Wild Sage: Tiffany Newton and Life on the Prairie

By Kelsey Merritt

Images by Tiffany Newton

When I first met Tiffany, we were both working as seasonals at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Eastern Montana/Dakotas Field Office in Miles City. I was a riparian seasonal, spending my days hiking in search of water in the prairie, while Tiffany was a range seasonal known for her ability to identify plants, her attention to detail, and overall willingness to work hard as hell. It wasn’t long before I was frequenting her cubicle, asking questions about plants, commenting on her incredible organizational skills and immaculate handwriting, and working to get the quiet woman to talk.

Over the next four years as seasonals together, Tiffany and I became close— maintaining a relationship even after we moved on from college and our jobs at blm. I watched as she continued to work in range and advocate for agriculture in her job at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). I cheered from afar when she met her now husband, Seth, who as a farmer and rancher shared her passion for nurturing the land and its resources. And just last summer, we attended each other’s weddings one week apart. And now, I hold my newborn daughter and text Tiffany to check on her pregnancy. Amidst it all, I have watched her tackle life in the agricultural sector with a determination unlike most.

Growing up about 15 miles south of Malta, Tiffany’s childhood was spent surrounded by the agricultural community. Involved in both 4-H and FFA, she was constantly immersed in the language of ag. After high school, she pursued a degree in Rangeland Ecology inspired by the drive “to be able to do my part in supporting the next generation of farmers and ranchers,” as well as “protecting the […] livelihoods of the men and women who sustainably manage these important lands, support the rural economies, and feed the world.”

During her college career, she held numerous summer positions in the range science field (four of them spent with me at blm, teaching me plant identification and GIS tricks). Those positions, coupled with her background growing up in north central Montana, allowed her love for the prairie to continue to grow. Her fondness for working outdoors bloomed as she continued to grow in how she “understood rangelands, their importance, their diversity, and the beauty in all the little things. I knew my heart would always be with the prairie.”

After graduating from MSU, Tiffany moved to Glendive to begin working for the NRCS. For 3.5 years, she worked with local farmers and ranchers, “helping them with either technical assistance and recommendations or assisting them in getting signed up for different financial assistance programs to help them make conservationfocused improvements to their farming and ranching operations.” It was during that time that Tiffany picked up two new hobbies— photography and beekeeping— and met her now husband, Seth Newton.

Crossing paths at a soil health workshop and ag meetings, Seth and Tiffany formally met at the Dawson County Fair in the summer of 2017. “We were both waiting in line at the beer booth and struck up conversation thanks to a mutual friend of ours. We began learning all the things we had in common […] and continued to visit the remainder of the night.” At the end of the night, Seth even offered to walk her home— a mere 2.5 miles away— where he claimed to be staying close to. It wasn’t until later that Tiffany found out that wasn’t necessarily true at all. But, his plan worked all the same.

Seth, a fourth-generation farmer and rancher whose passion for the land and his family’s legacy continues to leave Tiffany in awe, wears the many hats expected (though often not understood by many) as a modern farmer and/or rancher:

“One day he will be a tractor and baler mechanic, the next day he’s a water pipeline engineer, and later he’s crop planning, calibrating the seed drill, and researching perennial forages for hay. Some days he’s a livestock nutritionist and caretaker doctoring a sick or injured cow. Other days he’s scouting for specific weeds (in-crop and noxious) and doing research on the most effective and responsible chemical treatments just to wake up at 3:30 a.m. on a specific day of the week because it’s the one day that week without wind. Not to mention staying on top of all the business and financial dealings of the operation. It makes my head spin, really.”

Tiffany & Seth

Tiffany and Seth now make their home north of Glendive on Deer Creek on a farm and ranch that’s surrounded by “a mix of creek bottom, badlands, rough prairie, ash coulees, and flat plains.” After leaving the nrcs, Tiffany pursued her photography and beekeeping full time, while also being a farm and ranch wife. Tiffany points out how “there are so many challenges that come with our lifestyle and livelihood. It takes not only hard work and long hours, but with so many factors we can’t control, we’ve got to have a lot of faith. Farming and ranching takes a toll on your physical and mental health, and you’re not always able to take the time for yourself when there’s a baby calf to be pulled or the crop needs to be planted before the rain.” When nature calls in agricultural work, you run.

This kind of work ethic demands a certain independence required of a farm and ranch wife where “there can be days or weeks I will not see my husband besides him coming home to sleep for a few hours and me taking him meals in the field, or he might stop by the house for a quick bite to eat.” Those days of independence, however, are filled with Tiffany’s own work taking care of chickens, tending the garden, running errands for parts, pursuing her agricultural lifestyle photography, and keeping her bees.

