USDA has revised the estimated number of soybean produces eligible to participate in a referendum on the soybean promotion and research order.  Instead of 381,000, USDA has increased the eligible total to 600,813 and seeks public comment on the decision.

During the Sept. 4-Oct. 5 comment period on the proposed request for a referendum rule, USDA received comments suggesting that using the 1992 agricultural census number of soybean farms (381,000) as the number of soybean producers understated the number of actual producers.

Instead, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service now has used a soybean producer list from the Farm Service Agency that contained about 970,000 names.  That list was used to conduct a statistical survey to determine the number of producers eligible to request a referendum.  The survey used the soybean promotion act’s definition of a soybean producer – any person engaged in the growing of soybeans in the United States who owns or who shares the ownership and risk of loss of such soybeans.  That yielded the total of 600,813.

The amended proposed rule appears in today’s Federal Register.