Agriculture Magazine Fall 2022

M A G A Z

How did you like this issue of Agriculture Magazine? Do you have any ideas you’d like to share with us for our next issue? Let us know Send comments to: Ravalli Republic, 232 West Main, Hamilton, MT 59840 or editor@ravallirepublic com

Agriculture Magazine is published by the Ravalli Republic & Missoulian newspapers, divisions of Lee enterprises Jessica Abell, editor

Kathy Kelleher, todd Kenley & Joe Weston, sales Agriculture Magazine is copyright 2022, Ravalli Republic.

A new Open Lands Bond and the continuation of a wonderful program

ALAN mAKI for THE rAvALLI rEpuBLIC

Our Open Lands Program started as an idea from farmers and ranchers and other citizen members of Ravalli County’s Commissioner appointed voluntary Right to Farm and Ranch Board. Instead of a top-down regulatory approach, a voluntary, incentive-based model to land conservation was believed to be the path forward. After unanimous approval by the County Commissioners in 2006 the voters

name just a few. It a wide

had the opportunity to prove that they were willing to help conserve some of the very things that have always made the Bitterroot Valley a nice place to live—Land, Water, and Wildlife to name just a few. It passed by a wide majority and with that, volun teer citizens worked under the commissioners to construct a program that transparently stewarded the taxpayers ’ dollars, while accomplishing goals that it promised to the voters. The county has a plethora of information pertaining to the program at https://ravalli.us/189/OpenLands-Bond-Program including the projects done to date.

It took over a year before the first project was vetted, and as a few years passed, the program really began to snowball into the popular program that it is today. It just took neighbors seeing neighbors making the commitment to the future.

16 years later we have officially completed 38 projects conserving over 10,000 acres of open lands, permanently protecting farms, ranches, and wildlands. Many of which protect 40 miles of stream and riverside habitat, big game winter range as well as city water sources, hunting and fishing access sites and linkages to public grounds. Two new city parks totaling almost 100 acres of riverfront parkland have been created in the City of

Jessica abell PHOTOs, ravalli rePublic

Hamilton. We are currently working through more projects that are expected to add thousands more acres to that total. Every individual project was started voluntarily by a landowner that had a vision for their particular property, thus the wide variety of projects. It is the job of the Open Lands Program to help the landowners execute their vision, if possible. It is anyone ’ s guess as to what the private landowners may want to accomplish voluntarily in future decades!

The program has created a 180-degree paradigm shift (especially within the ag community) of people that thought most private open lands would be gone, to people believing that historic swaths of openness will remain. The original bond has served us well and has taken us far To date it has been leveraged by about a 3:1 ratio through such diverse funding sources as Farm Bill dollars, local, regional, and even national conservation organizations as well as landowner dona-

tions and grassroots citizen support.

As the last of the 2006 bond gets used up on more exciting projects, the Ravalli County Right to Farm and Ranch Board has once again unanimously voted to bring a new 2022 bond proposal to the voters of Ravalli County. Once again, the County Commissioners unanimously voted in favor and thus it will be found on the November ballot as a simple YES for Open Lands or a no Find more information on http://www.yestoravallicountyopenlands.org or https://www.facebook.com/yestoravallicountyopenlands or https://www.insta gram.com/yestoravallicountyopenlands

At a time when 42% of our ag producers are over 65 years old and 74% are over 55 now is the time to make sure that we have the tools in place to allow landowners to volun tarily conserve conservation values of their property for future generations, so when they sell or otherwise pass on the title to new owners all is not

lost. We could have never guessed all the changes that recent years have brought us since the 2006 bond was first passed, nor will we dare predict the changes that are likely to occur 16 years after a 2022 bond. At best a 65 year old today may be 81 years old 16 years from now. Now is the time to voluntarily conserve some of what makes this a wonderful place to call home. It is a continual community effort, because it is our community, and it is our home. Thank you for taking the time to research and understand how the Ravalli County Open Lands Program works for every citizen of Ravalli County, as its fate rests with your local votes.

