- [Announcer] "Montana Ag Live" is made possible by (jaunty guitar music) the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU Ag Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, the Northern Pulse Growers Association, and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(jaunty guitar music continues) - Good evening.

Welcome to another edition of "Montana Ag Live" originating tonight from the studios of KUSM on the very dynamic campus of Montana State University.

And coming to you over your Montana public television system, I'm Jack Riesselman retired professor of plant pathology.

I'm happy to be your host this evening.

A lot of you have watched the program in the past, you know how it works, those of you who have not, there'll be a phone number on the screen if you have questions for a steam panel tonight, phone 'em in and we'll discuss 'em and go through 'em and have a lot of fun doing it.

As you all know, or most of you know, we're featuring women in agriculture this spring.

And we have a special guest tonight who is very dynamic in agriculture, I'll introduce her in a moment.

But first of all, let me introduce the entire panel.

On my far left is Mary Burrows.

Mary is part-time in the Dean's Office, most time being a plant pathologist, and she does a great job at both.

Our special guest tonight: Kathleen Williams.

Found out this year that Kathleen Williams is now the state director for the USDA Rural Development Program.

Congratulations on that, Kathleen, I know you did a great job, and rural development is big in this state, and we need it.

So we'll have a little discussion about Another kind of a guest tonight is Paddy Fleming.

Paddy is with the Montana Manufacturing Extension Service, and Paddy is also very interested in rural development.

And Paddy, you're the only male other than me on the panel and that's been kind of the way it's been all spring.

And here's Miss Jane Mangold again, our invasive weed scientist, how's that work?

- That works.

- Okay, and answering the phone this evening, John Holly and Nancy Blake.

So with that folks, I'm gonna turn over to Kathleen and tell her about her position here and rural development in Montana.

- Thank you.

And it's great to be with you all.

I think as I mentioned, 20 years ago, I was on the show so it's great to be back.

The state director for Rural Development, it's a USDA appointment, it's a presidential appointment, so, I serve at the pleasure of President Biden.

It's one of four state-based federal appointments.

And so there's 47 of me across the state or across the nation, excuse me.

And really Rural Development is a subagency of the USDA like the Forest Service, like the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and on our mission is to sustain and help with the vitality and economic success of rural America, and in this case, Rural Montana.

So it's super exciting to be in this position.

- Yeah, we'd visit a little bit ahead of the program tonight, and Paddy, you can jump into it, but, you know, Montana has basically two sides to it, the Eastern side, which I love Eastern Montana, I think it's one of the most beautiful places in the lower 48 states, but the economic development in Eastern Montana is not as vibrant right now as in the Western part of the state.

How do you think we can address maybe improving the economic future of Eastern Montana?

- Well, there's lots of options.

Eastern Montana and Central Montana are very much Ag-based.

So we've got some programs to try and help address some of the issues that are affecting our farmers and ranchers, whether it's the consolidation in the meat processing industry, we've got programs that are working to try and advance local and regional meat processing.

There's also programs to help with rural healthcare with utilities.

I mean, these small communities don't have the tax base to be able to charge the fees for say a wastewater treatment plant or a water supply plant.

And so we help build those kinds of facilities in these small communities to help those communities provide the services that people expect, and hopefully, with those services, people will both stay in Rural Montana and maybe relocate.

- Okay, Paddy, the extension, manufacturing extension.

Have you guys done any programs or developed any businesses say in Glendive or Scobey or Plentywood?

- Absolutely.

We work with all the manufacturers in Montana.

We actually only have two counties in Montana that have zero manufacturers, that's treasure and petroleum.

We have lots of clients throughout Eastern Montana.

What we have seen is that there's kind of a correlation between if a small town does have a manufacturer, it tends to make them more sustainable.

We're seeing some great improvements in some of these small towns recently, when you look at Philipsburg, Philipsburg brewing is a main, main part of Philipburg's growth.

Even you go to Scobey, we've got Farver Farms and Scobey doing great things.

The value-added ag is really important for Eastern Montana, in my opinion, where we don't have to worry about (clears throat) shipping in raw materials, but we can draw on the raw materials that are already in the area such as meat processing, beer, anything with the pulse crops.

