A Virtual Beginning for 2020/21 U.S. Wheat Associates Officer Team

ARLINGTON, Virginia — The U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) Board of Directors seated new officers at a virtual annual meeting July 17, 2020. USW is the export market development organization representing U.S. wheat farmers.

USW officers for 2020/21 are: Chairman Darren Padget of Grass Valley, Ore.; Vice Chairperson Rhonda Larson of East Grand Forks, Minn.; Secretary-Treasurer Michael Peters of Okarche, Okla.; and Past Chairman Doug Goyings of Paulding, Ohio. USW officers were elected to these one-year positions at the January 2020 board of directors meeting in Washington, D.C.

“We are all very disappointed that we could not hold our meeting as originally planned in Cincinnati, Ohio, so we could all thank Doug Goyings, his family and the team from the Ohio Small Grains Marketing Board for their dedicated leadership this past year,” Chairman Padget said. “Doug has done a wonderful job as Chairman and I can only hope to meet his example with his help.”

Chairman Padget is a fourth-generation farmer in Oregon’s Sherman County, with a dryland wheat and summer fallow rotation currently producing registered and certified seed on 3,400 acres annually. Previously, Padget held positions on the Oregon Wheat Growers League board of directors and executive committee for seven years, serving as president in 2010. He chaired the NAWG Research and Technology Committee and served on the Mid-Columbia Producers board of directors, for which he was an officer for 10 years.

Vice Chairperson Larson was raised on her family’s Red River Valley farm and has been engaged in the operation full-time for nearly 30 years. Her father started the farm 50 years ago growing potatoes, wheat and barley. With her two brothers and her son, the third generation on the farm, they currently grow hard red spring (HRS) wheat and sugarbeets. Larson has been a board member of the Minnesota Wheat Research & Promotion Council for 16 years and served as chair from 2010 to 2012. She served on the Wheat Foods Council board and is a long-time member of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers and the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association.

Secretary-Treasurer Peters grows hard red winter (HRW) wheat and canola and winter grazes stocker cattle on wheat. Peters is President of his local CHS Coop Board and is a member of the Okarche Rural Fire Fighters’ Association Board. He has also served as President and on the Board of Elders at St. John’s Lutheran Church. He currently serves as a commissioner and Secretary of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, is a USW Director and serves as Chairman of the USW Wheat Quality Committee. He has participated in several farm leadership programs sponsored by CHS and the National Wheat Foundation. Peters and his wife Linda have two teenage boys who work with him and his father on their farm.

Doug Goyings’ family has been farming in northwestern Ohio since 1884. Past Chairman Goyings and his family grow soft red winter (SRW) and have hosted numerous trade teams on their farm. He has served in Ohio and national agricultural leadership positions for 37 years. Goyings has been a member of the USW board since 2009 and is a past chairman of the USW Long-Range Planning Committee. He serves as a director for the Ohio Small Grains Checkoff Board, is a past-president of his local Farm Bureau and has served as a director for the Ohio Veal Growers Inc., Creston Veal, Inc. and Paulding Landmark, Inc.

USW’s next Board meeting is currently scheduled to be held jointly with the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Nov. 3 to 8, 2020, in Phoenix, Ariz.

USW’s mission is to develop, maintain and expand international markets to enhance wheat’s profitability for U.S. wheat producers and its value for their customers in more than 100 countries. Its activities are made possible through producer checkoff dollars managed by 17 state wheat commissions and cost-share funding provided by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

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Nondiscrimination and Alternate Means of Communications
In all its programs, activities and employment, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, marital or family status, age, disability, political beliefs or sexual orientation. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USW at 202-463-0999 (TDD/TTY – 800-877-8339, or from outside the U.S., 605-331-4923). To file a complaint of discrimination, write to Vice President of Finance, USW, 3103 10th Street, North, Arlington, VA 22201, or call 202-463-0999. USW is an equal opportunity provider and employer.