SEED CO-OP ELECTS 



Producers Seed Company Reorganizes With 

 Nine-Man Board To Represent And Serve 

 Entire State In An Expanded Program 



t. B. Vander 

 Meulen 



REORGANIZATION of the Pro- 

 ducers' Crop Improvement As- 

 sociation as a full-fledged statewide 

 affiliated company of the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association has been 

 completed with election of directors, 

 amendment of arti- 

 cles and change of 

 name. The new name 

 of the corn and seed 

 cooperative will be 

 Producers' Seed 

 Company. 



These matters 

 were approved at a 

 special stockholders 

 meeting April 23 at 

 Piper City. Main 

 office and plant of 

 the Producers' Seed Company is located 

 in this community in Ford county. 



Directors elected for the eight districts 

 of the state to the Producers' Seed Com- 

 pany board were: district 1, Frank R. 

 Loucks, Lockport, Will county; dist. 2, 

 Elmer L. Yeoman, Dakota, Stephenson; 

 dist. 3, Howard Stuckey, Piper City, 

 Ford; dist. 4, Orville Lutes, Princeton, 

 Bureau; dist. 5, John T. Evans, Hoopes- 

 ton, Vermilion; dist. 6, Ryal Keithley, 

 Macomb, McDonough; dist. 7, Clarence 

 McCauley, Mt. Vernon, Jefferson; and 

 dist. 8, Justin Ebert, Valmeyer, Monroe. 

 Director-at-large from the lAA board 

 is Frank L. Simpson, Farmer City, De- 

 Witt. 



Officers of Producers' Seed are Stuc- 

 key, president; Loucks, vice-president; 

 aad Simpson, secretary-treasurer. 



S. F. Russell, representing the lAA at 

 the reorganization meeting, paid special 

 tribute to the incumbent directors of the 

 old organization who stepped aside and 

 made is possible to reorganize the repre- 

 sentation on a statewide basis into eight 

 districts. Under the old setup, a number 

 of the directors were from the area of 

 Ford and adjoining counties. This was 

 the area for which the cooperative was 

 first set up to serve back in 1937. 



In addition to hybrid seed corn. Pro- 

 ducers' Seed will be the lAA affiliate for 

 the acquisition, processing and coopera- 

 tive distribution of field seeds. First step 

 in the field seed program will be a sur- 

 vey of county Farm Bureaus and sub- 

 sidiaries now handling field seeds to work 



out an efficient program. Main objective 

 is to provide Illinois Farm Bureau mem- 

 bers with high quality seeds. It has not 

 been determined where headquarters for 

 the field seed program will be located. 



Producers' Seed Company will be 

 governed by the same rigid control of 

 quality regulations under a quality con- 

 trol committee of the lAA as is in effect 

 for other affiliates of the organization. 



On May 1, Evart Vander Meulen of 

 Waterloo, 111., Monroe county, joined the 

 Producers' staff to head up the handling 

 of the field seed program. Prior to this 

 date he was employed as a buyer for a 

 large seed company and is thoroughly 

 familiar with the small field seed busi- 

 ness. 



Vander Meulen, a native of Michi- 

 gan has a fine record of research work 

 on the staff of Michigan State College 

 from which he was graduated in 1939 

 and where he received his master's degree 

 in 1943. He was in charge of agronomy 

 research at the College's Upper Peninsula 

 Experiment Station at Chatham for three 

 years and introduced a new oat variety 

 and a spring wheat variety. He grew 

 the first five acres of ladino clover in 

 Michigan and did considerable work 

 with pasture improvement and hay man- 

 agement. In 1944, Vander Meulen was 

 employed by the Corneli Seed Company, 

 St. Louis. He had charge of establish- 

 ing corn and vegetable growing stations 

 in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma and 

 later was transferred to the field seed 

 department in charge of buying crop 

 seeds at the source of production. He 



Board of directors of the Producers' Seed 

 Company, new lAA affiliate, is made up of 

 one from each of the eight dltfrlcti shown 

 on this map, and one at large from the 

 board of the lAA. 



also had charge of the field seed re- 

 search department. 



Vander Meulen developed an apprecia- 

 tion for cooperatives and Farm Bureau 

 from his father who is a charter member 

 of the Michigan Farm Bureau and has 

 served for 35 years as president of a 

 county grain seed cooperative elevator. 

 While attending Michigan State Vander 

 Meulen helped organize the College Farm 

 Bureau. He worked his way through col- 

 lege through employment in the agrono- 

 my department where he had charge of 

 laboratory work, and at the college farm 

 during summer months. 



New directors and 

 officers of the Pro- 

 ducers' Seed Com- 

 pany (front rovf), 

 left to right: Vice- 

 President frank R. 

 Loucks, Will county; 

 Orville K. Lutes, Bu- 

 reau; President How- 

 ard Stuckey, ford) 

 Secretary - Treasurer 

 frank 1. Simpson, De- 

 Wltt, and Justin M. 

 Ebert, Monroe. Back 

 row: Ryal i. Keithley, 

 McDonough; timer I. 

 Yeoman, Stephenson; 

 John T, Ivans, Ver- 

 milion, and Clarentm 

 McCauley, Jefferson. 



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L A. A. RECORD 