So there's lots of examples in these small town, Big Sandy Organics.

- Okay, you know, we'll get into a little bit more and some of the constraints that maybe a Scobey or a Glendive or a Philipsburg may have.

Before we do that, Mary, we had a question come in via Facebook.

And this person from Bozeman has a bunch of big softballs, which I'm not sure what she means, on their Juniper.

What do you think that is?

And do they need to control it?

- Actually, our weed specialist, Tim Seipel sent me pictures of his last week.

So I did get it up just in case we got that question.

It's cedar-apple rust, and you can see a picture of it here.

And this is from our "Pests, Problems, and Identification of Ornamental Shrubs and Trees in Montana" book.

And you can see what host it occurs on.

Probably can't read it on the TV screen, but if you have a copy, and then what the symptoms are and how to manage it, and mostly for cedar-apple rust, you'll see these big balls on your Juniper and then on your apples or your hawthornes, you'll see just these spots, which to a pathologist are beautiful.

And I'm seeing them in my neighborhood right now.

There's no real reason to control them.

They don't harm the tree.

- They're pretty.

- They are pretty, it's just like Christmas came early in June.

- No, it's Halloween to me.

- Only a plant pathologists would say that that's pretty.

- Oh, that's what you always say.

- Jane from Helena, this person wants to know is weed seed-free forage also pesticide-free or organic.

- Well, that sort of depends.

So someone can grow forage that's certified as weed-seed-free.

And the whole idea behind that is you're using forage that, you know, you're not moving seeds, weed seeds around in that forage.

So it sort of depends if the field didn't have any weeds, to begin with, there wouldn't have been any spraying done to control the weeds.

So, you know, it might be pesticide-free, but if you see weed-seed-free, that doesn't necessarily mean it's pesticide-free or organic or anything like that, that would be a different certification.

- Do they certify any of the hay or as organic in the state?

Does anybody know?

- Oh, I mean, there's probably organic hay but again, that would be a different, if it's certified organic, that would be a different certification process than the weed-seed-free forage and building materials program.

- Okay, thank you.

Question for both Kathleen and Paddy.

Do either of you believe that high-speed internet is limiting the ability for road development in the state and manufacturing?

- [Paddy] I do.

- Absolutely.

I mean, it's not nice to have anymore.

You have to participate in education, in healthcare, in business, in precision ag, you need high-speed internet.

And so that's one of the reasons there are some pretty major sets of resources coming down.

At Rural Development, we have something called the ReConnect Program, which is investing in especially underserved areas, but the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has a lot of resources in it for internet.

So yeah, we're just really trying to close that digital divide much as electrification in the '30s.

- Yeah, no, that's a good analogy.

Excellent analogy.

Paddy, are there rural areas of state that have pretty good high-speed internet now?

- I don't have that information.

Probably have to defer to Kathleen on this.

- There's a statewide broadband coordinator that's an employee of the state and it's her role to, and I hope she agrees with what I'm gonna say, but to develop, and we wanna participate in it, a statewide plan on how to take all these disparate sources of resources.

And they hired a contractor to put together a map, even getting a map of where the service is and isn't has been challenging.

I've been trying to do that for 12 years, probably.

So, we're finally starting to get some mapping and so that we can see where people are or aren't served, and even building that map is challenging.

So, I think in Montana, we're gonna see a real push, and hopefully, a lot of coordination on getting broadband out there where it's needed.

- There was an article in one of the major papers this morning, just on rural broadband.

And they said, "Even if it was accessible, "it wasn't affordable for many people."

So, that's another big challenge.

- Right, and this administration actually has a program that helps people pay for it too.

So if you've got it, but you can't use it 'cause you can't afford it, then I think it's a $35 subsidy that people that are very low income can apply for and get some help, yeah.

- Okay, thank you, Paddy, from Lewistown, you mentioned value-added agriculture.

This person would like to know a few examples of what value-added agriculture is and how the manufacturing center helps develop these.

- Sure.

So, value-added ag is manufacturing where you start off with something that So food and beverage is a lot of it, examples include High Country Beef Jerkey in Lincoln, Farver Farms is doing a pulse snack cracker I believe, we have Big Sandy Organics doing Kracklin' KAMUT, all the breweries are value-added ag, all the meat processors are value-added ag, and we provide assistance to them in pretty much any area they need.