AG

Alan Maki is a longtime volunteer on the Open Lands Board, and Right to Farm and Ranch Board, and fourth generation family farmer/rancher. He also an avid hiker, wildlife watcher, and scenic rural road driver

Keeping the dream:

420-acre Triple D Ranch preserved through conservation easement

JESSICA ABELL

As a fifth-generation farmer and rancher in the Bitterroot, Drew Lewis has seen a lot of changes in the valley over the years.

His family homesteaded up ThreeMile and his dad still owns and runs a dairy operation today. But growing

up in Victor, Lewis wanted nothing to do with agriculture when he got out of school.

“Everything’s easy compared to a dairy farm,” Lewis laughed. “It never stops. They’re almost working 24/7 down there. I mean, they milk those guys three times a day, starting at noon to 5, 8 to 1 in the morning, and then 4 to 9. So it’s just seven days a week, 365

days there.”

Lewis struck out on his own after graduating high school and started Skyline Fencing, which the family still owns and operates today. About six years ago he and his wife Kaci started Skyline Angus, and three years ago they purchased the 420 acres they live on now, dubbing it the Triple D Ranch after their children Dash, Diem and

Jessica abell PHOTOs, ravalli rePublic

The Lewis family finalized a conservation easement on their Burnt Fork area property last month with the help of the Bitter Root Land Trust The Lewises figure they could have subdivided the 420 acres and retired, but that just wasn’t their dream

Denali.

The family finalized a conservation easement on the property last month with the help of the Bitter Root Land Trust.

“It started out kind of as a purchasing tool, like an idea of a way that we could get into a ranch and afford it, especially in the valley here with land prices being so high, and then the more we learned about it, the more it was like yeah, this is a really cool thing that you can do for future generations,” Lewis said. “I feel, you know, growing up here in the Ag world, that it’s disappearing vastly So I felt like this was a good opportunity and a great area with the other easements that our kids could continue on with the agricultural life in the Bitterroot if they wanted to ”

Previously the family owned 80 acres and were heavily reliant upon leases of Ag land, which were becoming harder to come by as more people sold or subdivided and property values skyrocketed throughout the valley. Though they still lease 5,000 to 6,000 acres, purchasing the 420-acre ranch has given them a “home base” for their family and herd, allowing them to expand their operations.

“If we lose a lease, we don’t have to sell a whole herd you know, because before we were almost 100% reliant on leases,” Lewis said. “It gives us a lot of flexibility. I mean, we have great facilities here corrals, calving area, because we bring most cows home to calf them in the winter. It’s given us a home base. We were able to get a ranch manager, ranch employees, more help,

housing on the ranch.”

In the three years since purchasing the acreage the Lewises have been able to increase their herd from 250 cowcalf pairs to the 800 to 900 cow-calf pairs they generally run now They’re also able to cut and put up more of their own hay, saving them money on production costs. Lewis estimates they produce about 800 tons at the ranch

The Lewises figure they could have subdivided the 420 acres and retired, but that just wasn ’ t their dream.

“I’m just hoping that you know, down the line, our dream is to continue on, ” Kaci Lewis said. “Continue to the next generation We felt like we’ll start something cool here and see how far goes.

”

“We felt like that was slipping away as a fifth generation,” Drew Lewis

The 420-acre Triple D Ranch is located in the Burnt Fork area where a number of farms and ranches have been preserved through conservation easements. “The Lewises have made a huge commitment to the future of agriculture in the Bitterroot by conserving their land,” said Gavin Ricklefs, Bitter Root Land Trust executive director

added. “That opportunity was slowly slipping away. So we felt this was our best route to hopefully continue … as far as the conservation goes, I think it’s a great tool for locals to maybe try to hang on to their land and keep the dream and give them a little financial support in the meantime.”

The property is located in the Burnt Fork area where a number of farms and ranches have been preserved through conservation easements. Bitter Root Land Trust Executive Director Gavin Ricklefs praised the family’s dedication to helping preserve agriculture and open lands in the Bitterroot.