Tiffany became interested in beekeeping while working at the nrcs. “I had been doing research about pollinator plantings when I began to learn more about the importance of pollinators such as honeybees.” After much research and a beekeeping class, she decided to get a hive of her own and fell in love with raising bees and the many challenges and constant learning it provides.

When I asked Tiffany what she wishes people knew about honeybees, she didn’t skip a beat before responding that their greatest importance is pollination. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that the “…agricultural benefit of honeybees is estimated to be between 10 and 20 times the total value of honey and beeswax. In fact, bee pollination accounts for about $15 billion in added crop value.” With her thorough research under her belt, Tiffany hopes to grow her honey business to be “a sustainable and profitable operation” that provides “our family, friends, and community with raw, local honey.” With conservation in mind, she also hopes to complement their rangelands and wooded draws on the ranch and surrounding areas.

The Newton family implements this conservation mindset on their farm and ranch by being completely no-till with experimental grazing cover crops. They’ve invested in installing shallow water pipelines to better distribute water and grazing throughout pastures and began experimenting with bale grazing in winter. They are mindful of the products they use on livestock, conscious of what would have the least impact on microbiota (dung beetles) that help improve soil health. But, the work is hard, as anything on a farm or ranch seems to be. That never seems to intimidate Tiffany, though, who wants to continue to learn “how to be a better steward of the land and soil that supports us and future generations.”

Those same values are the ones she hopes to pass on to their children. Due with her first child in September, Tiffany wonders and worries over the lessons she’ll teach, from the big items to the small. Intertwined in it all, though, is her and Seth’s love of agriculture: “I hope to raise my children to be respectful to others, themselves, and the land,” she says, “My hope is we can show them what it means to be a good steward.” These hopes start at the foundation of their agricultural work, where Tiffany and Seth are all too aware that having a profitable and sustainable farming and ranching business begins with caring for the soil and water. “This provides us with healthy land, grass, and forage to maintain a healthy herd of cattle that will ultimately provide for our family and many others.” The couple’s dedication to their ecological research and practices are a hobby of both of theirs. Tiffany says with a laugh, “I hope our kids can get as excited about dung beetles as we do!”

I grew up a farmer’s daughter. I’m all too familiar with the long hours necessitated by members of an agricultural family, but also intimately aware of the incredible bonding moments allowed by the lifestyle. When I think about the hardships facing agriculture in our contemporary society, I worry about the many farms and ranches I grew up amongst. My parents and many others are faced with the awareness of the financial and environmental hardships facing them, but worry especially about the generations to come.

Despite those worries and fears, there are young couples across Montana pursuing agriculture in ways that provide evidence of hopeful futures yet to come. For me, Tiffany and her husband provide an example of what’s possible when two people pursue a hard job with the motivation to do so for the right reasons— for the integrity of the land they steward and the desire to raise their growing family amidst its possibilities.

In their marriage, Tiffany laughs at the nontraditional “date nights” needed for an agricultural couple— 4wheeler rides to check livestock, rounds in a tractor cab, mornings in the feed truck, or a quick lunch in town while on a parts run. “We are constantly learning from each other— and, not to brag, but we have yet to yell at each other while working cows together.”

Tiffany and Seth seem to tackle the daunting task of starting a family in agriculture with a kind of grace that leaves me shaking my head in wonder. Every time I see them, they have a smile on their faces that leaves me feeling a little better about whatever challenges I have on my own plate. That kind of faithful positivity, Tiffany says, is fed by the land and the little things that make an agricultural life worth the hardships. “Seeing the first crocus in the spring, the first thunderstorm of the year, watching a newborn calf take her first breath, seeing the wheat start to sprout, having a full yard of hay, and watching the combine make its last pass are where you see all of your hard work pay off and the things that breathe life into you.” And, it certainly is a damn good life.

Seeing the first crocus in the spring, the first thunderstorm of the year, watching a newborn calf take her first breath, seeing the wheat start to sprout, having a full yard of hay, and watching the combine make its last pass are where you see all of your hard work pay off and the things that breathe life into you.

You can follow Tiffany Newton: Prairie Photographer on her website: tdnprairiephotos.com and on Facebook. Wild Sage Honey can be found on both Facebook and Instagram.

KELSEY MERRITT lives in Belgrade with her husband and two children. She is a photography instructor at MSU and spends her days accomplishing tasks while holding a newborn.