We have a staff of manufacturing consultants that consist of engineers and MBAs that'll travel to these facilities and help 'em grow, innovate, and become more profitable.

- Great program.

I like that ideal.

- I think we have an image of, we have a value-added a program as well.

And I think one of our images is of the roam-free ranch.

- You can bring that up.

And we'll see if we can get that aired.

- Yeah, so, this is a value-added project that we helped fund.

I don't know if you guys were involved with that too, but they make something called Bison Bites and they just got the contract for all of the Costcos in the Northwest.

- That's big.

- It is.

Absolutely big.

And to keep that contract, we need to buy Bison Bites.

So there's a plug.

But that's a family-run operation near Hot Springs, and yeah, proud to be able to help.

- Okay, now, you say you helped them get started, is it a loan program, a grant program?

How does this USDA Rural Development help directly?

- Right, so, we offer both value-added producer grants and loans.

So if someone's just starting out, they may get a grant, may qualify for a grant, and then as they get their feet under them, and they need a little bit more to potentially bridge into getting commercial financing then we may give 'em a loan or a loan guarantee.

What we try and do is help businesses start, grow and get sustainable.

And we kind of graduate them from grant to loan guarantee, to loan, to off and running with a commercial banker.

And we work really closely with lenders as well.

So, we're working to help, not only the farmers, and ranchers, and businesses, but also the lending community, 'cause that is an important infrastructure as well for the business community.

- Yeah, if you go into certain, I would say specialty stores, higher-end stores and you look on the shelves, it's amazing how many Montana-made And on that note, I wanna ask, how do you qualify to get these little Montana-made stickers?

Is that program still really active?

- It is active.

And it doesn't take much to get qualified for it.

So it's pretty easy to get those stickers.

You just have to prove that you are making it in Montana.

- Okay, and support it when you see it.

- Yes.

- Yeah, I think, isn't there an annual like trade show?

- Yes.

- Sort of for anything made in Montana, so, it was in Helena this year.

- The Montana Department of Commerce funds a trade show for Made in Montana.

- You know, I have been to that trade show one time.

And you don't wanna go hungry because but it is pretty fascinating some of the products that are out there.

Labor and issue and bringing these to market here in the State.

- Absolutely labor, and housing, and supply chain are the three big ones right now.

You talk about, well, let's move a big meat processor into a small town in Eastern Montana.

There's no housing, so, where they gonna live.

So we can't hardly do that.

So that plus the supply chain issues and shipping into rural areas can be very challenging for value-added ag producers.

- And we had the woman who runs the Butte malting facility on, and their transportation costs are really causing some significant issues and trying to break into more markets.

It's very pricey to move stuff outta the state right now.

From Missoula, Jane, bio-control of knapweed other than pulling, I don't believe in pulling because that's work, but go ahead.

- Yeah, so there are several insects, specialized insects available for biological control of knapweed.

Actually, over the years, there's been 12 different agents developed and released for knapweed.

Some of those agents are well established across the state.

So, I would encourage the person to look for evidence of bio-controls they that are suppressing plants.

They don't always completely get rid of the plants, but they will stress them and make those plants less competitive.

There are also some bio-control, one insect, in particular, the Cyphocleonu weevil, it's a fairly big weevil that doesn't fly very well, it feeds on the roots and it's very effective.

And that's one of the insects that doesn't get around as well, 'cause it's not a good flyer, and may be worth investing in some insects to release on their property.

So, I would recommend that the person check out, there's a website it's mtbiocontrol.org.

And it's the statewide bio-control And there's a lot of information on there, including information about knapweed bio-control.

And if there's any collection days coming up, how to release it, how to see if you have bio-controls already on your property, so mtbiocontrol.org.

- So talking about road development, we have plenty of weeds in the state we know that.

- We do, yeah.

- Is there a business opportunity out there for people rearing these insects and so forth and so on?

- Yeah, there are commercial, they either collect in places where the insects are well established and then sell them or they are rearing some of these insects.

There's a couple different high school science classes that have rearing programs.

