Colorado’s millet producers should watch their mailboxes for a millet check-off ballot. Ballots were mailed August 9 and voting is open until August 31. Ballots must be postmarked on or before August 31 to be counted.

Producers not receiving a ballot by August 16 should contact Glenda Mostek at the Colorado Department of Agriculture at (303) 869-9173 or e-mail glenda.mostek@state.co.us, and a ballot will be sent via first-class mail.

More information is available at https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/agmarkets/millet-referendum.

Voting Eligibility

“Producer of millet” means a person who is engaged in the business of producing or causing to be produced millet for grain in the state of Colorado and who is entitled to share in the proceeds of such millet crop as an individual, partnership, corporation, association, legal representative or any organized group of individuals in the last three calendar years (2016-18) and who intends to continue to produce millet for grain in the future.

• A landlord who leases their property to a tenant for cash shall not be eligible to vote.​
• Individual members of a qualified partnership or limited liability company shall each have one vote, but the partnership or limited liability company as such shall not have a vote.​
• Corporations shall have one vote.​
• Where a group of several persons such as a husband, wife, or children have participated or will participate in the production of millet under the same lease or cropping agreement, only the person or persons who signed or entered into the lease or cropping agreement shall be eligible to vote.​
• In the event two or more persons have produced or will produce millet as joint tenants or tenants in common, each person shall be entitled to vote if otherwise qualified.

A market order allows producers of a specific commodity such as millet to work together to solve marketing problems and conduct research. Market orders provide the structure and resources for programs that farmers could not do alone. Market orders are established under the authority of the Colorado Marketing Act of 1939 (CRS 35-28-101).

The proposed market order would establish a board of control comprised of six producer members and one handler member. The proposed assessment (check-off) is five cents per hundredweight, which will be collected by first-handlers. The assessment would be fully refundable to producers who submit an application to the board of control within 30 days of sale to a handler.