graduate

of Kansas State University and is a member of the Goodland Area Chamber of

Commerce.

District two – Ron Suppes, who grows wheat, corn and sorghum in Lane County.

He is a graduate of Fort Hays State University, and he currently serves on the

Kansas Wheat Commission. He is a past chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates.

District three – Matt Overturf, who grows wheat and sorghum and raises livestock

in Stanton County. He is a member of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers

and is involved in his local chamber of commerce and 4-H extension council

Eligible voters who registered before December 31, 2008, or who voted in the

2006 commission election, will receive a ballot. Eligible voters are Kansas residents

who reached age 18 before the election, have grown corn, grain sorghum, soybeans,

sunflowers or wheat during the last three years, and who have properly registered

to vote.

Votes must be cast or postmarked by March 1. The names of candidates-elect will

be announced in mid-March and the elected will take office April 1. Elected

commissioners serve three-year terms.

More information is available from the Kansas Corn Commission at (785) 448-2626 or www.ksgrains.com/kcc/ ; the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission at (913) 294-4314 or www.ksgrainsorghum.org/ ; the Kansas Soybean Commission at (785) 271-1030 or www.kansassoybeans.com/ ; the Kansas Sunflower Commission at (785) 565-3908 or

www.kssunflower.com/ ; the Kansas Wheat Commission at (785) 539-0255 or

www.kswheat.com ; or, the Kansas Department of Agriculture at (785) 296-3556 or

www.ksda.gov/kansas_agriculture/content/152 .