Yeah, so, there are people out there doing that, making a living doing it.

- And some picking huckleberries too.

(all laughs softly) That works.

Okay, from Billings, will Kathleen's office be assisting small towns devastated by recent flooding?

It's a good question.

- Absolutely.

And I just wanna say that, you know, my heart goes out to the folks in Red Lodge, and Gardener, and Livingston, and all the places that have been affected.

And we are not frontline disaster response agency.

We do have one element that, we have housing programs and including a multi-family housing program.

And if there are vacancies in our multi-family housing projects, there is a process where people that are displaced may be able to temporarily be housed in our multi-family, but really where we'll probably come in the most is during the rebuild, the infrastructure, both the businesses, and the sewer, and water, and wastewater, is probably these small towns, that's probably where we can be the most helpful.

- Okay, thank you, good question.

Paddy, you talk about rural development of value-added products.

Are there any high-tech small-town industries that have been developed in Montana?

This question is from Winter Fair.

- Yes, in fact, just about an hour south of there, I would say there's a couple great manufacturers in Lewistown that are high tech, one is called Hi-Heat and they are making equipment to heat drums and control the temperature of that.

You also have a manufacturer in Lewistown that's making all the air curtain doors for Costcos and Walmarts.

And thirdly, you have speaker manufacturing and design, which is making access platforms for aircraft and spacecraft worldwide.

- And that's all done here in Montana.

- [Paddy] All done in Lewistown.

- That's great.

And you know, Lewistown, I shouldn't say this, I like Lewistown a lot and it has not been found as much as Bozeman and other areas of state.

If you've not been to Lewistown, it's worth a trip there, it's a wonderful little community.

- [Kathleen] They have a great little trail system through town too.

- Oh, wonderful.

And it's right on Spring Creek if you like to fish, great drought fishing.

So, kudos to Lewistown, and I hope- - And the Geographical Center of the State at the-.

- That's correct.

That's very correct.

And on that note, just a little bit west of Lewistown is Moxin Montana.

And this week on Tuesday is the Moxin Field Day.

- [Kathleen] Oh, Wednesday, I believe.

- Wednesday.

And if you really, I'll give them credit, they serve great lunches there.

- And you can just go up the road to Havre and get a nice steak there around Thursday night.

- If you've not had a chance to attend some these ag field days.

Yeah, it's worth it because you'll learn a lot.

And the chefs at Moccasin do a great job.

- I believe it is poured pork in this year.

- Okay, Mary, I've got you up here.

This is from Coffee Creek.

And how many people know where Coffee Creek is?

- It's up in that part of the country, isn't it?

- That's right.

- It's good pheasant hunting.

- Yeah, it is, you nailed it, it's great pheasant country up there.

They are seeing a lot of powdery mildew on the winter wheat after the rain.

Should we spray a fungicide?

Mary that's yours.

- Yeah, you know, depending on the moisture coming up, our varieties are all very susceptible.

So look at your yield potential for the crop.

You know, a lot of guys have maybe gotten some frost damage or weren't able to adequately fertilizers, you know, think about what your yield potential realistically is, and then make a fungicide application decision based on that.

- Okay, thank you.

Kathleen, from Billings again, will your office be assisting?

I did that one, sorry.

This one is from Missoula.

What are the roles of county commissioners in assisting rural development in Eastern Montana?

That's a good question also.

- Well, we wouldn't be successful if we didn't have partners.

So we work closely with local communities to both tell folks, I mean, we have, I think at least 50 programs now, and it seems like there's a new one rolling out every week.

So the more people that know the resources that are available through USDA Rural Development is super helpful.

I was at the MACo gathering, the Montana Association of Counties.

And we just find that so many people don't know about the rural development programs.

And so county commissioners are a great partner in getting that across.

And they're often looking for utility types of assistance.

And I think we've got a clip from a video where rural development helped the town of Harlowtown build a wastewater treatment plant.

So I think a lot of this is focusing on some of the nuts and bolts, but this was a great project that really helped a small town provide treatment for their town, and then also of course, everyone is downstream from somebody, right.

So they are treating it to a really high level, they're saving money for the town, and they're providing clean water for the folks that are downstream, that are drinking from the same source.