“Montana loses 1,500 acres of open lands every month,” Ricklefs said. “In the face of this rapid change, the Lewises have made a huge commitment to the future of agriculture

in the Bitterroot by conserving their land. In the Bitterroot, we are fortunate to have visionary, multigenerational families like the Lewises and a community investment in the future of local farms, ranches, wildlife and water resources through our Open Lands Program. Agriculture, wildlife and the people of Ravalli County all benefit from Drew and Kaci’s decision to protect this incredibly important part of the valley and we can ’ t thank them enough for their vision and stewardship ”

Lewis stressed the importance of the Open Lands Bond on this November’s ballot and how its passage would benefit farming and ranching in the valley.

“Hopefully, we can get this bond passed,” Lewis said. “So you know, with the rising land values, the con

servation group can be even more competitive. I hope that if anything, we can help the community realize that this is a good thing. Yeah, everybody moves to Montana in this valley because it’s beautiful, and there’s open places. But if we don’t start doing this, there’s gonna be no open spots. It’s not going to be beautiful,” he said.

“You put a lot of other things before yourself in agriculture and I think that kind of attests to the conservation easement, ” he said. “I mean, there’s a lot of other ways to make more money with land, but you know, at the end of the day, somebody’s got to protect it or there won ’ t be any left.” AG

This story was originally published in the Aug. 28, 2022 edition of the Ravalli Republic

In the three years since purchasing the acreage the Lewises have been able to increase their herd from 250 cowcalf pairs to the 800 to 900 cow-calf pairs they generally run now

tea time: Couple grows, dries, mixes herbal blends on Mission Valley farm

DAvID ErICKSoN DAvID ErICKSoN@mISSouLIAN Com

ST IGNATIUS Inside a specially designed shed at Awesome Herbs farm in late August, Larry Neskey used a ladder to stack huge fragrant bundles of tulsi herbs on the shelves so they could dry in the summer heat

“Getting the drying shed built was really awesome because it was really a bottleneck in the operations,” Neskey explained. “It’s kind of the next step we want to do to be able to produce the amount we want to. ”

In a nearby field with a spectacular view of the Mission Mountains, the plants are harvested by hand as honey bees swarm the light purple flowers

Tulsi, an aromatic, flowering shrub in the basil and mint family that originated in India, is one of well over 15 herbs Neskey and his wife Katie grow and dry in the summer for herbal tea blends

They’ve got rows of crops like anise hyssop, echinacea, chamomile, stinging nettle and milky oats. As you can imag ine, it’s a paradise for bees, but it’s also a picturesque and aromatic place to work and live for humans

The couple hires part time workers

through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program in exchange for living quarters and other benefits They’ve gotten several large grants, like one from the Montana’s Growth Through Agriculture funding program, to build out necessary infra structure like the drying shed.

By showing up to the Missoula and Bigfork farmers markets and growing their online sales, they distribute about 1,000 pounds of dried herbs every season, which equates to about 4,000 pounds of harvested, non dried plants.

The pandemic is partly responsible for their business, strange as it may seem

TOm bauer PHOTOs, missOulian

Larry Neskey stacks bundles of tulsi on racks in a drying shed at Awesome Herbs farm near St Ignatius on Monday, Aug. 29. The farm grows a number of herbs and plants for herbal tea blends

In January of 2020, they were origi nally planning on starting a pizza farm, where customers could come out and pick toppings and learn about agricul ture COVID halted all that They had been growing herbs already, so they got creative and pivoted.

“We’d talked about doing tea before but the biggest hurdle was that we didn’t have a big drying space, ” Katie explained “And so we got grant money for the drying space and the greenhouse And now we have a year round, shelf stable, shippable product. That’s kind of how it happened.”

She noted that their product is rela tively lightweight, so they don’t have to haul huge truckloads of produce to farm ers markets

Now they plan to nearly double the production of Awesome Acres herbs next year. They’re also hoping to get a whole sale license.

