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 Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service [Doc. No. AMS-LP-23-0027]
 AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
 ACTION: Notice.
 SUMMARY: The results of the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) Request for Referendum indicate that too few soybean producers wanted a referendum on the Soybean Promotion and Research Order (Order) for one to be conducted. The Request for Referendum was conducted from May 6, 2024, through May 31, 2024, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Service Agency County offices. To trigger a referendum, 41,336 soybean producers, which represents 10 percent of the total nationwide soybean producers, needed to complete a valid Request for Referendum. The total number of soybean producers participating in the referendum was 229. The number of valid petitions received was 207.
 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jason Julian, Research and Promotion Division, Livestock and Poultry Program, AMS, USDA, Room 2092-S, STOP 0249, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-0249; Telephone: (202) 731-2149; or Email: 
                        *Jason.Julian@usda.gov.*


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act (Act) (7 U.S.C. 6301 
                    *et seq.*), every 5 years the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) gives soybean producers the opportunity to request a referendum on the Order. If the Secretary determines that at least 10 percent of U.S. producers engaged in growing soybeans (not in excess of one-fifth of which may be producers in any one State) support the conduct of a referendum, the Secretary must conduct a referendum within one year of that determination. If these requirements are not met, a referendum is not conducted. A notice of opportunity to Request a Soybean Referendum was published in the 
                    **Federal Register**
                     (89 FR 7353) on February 2, 2024. To be eligible to participate in the Request for Referendum, producers or the producer entity that they are authorized to represent must provide supporting documentation showing that they or the producer entity they represent paid an assessment sometime during the representative period between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023. Based on data from USDA's Farm Service Agency, there are 413,358 soybean producers in the United States. A total of 229 producers participated in the Request for Referendum. Only 207 valid requests for a referendum were completed by eligible soybean producers. This number does not meet the requisite number of 41,336. Therefore, based on the results, a referendum will not be conducted. In accordance with the provisions of the Act, soybean producers will be provided another opportunity to request a referendum in 5 years. The following are the State-by-State results of the Request for Referendum: State
Valid ballotsAlabama
0Alaska
0Arizona
0Arkansas
0California
0Colorado
0Connecticut
0Delaware
0Florida
0Georgia
0Hawaii
0Idaho
0Illinois
35Indiana
33Iowa
46Kansas
2Kentucky
7Louisiana
0Maine
0Maryland
4Massachusetts
0Michigan
1Minnesota
27Mississippi
0Missouri
12Montana
0( print page 79886)Nebraska
4Nevada
0New Hampshire
0New Jersey
0New Mexico
0New York
0North Carolina
0North Dakota
2Ohio
14Oklahoma
0Oregon
0Pennsylvania
2Rhode Island
0South Carolina
0South Dakota
12Tennessee
0Texas
1Utah
0Vermont
0Virginia
0Washington
0West Virginia
0Wisconsin
5Wyoming
0
 *Authority:*7 U.S.C. 6301-6311. Melissa Bailey, Associate Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.


[FR Doc. 2024-22453 Filed 9-30-24; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 3410-02-P