So it's pretty exciting.

- Harlowtown is an interesting story.

I've been in this state a long time.

And when I first moved here, there was a railroad, it was a railroad town, and that disappeared, and Harlowtown kind of dried up, but thanks to Rural Development, they have come back strong.

And I like Harlowtown.

Again, it's in the middle of nowhere, which, you know, I'm not antisocial, but it's kind of neat to see that kind of part of the state.

- Yeah, well, and there was a company called Ticket River that just decided to locate there and created quite a few jobs.

There's an architect that we're working with that is working on projects where he finds historic buildings and is converting them into housing, and multipurpose commercial or mixed-use, and making it all lead certified.

I mean, it's just amazing.

- And there's two value-added ag manufacturers in that town as well.

Cream of the West has been there probably, 30-plus years.

And we have a brewery there.

- Harlowtown has a brewery.

Now I may have to make a trip up there this week.

How many do we have in the state?

And last I heard, there was 89 or 90.

- It's over 100 now.

- It's over 100.

And there's some pretty good product out there.

- [Paddy] Yep, we even have one in Wibaux.

- And I've been there.

Yes, I have.

And actually Wibaux, yeah, I like that state.

Wibaux is a really interesting part of the state.

It sits just right next to North Dakota and that Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

If nobody's visited that, that's fun to go to, but there's a great restaurant right off the interstate at Wibaux, and you can stop there and eat, go to North Dakota, and come back and stay in Montana.

That's the way I do it.

- Yeah, I was told the best prime rib in the state is in Wibaux, so.

- It's awful good.

- Yep, we tried it.

- All right, great.

From Butte, Facebook question for Paddy, how did the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center come about?

That's a good question, 'cause I don't know a lot about it.

- So in the '80s, the National Institute of Standards and Technology saw that the smaller manufacturers weren't getting world-class consulting.

And so they started this national network called the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

They partially fund the center in every state.

The MEPs are not allowed to work with any manufacturer that has more than 500 employees, but our task is to help all the small manufacturers.

And so in 1996, the Board of Regents approved it.

And in 1998, the state legislature gave us some state funding.

So, it's been 26 years now, we have an office in several different cities, six different remote offices right now.

But they tend to be where most of the manufacturers are.

- So, you work closely with Kathleen.

- Yeah, I would say that for instance, they have the money, the loans, and the grants, and we provide the technical expertise oftentimes to get a grant from USDA you must do a feasibility study, and we often do the feasibility studies.

- That's interesting.

- Great partnership.

- That is a good partnership and partnerships make things happen.

- Absolutely.

- There's no doubt about that.

Another Facebook question for Kathleen, this is interesting, with high rates of suicide in Eastern Montana, and that's true, and additional stress factors such as inflation is a USDA exploring new ways to bring additional support beyond telehealth?

If so, what agencies are participating in this?

Tough question.

- Well, I was gonna go to telehealth 'cause we do have a program for distance learning in telehealth.

And that has been an opportunity for folks that are isolated.

I mean, Rural Montana, the stigma to seek assistance for mental health issues and the isolation that aggravates them and the challenges of, you know, keeping the family farm going under really difficult circumstances.

There's really a lot of mental health challenges that people need to both be comfortable talking about.

I actually did a video on during Mental Health Month, talking about a program that our role was to promote it, but it wasn't our program called Beyond the Weather.

And it's a partnership between the State Department of Agriculture and I think Northern Ag Network, but it's named because we want to have our conversations go beyond the weather, right, into really important things.

- I agree.

I agree entirely.

We had a question that came in via, I think email from, I'm not sure where, but they sent a photo of a weed that they have in their yard.

And they wanted to know if Jane could identify this beautiful little weed.

- [Jane] (sniffs) No pressure.

(all laugh) Well, I will admit, I did get to see this picture before the show tonight.

- So, I think this looks like a species in the mint family.

It might be a glaucoma species, which it could be creeping Charlie.

So there's two or three species you can find in Montana that might look similar to this.

You know, a very common species that people have in their lawn is creeping Charlie so that could be what it is.

As far as controlling it, those types of species like moist conditions.