“Having a shelf stable product as a farmer is pretty priceless,” Larry

explained. “It’s something we can sell year round. We don’t have to worry about it getting rotten or anything like that ”

One variety of tulsi makes up about 60% of the volume of herbs they grow.

“We grow a ton of it, it grows really well, it’s our favorite,” Katie said. “So that and nettle are the two biggest for us. And the rest is much smaller amounts of like monarda (bee balm) and echinacea, more medicinal things ”

Tulsi Kapoor, which is also known as holy basil, is the featured ingredient in their most popular product, called the House Blend. It’s also got ingredi ents they buy from elsewhere and add, including ginger, turmeric, orange peel and black pepper Their popular “Heavy Nettle Chai” features nettle, raspberry leaf, anise hyssop, calendula, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black peppercorn.

Although they haven’t gotten certified organic yet, they don’t use chemical

fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides and their added ingredients are all certified organic.

The couple say that they’ve had a lot of good conversation with people at farmers markets this year Some people are unfamiliar with most of the herbs they use, while others are experts who are shocked that their favorite ingredients are grown and blended just an hour’s drive away.

It’s those face to face interactions, chatting about the health benefits of herbs, that both say are one of the more rewarding aspects of the business

“We definitely didn’t get into agricul ture to be shipping products,” Katie said “So this year we ’ re really trying to get our name out there in Montana ” AG

For more information on the Growth Through Agriculture program, visit online at agrmt gov/GTA

Larry and Katie Neskey, owners of Awesome Herbs, pivoted to growing herbs for tea during the COVID pandemic.

racHel leaTHe PHOTOs, bOzeman Daily cHrOnicle

Alex Blake gives a tour of a pasture on Aug. 11, 2022, on his ranch near Big Timber Blake is working with Western Sustainability Exchange and Native Energy to implement more high intensity, short duration grazing practices into his ranching habits in order to sequester more carbon in the soil

‘Cattle are the key’

Some Montana ranchers turn to regenerative grazing to capture more carbon

By ISABEL HICKS BozEmAN CHroNICLE

BIG TIMBER Kevin Halverson, a longtime rancher in Sweet Grass County, walked through two of his cattle pastures on a hot August morn ing, looking out at the jagged Crazy Mountains on the horizon

One pasture, grazed by his cattle last winter, had sprawling green veg etation creeping up Halverson’s shins. The other pasture was in a lengthy rest period, where native grasses touched his hips and danced in the early August breeze

The two landscapes showcased Halverson’s new grazing plan: mov ing cattle frequently between small pastures, allowing grazed pasture long periods of rest, and grazing year round, even in the winter.

What Halverson is doing on his land is called regenerative grazing, and it’s part of a larger movement to restore soil health and make grass lands more productive. Based on how Indigenous people grazed herds for

centuries, regenerative agriculture aims to work with nature and the grassland ecosystem, rather than against it

By making soil healthier, the land is better able to capture carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in the ground and now regenerative ranchers in Montana can get paid for that.

Halverson’s ranch is part of a regen erative grazing program facilitated by Western Sustainability Exchange (WSE) and Native Energy The pro gram pays ranchers for the carbon they sequester in the soil through changing their grazing practices, and its popu larity has only grown over the past five years

As production costs soar, drought persists, and ranchers find it increas ingly difficult to stay in the business, the program provides an additional income stream for Montana ranchers just trying to make ends meet so long as they can swing the changes to

their ranch and have faith the carbon market will stick around.

Improving the roots

Cows are selective grazers that means when they’re put into a large enough pasture, they’re only going to eat the grasses and native foliage that taste best to them. They’ll keep com ing back to the same tasty chomped down plant, never affording it time to regrow properly. Eventually overgraz ing shrinks the roots and erodes the soil.

