Bootheel farmer on NCGA board
Jul 16, 2009 10:26 AM
Mike Geske of Matthews, Mo., has been elected to the board of directors of the National Corn Growers Association. Geske was among five board members elected by delegates from state corn associations and checkoff organizations attending the July Corn Congress in Washington.
Geske and his son currently farm 2,100 acres. The farmer from Matthews, which is located in the Missouri Bootheel, is currently serving as president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and is chairman of NCGA’s Public Policy Action Team.
The delegates also elected Guy Davenport of Creswell, N.C., to the Corn Board for a term beginning Oct. 1. Davenport and his family operate a 4,000-acre farm in northeastern North Carolina. He is a former director of the Corn Growers Association of North Carolina.
Others elected include:
• Clark Gerstacker of Midland, Mich. Gerstacker also serves as president of the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan and a board member of the Michigan Corn Growers Association. He and his brother farm on a 116-year-old family farm.
• Pam Johnson of Floyd, Iowa. Johnson is a director and former chairwoman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. She also is chair of the NCGA’s Research and Business Development Action Team and farms a 1,200-acre operation with her family.
• Mark Schwiebert of Hamler, Ohio. Schwiebert is a board member of the Ohio Corn Marketing Program and former president of his state’s corn association. He is part of a partnership farming 2,400 acres.
Geske and Johnson are new to the board and Davenport, Gerstacker and Schwiebert were re-elected.
The delegates also ratified Bart Schott of North Dakota as the association’s first vice president for the 2010 fiscal year. Schott becomes first vice president on Oct. 1 and president the following year. He will serve with Bob Dickey of Nebraska, the NCGA president who will become chairman, and Darrin Ihnen, the first vice president, who will become president Oct. 1.
Schott and his family are third- and fourth-generation farmers raising no-till corn, soybeans and wheat. He has served as chairman of the North Dakota Corn Council and is a member of the NCGA Finance Committee and board liaison for the Grower Services Action Team.