So, I wonder if it isn't growing in an area of the yard that is maybe shaded or is getting extra water.

So one of the ways to control it would be to try to change the conditions, either increase the sunlight, maybe a little less watering to try to make it a little less competitive than the grass that's growing there.

You can also use herbicides.

There are broadleafed herbicides that will work on this, including Dicamba, which is sold as a lot of different products and triclopyr which is sold as foundation for turf applications.

One note to make about those herbicides, they are broadleafed herbicides and they will impact other broadleaf species.

So, probably okay to use in the lawn, but you wouldn't wanna use them in a flower bed or garden where if some of that species is also growing there.

- Okay, well, I have you up, I know you brought me a bouquet today and I appreciate that but you might wanna mention what that is?

- Yeah, so, I think I bring this species every spring season.

- It's pretty.

- And one of my goals is to have all the viewers of "Montana Ag Live" know that this is dame's rocket and not phlox.

So it is a kind of an invasive mustard.

It has four petals, all mustards have four petals on the flowers, phlox will have five petals.

So, that's a great way to tell this from our native phlox or ornamental phlox is that we like to have growing.

It is a really beautiful plant, it smells very nice, but it can be kind of invasive.

There are some states in the upper Midwest that have this on the noxious weed list, Montana does not.

But you will find places in Montana where this is kind of growing up the draws, it likes some moisture.

One of the places where I've seen it most prevalent is up in the Belt region.

So again, we're back to Central Montana, but it really likes kind of those draws and coolies up like between Belt and Fort Benton, that's one of the places I've noticed it.

It does pull very easily.

It's an annual to a biennial.

And I pulled a plant out very easily, you can see it has a very shallow root system.

So it's super easy to pull.

I would encourage people if you do have it growing in your yard or kind of the back woods to keep it from producing seed because it can become somewhat prolific.

- Okay, thank you.

You mentioned Fort Benton, and here again, I'm on my soapbox-.

- Tour of Montana tonight.

- Are there any small ag businesses or manufacturing?

I mean, I love Fort Benton.

It's one of the most beautiful towns in the state and historically it's a great place.

What's going on there?

Anything that you guys know of.

- I know of one manufacturer, very small, I cannot think of their name, but they were actually making a item to help you pick apples.

- [Jack] They do have a brewery there too.

- They do.

- I do know that- - And so does Belt.

(all laugh loudly) - Sounds good.

Kathleen, interesting question.

As state director, what are your goals for the state?

- Yeah, I was asked that in my interviews and basically what I said was I wanna first figure out the portfolio of Rural Development and where I can be helpful to support our staff and support the projects that are ongoing.

And then what I wanna figure out is who needs the help the most across the state, and then how can we help those communities in the most lasting, effective way possible?

And my interviewers, I think expected me to have a real set agenda.

But when I got in the position in January, our national office charged us with going out and engaging with the 10 communities according to their metrics that were the most distressed and the least served.

And so I thought, oh, there we go, this is exactly what I was saying that I thought we needed to do.

And so we've had this community engagement project going, and there's 10 communities across the state and eight of those are tribal, which one could predict, and two of them are adjacent to tribal.

So, we've been working a lot with engaging with our tribal nations on a government-to-government and also on a partner status and seeing where we can help with the really significant issues in some of those communities so that more people aren't being left behind.

- All right, thank you.

Question from Billings.

And this goes back a couple programs.

We mentioned a person who is very knowledgeable in controlling ground squirrels.

I'd like to know that name again, it's Steve Van Tassel, he's with the Montana Department of Agriculture, I do not have his phone number, but you can go on the Department of Ag website and find his phone number, he's located in Lewistown.

Mary, we had a question here that came in from Cut Bank, and their winter wheat appears frosted at the tips.

They wanna know, you think this is fusarium head blight or something else.

- Cut Bank would not be my first guess for head blight.

And then winter wheat also, we don't get it in normally, there are some exceptions, we had some daily fogs during flowering in Havre a few years ago, and we had quite a bit of head blight in the winter wheat, but normally it's a spring wheat because of the temperatures required for infection at flowering.

So, this pathogen really likes continuous cereals and corn because it grows septically on the decaying plant matter, and then it'll affect during the flowering period.