But when cows graze a small pas ture for a short period, they’ll eat every type of plant Then, when the pasture is left to rest often for months or a full year more grasses will accumu late on the land over time

That’s because when cows are moved frequently, they’ll eat the veg etation to a partial level, rather than to the ground. They’ll lightly disturb the soil with their hooves, which

Kevin Halverson walks through a pasture on leased land Aug. 11, 2022. He is checking on a water project he completed last fall. The smaller pastures require additional places for cattle to get water

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Agriculture Magazine, Fall, 2022

mixes their urine and manure into the topsoil, helping improve soil fertility They’ll also stomp weeds and grasses down, which adds organic matter to the soil.

Once they move to a new spot, the original pasture is still covered with vegetation, the root systems in the soil are left undisturbed, and the soil can retain more moisture. That will pro mote much more plant growth than an overgrazed, barren pasture with short root systems More grass means a rancher is less dependent on hay It also means more photosynthesis, where plants suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and into the soil.

That sequestered carbon is worth a certain amount of money, which can be paid to the rancher and then sold to a business as a carbon offset

A carbon offset is a credit people receive for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse gas scientists say contributes to climate change.

As more businesses start to prioritize sustainability and try to cut their emissions like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, and Clif Bar, to name a few they sometimes find themselves unable to meet their emission reduc tion goals. That’s where offsets come in By paying for projects that reduce emissions elsewhere, like the regenera tive ranching program, businesses can apply those emissions reductions to their own operations. It’s a voluntary, market based strategy for businesses to address their impacts on the planet.

Key to carbon storage

WSE, based in Livingston, has been around for almost 30 years. Its mission is to preserve open space by keeping ranchers in business, said Holly Stoltz, WSE spokesperson

“Ranching has to stay profitable to stay around,” Stoltz said

In 2017, WSE partnered with Native Energy, a company based in Vermont that sells carbon offsets to businesses, to start the Grasslands

Regenerative Grazing Project

According to Stoltz, Native Energy picked Montana for their offset pro gram because they felt this region could sequester the most carbon, based

Kevin Halverson walks along a road that divides recently grazed foliage from ungrazed on Aug. 11, 2022. Halverson is working with Western Sustainability Exchange and Native Energy to implement more high intensity, short duration grazing practices into his ranching habits in order to sequester more carbon in the soil.

on the expansive grasslands and soil quality.

Alex Blake, the regenerative ranch program manager for WSE, was one of the first ranchers in the grasslands pro gram. He has a ranch and tree nursery near Big Timber

Blake had been wanting to tran sition to regenerative grazing for a while, and the program made it much quicker and more financially feasible for him, he said.

He said his ranch still needs the same amount of labor, they just do a different kind of work.

Blake’s goal is to increase native grass production and not feed his cat tle any hay, instead having them graze on grass and native range year round. He still buys some hay in the win ter, in case there’s so much snow his cows can ’ t graze, but is largely trying to move away from costs of machin ery, putting up hay and the labor it requires.

While the ranch doesn’t cut and bale as much hay as it used to, it moves the cattle between pastures more, Blake said. In the summer, Blake often moves the cattle daily In the winter, it will be about once a

week

Blake also started slowly moving back the ranch’s calving date when cows give birth about 10 years ago Ranchers typically calve around February, but now Blake calves in May and June

When calves are born in the winter, they need to be fed a lot more hay compared to calves born closer to the summer grazing period They also can be more susceptible to illness because of the colder weather, Blake said

Calves born in the spring may not be as big as their winter counterparts, or will just take longer to get to their full size Blake lost a few cattle the first few years he shifted the calving date, but said the change is not as difficult as he thought it would be.

