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Mitch Payne, former manager of Dayton's Northwest Grain Growers, right, was inducted as an Honorary Member into the Pacific Northwest Grain & Feed Association's Hall at the organization's annual convention in June. Making the presentation was John Cranor, Chief Operations Officer of NWGG.
DAYTON–Mitch Payne, who retired in 2020 following a 40-year career serving farmers and the grain industry, was recently honored by peers in the feed and grain industry by being named an Honorary Member of the Pacific Northwest Grain and Feed Association.
Pacific Northwest Grain and Feed Association (PNWGFA) is a non-profit organization which serves to organize, promote and serve the mutual needs of firms involved in the processing, handling and merchandising of grain, feed, and other agricultural commodities within the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.
Payne was honored for his long, successful career in the commodities industry, including his key role in the merger of Columbia County Grain Growers with Northwest Grain Growers in 2016.
"There are a lot of us who work to serve farmers and agriculture," said John Cranor, Chief Operations Office of Northwest Grain Growers, in making the presentation. "But it's really a very small list of top industry professionals who are inducted into this organization as Honorary Members. Mitch has without a doubt earned a place in that select group."
"Seeing retirement on his horizon," Cranor said, "and focused on succession, he played an instrumental role in developing, promoting, and helping execute a plan of merger between NWGG and CCGG. As anyone who has been through one of these knows, they are a challenging endeavor, to say the least. Thanks to Mitch and the exceptional organization and culture he molded at CCGG, this merger, by an enormous margin, was the easiest and most seamless of the three we have been through."
"It was nice to be recognized for my 40 years of service from my peers," Payne said recently. "I had a great career, and I enjoyed the wheat industry."
One of the characteristics of soft white wheat that is marketable, especially to end users in Asia, is protein content. "I was one of the first elevator managers to embrace protein segregation on white wheat," Payne pointed out. "That has developed into a very important factor for marketing soft white wheat, and I started that when I was in Johnson Union Warehouse."
Regarding the Columbia County Grain Growers' merger with Northwest Grain Growers, Payne promoted the move, citing several bushels of government rules and regulations, human resources requirements, legal factors, accounting requirements and the judicious and responsible management of the organization's $50 million it handled each year.
Payne's career included 40 harvests, not including those spent working in elevators or in wheat harvest while in high school and college, said Margerie Vis, Director of the PNWG&FA.
A 1974 graduate of Dayton High School, the Dayton native attended the University of Puget Sound in pursuit of a business degree. His parents were the late Wallace "Wally" and Myra Payne.
"After graduating from UPS," Cranor commented, "Mitch didn't get a lot of time to wade in and slowly test the waters in the grain business, it was really more of a shotgun start right out of the gate."
He was hired as assistant manager of the Johnson Union Warehouse Co. in Colton in March, 1980. Within two years, Payne was promoted to manager and he held that position for 20 years when he made the move to Dayton as manager of the Columbia County Grain Growers, starting April 1, 2002.
At the time, he was only the third manager of the Johnson Union Warehouse since its inception 1909, he said.
"In addition to the daily responsibilities of leading a cooperative over the years, Mitch also provided valuable insight and expertise as a member and leader on numerous industry organizations, commissions and trade delegations including NGFA, WWC and president of this organization, just to name a few," Cranor said. He also mentored a number of individuals who continued in the grain trade, taking under his wing some young people with whom he worked to "smooth their rough edges," Payne said.
Payne served on the CHS Advisory Committee in the 2010s, Vis said. He was a member of the National Grain & Feed Association (NGFA) Country Elevator Committee, also during that period.
From 1993 to 2002, Payne served on the Washington Wheat Commission Board of Directors as an Industry Representative. During his career, Payne made four or five trips to Pacific Rim countries in support of the grain industry, Vis said.
Payne was president of the PNWG&FA in 1996, and served on its Board of Directors, Vis said.
He was on the board of the Lewis-Clark Terminal Association from 1988 until 2002.
The Washington Wheat Association hosted a visit to Japan, Taiwan and Korea in March, 1992, for country elevator managers in the Pacific Northwest, and Payne was a member of that group.
Payne was a member of the Harvest States organization's District No. 5 Manager's Association, and he served as president from 1990 until 1993.
He served two stints on the board of the American Dry Pea and Lentil Association, in 1982-84 and again in 1989-1992.
Payne served five years on the Washington State Department of Agriculture's Grain Inspection Advisory Committee, from 1982-87.
With spouse Susie, the couple have two daughters, Andrea Gole, who with husband Greg, have a daughter Juliette in Bend, Ore., and Molly Payne, currently of Denver, who is moving to Chicago in near future.