So, that's the really important time to control it.

- Okay, thank you.

Question from Stanford, they've heard of a program called International Marketing Assistance.

Are you guys familiar with that one?

- I am.

- [Jack] Have had it.

- It's through the Montana Department of Commerce.

So if you contact the Montana Department of Commerce in Helena, I'm sure they can help you.

I know that they fund you to go to international trade shows.

- Okay, is this international?

Probably is.

- I'm not sure about the details.

- There's also the, it's a different subagency than we are, but it's the Agricultural Marketing Service, AMS, at the federal level.

So they could look online to see if there's some assistance there.

- Are they also located here in Montana?

- There is an office here in Montana.

Yeah, but a lot of those are national programs.

- All right, sounds good.

Well, from Bozeman.

A viewer would like to share that IND HEMP, and I'm not sure what that is, has been operating in Fort Benton for about a year.

They are making very unique hemp products.

Are you guys familiar with those?

- I am, yes.

- And it's pretty successful.

- Yes.

- Are they growing?

- Yes.

- Good.

I like those kinda little closer.

Here's another one from Helena, we're getting all kinds of response tonight this is interesting, regarding manufacturing in Fort Benton, Fort Benton has the Montana flour and grain milling operation that mills organic grapes.

So, folks, there are a lot of little opportunities in Rural Montana and Kathleen, if somebody has an ideal, can they come to you and say, I have this ideal.

How does the process work?

- Absolutely.

I mean, you can go online, you can look at all the suite of programs that we have, but really the best thing to do is either pick up the phone or send an email with a question and we'll try and figure out how to answer it.

And it's surprising how creative some of our programs can be.

Yeah, we've got 34 staff at six offices across the state, and you can go online and find an email or a phone number, and just pick up the phone, or send us a note.

- [Jack] Same thing for you.

- Absolutely.

And I would say too about the USDA funding too, is that there's such an opportunity there, they have funding for feasibility studies.

So if you have an idea that you haven't quite vetted out, you don't know what your tenure, your payback is, and your financials into the future.

You can get a grant from USDA and then you can have somebody do it for you.

So, we would bid on that and we would do the feasibility study if you chose us.

But it's a great opportunity for anybody that has an idea.

- A lot going on in the state that a lot of people are not aware of.

So, thank you for informing us.

Jane.

I like this question.

They've been using Tordon, one of my favorite herbicides 'cause it really works, on their leafy spurge.

Is there anything else they can use and anything new for that particular leaf?

- Yeah, yeah, so, Tordon is still one of the go-to herbicides for leafy spurge.

It's a long-lived herbicide and it doesn't harm grass, but it does injure other broad leaf species.

So there are some new approaches that are out there, one active ingredient that people are using is Quinclorac.

It's sold in, you know, different products, but that's Quinclorac.

And you can use that around water, which Tordon on you cannot because it leeches through the soil very easily and gets into stream systems and wells.

We're doing a trial right now with a new product called venue that looks promising.

We were just at those plots last fall or last week and it looks pretty good.

So yeah, we're trying some new things and seeing how things look.

One comment I would like to make about Tordon is if you can use a different herbicide, I really recommend it.

What we've seen over the decades of using Tordon is that a lot of times where you spray out a broadleaf invasive plant with Tordon you end up with cheatgrass, and cheatgrass and other annual grasses are a big concern in Montana.

- Okay, thank you.

Steve Van Tassell is gonna love me, but here's his phone number: it's 406-538-3004.

Again, 406-538-3004, And when you call him with any of your rodent problems tell him Jack said, "Hi."

And he may never talk to me again.

Anyway, and here's a question from Hamilton and I just answered it.

Can someone share more information about the need to control ground squirrels in Montana?

Should we avoid control since these animals are part of a ecosystem?

I'd say no, but talk to Steve and that's another phone number.

You have it.

Question from Scobey.

They've heard of a program called Growth Through Agriculture Grants.

You guys wanna jump on that.

- Sure, I can start.

Yeah, that that's through the Montana Department of Agriculture.

Very, very good grants that you can get to pay for feasibility studies and startups.

On top of that, you also have value-added ag producer grants through USDA, and you also have Big Sky trust fund grants through the Montana Department of Commerce.