“It’s exciting to be part of the pro gram, ” Blake said “There were some unknowns going into it, but now we have a clear path forward which is exciting, because we believe in the pro gram and want to be a part of it ”

Four Montana ranches, including Blake’s, signed up to be part of the grasslands program in 2018 bring ing 35,000 acres under regenerative grazing management. Another ranch

just joined the program last year The participating ranches so far are in Big Timber, Turner, Roundup, and Jordan

A UC Davis study from 2018 found that grasslands store more car bon than rainforests in a changing climate. While grasslands sequester carbon underground, forests store it in trees and leaves so when the land scape is hit by a wildfire or drought, much of the carbon is released back into the atmosphere. Grasslands, on the other hand, can keep it in the ground despite inclement weather. They are an often overlooked, yet deeply important, part of addressing climate change, Stoltz said and cat tle and other herd animals play a huge role in keeping grasslands healthy

“Cattle are the key, in a lot of ways, to addressing climate change,” Stoltz said

Validation

This July, the grasslands program got third party validation from the company Verra. That means Verra vet ted the program ’ s structure and mod eled how much carbon could poten

tially be sequestered The validation means carbon credits can start being issued to ranchers in the program based on the models

So far, the five ranches in the pro gram have only received payments for infrastructure they need for regenera tive grazing. It will take another year or two for them to start receiving money for their sequestered carbon, said Chris Mehus, program director for WSE. The timeline is still a little up in the air.

That’s because WSE still needs to take soil samples from the ranches to compare to the baseline ones they took in 2018, Mehus said It takes about five years for carbon content in the soil to change enough to be measured

By comparing the two samples, they’ll be able to tell exactly how much the soil carbon content increased Once they have those results, the program will receive verification from Verra, the final step in the third party vetting process.

Dozens more ranches are interested in joining the program now that it’s validated, Mehus said.

The validation is a big deal It pro vides ranchers interested in the pro gram confidence that it’s here to stay

Several ranchers, including Halverson, were part of the Chicago Climate Exchange, a carbon offset program that shut down in 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon mar kets.

Jay Bodner, executive vice presi dent of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, said ranchers are more optimistic the carbon market will stick around this time, now that more national and international businesses are participating Before, the carbon market was mostly government run, based on Obama era cap and trade legislation But with partisan gridlock on energy policy it faded into the background

The carbon market is still develop ing today, Bodner said. It’s not yet a reliable income source for ranchers. Ranchers have to ask themselves if there is enough value to be gained from offsets given the changes to their operation they’d need to make.

As the market continues to develop,

carbon credit prices might increase. Many ranchers are waiting to revisit the decision a few years later once the market is more developed, Bodner said.

“But it’s good that some members are getting in early and getting their feet wet, ” Bodner said

Growth period

Following the announcement of the program ’ s validation, Mehus said they added 250,000 acres to the application pipeline. Seven ranches are nearing contracts, which will add 180,000 acres to the project

Several new companies have pur chased offsets from Native Energy fol lowing the validation, Mehus added.

“The program is in a really excit ing period of growth and opportunity right now, ” Mehus said

Ranchers involved in the program sign a 30 year contract with Native Energy.

Mehus said ranchers must be will ing to “significantly” improve their grazing practices to be part of the program “You can ’ t get paid for doing what you ’ ve already been doing,” he said.

But changing grazing practices has a huge cost barrier for many ranches They need electric fencing and new water infrastructure to make the changes the program asks for.

That’s why Native Energy funds the HelpBuild program, a subset of the grasslands program that gives money to ranchers up front to make the changes

The HelpBuild program helps ranchers with the transition to regen erative grazing by paying upfront for the new infrastructure they need, like electric fencing to make smaller pastures and wells and water tanks to bring water to dry areas.

For Halverson, that money has paid for electric fencing and six new

15,000 gallon water tanks so far, and underground piping that carries water from springs to the tank.

Because the cattle are in tight quar ters compared to one bigger pasture, each pasture they graze needs a water source, Halverson said

The new infrastructure is a long term investment to Halverson. He isn’t expecting to see the payoff right away. But he knows regenerative man agement will leave the land in better shape for his son

“Most ranchers are going to try to protect what they have, because it just gets poorer and poorer as life goes on, ” Halverson said.

Halverson said he’s always looking for ways to improve his land and his cash flow, and this program checked both those boxes

“Carbon credits help us do the work we want to while also adding an income stream, ” he said AG

Clouds float over Kevin Halverson’s winter pasture on Aug. 11, 2022. Lack of moisture and an abundance of grasshoppers has reduced the amount of available grass by half.

2022 Wheat and Barley Variety survey results

mT DEpT of AgrICuLTurE

The 2022 Wheat and Barley Variety Survey report has recently been released. Funded by the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee (MWBC), these reports were conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Mountain Regional Office. This information is used to help guide breeding programs in selecting varieties that will ultimately increase farm profitability and end-use marketability of Montana-grown crops.

“The varietal survey provides MSU wheat and barley breeding programs with valuable producer feedback that can be utilized to develop cultivars that will continue to drive international markets toward Montana,” said Sam Anderson Market Development Director of the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee.

Producers participating in the survey ranked Warhorse as the top winter wheat variety, Vida as the top spring wheat variety, Alzada as the top durum wheat variety, and AC Metcalfe as the top malting barley variety Wheat and Barley Variety Survey Reports are available online at the USDA NASS website at nass.usda.gov/.

Trait index survey results indicate traits that farmers are considering when deciding which variety to select. In addition to yield and protein, farmers are looking for drought tolerance, sawfly resistance, high test weight and early maturing traits. Montana growers experiencing extreme drought conditions view varietal selection decisions as vital to the farm’s success.

Comparing the farmer profitability since last year, we saw a 17.4% decline in expected profitability and a 16.6% reduction in overall financial status for treasure state farmers.

As farmers wrap up harvest this year, the Wheat and Barley Committee and Montana Department of Agriculture encourage all producers to reach out to extension agents, agronomists and seed dealers to discuss available options for growing the highest quality grain possible.

how inflation Reduction Act impacts Montana agriculture

BozEmAN CHroNICLE

BOZEMAN Agriculture conservation programs popular among Montanans will see unprecedented new funding over the next 10 years, following the passage of the roughly $770 billion Inflation Reduction Act.

The legislation marks the largest U.S. investment in climate change mitigation to date, and it banks on agricul ture playing a key role in addressing the climate crisis.

The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) will receive nearly $20 billion to bulk up agriculture conservation programs that help Montanans bolster soil health, water quality, and other natural resources on their land.

The USDA calls these programs “oversubscribed,” meaning they receive more applications than they can fund. In Montana, the programs often can only fund one person for every three who apply, according to Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union.

Following the IRA’s passage, “right away, three times more farmers can participate in those programs, ” Schweitzer said.

Of the NRCS programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) will receive $8.45 billion in new funding, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) $4.95 billion, the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) $3.25 billion, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement program (ACEP) $1.4 billion all of which are widely used across the state.

Chris Mahony, district conservationist for Gallatin County, said the NRCS agricultural conservation programs are voluntary, and provide financial incentives to participate. In general, they help cost-share the price of implementing practices that will help improve land over time, like cover cropping or

rotational grazing to bolster soil health. Some programs can also help expand land in conservation easements.

Local working groups on each watershed meet and outline their natural resource priorities to share with the NRCS, Mahony said. For Gallatin County, the conservation priorities include soil health, forest resiliency and fuel reduction, watershed health and water quality, and animal confinement. Projects that further those conservation efforts are prioritized in the county, Mahony said.

“We want to help people help the land,” Mahony said.

The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which aims to build local partnerships with NRCS to co-invest in conservation work, will receive $4.95 billion in new funding.

For the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, money from the RCPP program has allowed them to grow the amount of land and landowners in conservation easements, while also expanding conservation practices through partnerships. They partnered with 16 local organizations, including the Association of Gallatin Agriculture Irrigators, MSU Extension, and the Gallatin

Conservation District, to join the program.

In May 2015, GVLT received $3.8 million from RCPP $3.1 million of that funding was allocated to the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program to help put more farm and ranch land in easements, while the other $700,000 went to EQIP to do conservation projects.

Brendan Weiner, conservation director for GVLT, said the RCPP expanded the work the land trust can do because it offered region-specific funding they didn’t have to compete for statewide.

Many landowners are interested in conservation easements, but lack the resources needed to make that a reality. This program provides extra money to complete those projects.

“The money fills an unmet need now we can do more projects and work with new landowners specific to the area, ” Weiner said.

The IRA also allocates $1.4 billion directly to the Agricultural Conservation Easement program, which helps fund agricultural easements across the country.

Weiner said through their involvement in RCPP, GVLT and its partners were able to turn roughly $4 million

racHel leaTHe, bOzeman Daily cHrOnicle The sun sets on a field of harvested wheat west of Bozeman.

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Magazine, Fall, 2022

of federal money into $25 million of total land conservation value in the Gallatin Valley.

In fact, the project was so successful GVLT was able to renew the funding in 2020 to do it all over again.

The RCPP money that goes to EQIP for the project is also beneficial, Weiner said. Doing conservation work on land already in easements provides the security of knowing that land won ’ t just be developed down the line. Instead, the conservation changes made through EQIP will stay in place in perpetuity

“That’s ideal,” Weiner said.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) will get $8.45 billion in new funding. The program helps agriculture producers and non-industrial forest managers address natural resource concerns and improve environmental health.

Over the past decade in Montana, many farmers and ranchers have signed contracts with EQIP and used the funding to shift their management practices, like John Wicks, a farmer near Ledger, who grows organic pulse crops like lentils, chickpeas and barley.

Wicks signed his first contract with EQIP a few years back. Through that three-year contract, NRCS helped cover the costs associated with cover cropping. They paid for both a portion of the seed mixture itself, and the loss of revenue for planting a cover crop over one he could sell for profit, Wicks said.

That EQIP contract also helped pay for Wicks seeding pollinator strips of flowers around his farm to attract more bees and native pollinators.

Wicks signed a new five-year contract with EQIP this March. This time the funding will help cover the extensive soil testing he did on his farm this spring to get a better idea of the nutrients his land needs to be most productive.

But what Wicks is most excited about is his new stripper header for harvesting grain. A machine that can cost upwards of $90,000, a stripper header removes the head of the grain but leaves the stem and root systems intact helping the soil retain more moisture and nutrients than if the entire plant were harvested.

Wicks has wanted a stripper header for a while, but couldn’t afford the high cost until enrolling in the EQIP program, which will pay for the bulk of it.

“If they’re going to help with the cost of something new I say let’s try it,” Wicks said.

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) will receive $3.25 billion in additional funding.

That program helps producers build on their existing conservation efforts while sustaining the operation and its natural resources.

For Jeff Bangs, who ranches cattle and sheep and grows pulse crops north of Inverness, the CSP program has helped accelerate his no-till and rotational grazing efforts.

The biggest change for Bangs since starting the program has been reintegrating grazing on his cropland Specifically, Bangs is trying to start grazing his cows and sheep on the

land he cover-crops to bolster soil health even more.

The direction the USDA is headed is prioritizing soil health, Bangs said, based on which programs were injected with IRA funding That’s the way he wants his operation to move too.

“NRCS programs have value to producers and ecosystems, ” Bangs said. “The ag community should look for ways to work with the NRCS to improve the resiliency of their operations, in the face of climate change and consolidation in the ag industry.”

Bangs added that agriculture conservation money helps small and medium-sized farms stay in business. The programs both add value to the operation and also ensure the land stays viable for agriculture for generations to come.

Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union, said the prominence of agriculture conservation in the climatefocused sections of the IRA “looks really good for agriculture. ”

Schweitzer is excited for the $300 million to bolster carbon sequestration research on working lands. Ranchers have the power to reverse climate change, he said, through agriculture practices that capture carbon.

Schweitzer also highlighted the $500 million set aside in grants to improve infrastructure for renewable biofuels grown by agriculture producers.

“Some people say ranchers are to blame for climate change,” Schweitzer said. “But at the end of the day, I hope they see that ag makes a positive difference. It could be the solution to climate change.” AG

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