- Kathleen, you wanna add anything?

- No, there's lots of programs out there.

And all of us that are talking about them and running them are really trying to make sure that we can mesh them and recommend other programs when they're the better first step or our programs are the better first step.

So, I know one of my priorities is to really make sure that all of the public resources out there that we're all coordinating.

- Okay, thank you.

Mary, with all the moisture we've had, this person from, again Lewistown, would like to know what the risk is with stripe rust this year.

- It's pretty low.

They just identify it in the Treasure Valley of Idaho.

We got the email from Juliet last week and pretty low throughout Washington and even into the Midwest, that said if we had a warm extended wet fall and early planet winter wheat we might get it again.

But most of our varieties have some resistance and we have good fungicide products.

Strip rusts is one of those diseases that blows in so we can kind of watch it come in unless it's been established in the fall, whereas head blight tends to be pretty local, although it can come in from other areas.

So if you know, you have a high head blight risk and you've had this moisture, then you might consider a fungicide.

- Okay, thank you, and why I have you up.

A viewer would like to know, he's from Bell Fort, and he wants the name of the person to contact at MSU about alfalfa production, fertilization, pest control, all that.

Unfortunately, he does not have internet access, so he would like you to give him a name and a phone number.

- Oh, Hayes Goosey, our forge specialist.

And gimme one minute and I'll get that number to you.

- Okay, that'll work, modern technology.

From, Havre, this is a question that came in via email ahead of time, do tariffs and customs issues affect trade between Canada and the US?

And is that an issue with manufacturing here in Montana?

- At this point, I don't think it's much of an issue compared to the other issues, workforce, housing, and supply chain, but it always does affect things if you are having to pay tariffs, go back and forth across the border.

- Okay, I don't think we have many issues right now, - Right, I agree.

- And that's good.

For both of you.

And this is an interesting question, What are the major limiting factors in developing a manufacturing business in a state like Montana?

- And I'm gonna say this, but this isn't Montana specific, but workforce is the biggest issue right now, no matter what state you go to, no matter what part of this state you're in, every manufacturer is struggling for employees.

And then even if you're gonna, let's say, you do get the employees, then you might be hurting on housing, and especially affordable housing.

So, we are seeing a great pressure on manufacturers in Bozeman, Kalispell, and Missoula, because they simply can't pay people enough so that they can afford housing.

But Montana is a very business-friendly state and consistently ranks very high in that.

So the barriers to start in manufacturing are as low as any other state in the United States.

- Okay, do we have a major issue in moving manufacturer product out of the state because of our transportation infrastructure?

- Yes, there is an imbalance of freight options.

So, depending on which business you're in, you may have no problem getting raw materials in, but have a problem getting trucks to take your materials out, your finished products out, and it could be the vice versa for other manufacturers.

So just the simple fact that Montana doesn't have a lot of freight going in and out affects our manufacturers.

And we end up having a little bit higher cost because our shipping costs are higher to get to markets.

- Okay, you know, last week we had a question about mobile meat processing facilities.

I think we have one in the state, but what's the potential in either of your opinions to improve or enhance mobile manufacturing for beef?

- I think it's limited in my opinion, just that the cost of picking up the system and moving it constantly, trying to set up corrals and infrastructure every time you move it.

So, I think most of 'em are using them, it's like a pre-built home or pre-built facility.

And so even though they're mobile, they set 'em up and don't really move 'em.

- Well, there's a lot of effort going on on the meat processing.

And really when we talk about transportation issues and costs, I mean, the more we can produce locally, buy locally value-add locally and regionally, the more we can keep the wealth inside Montana rather than just shipping off our raw products.

Part of the issue with meat processing is workforce, right, so, Miles College has a training program and Northern is looking at a degree program.

There is, you know, one unit that it isn't quite as mobile as another issue that you have to deal with meat processing is the wastewater.

And so there are a lot of people trying to figure this out.

There was a move that allows state-inspected facilities to be a functional equivalent for federally inspect facilities.

You know, our producers, what?

Decades ago, when the Packers and Stockyard Act passed, it was because there were only five meat processing plants in the nation at the time.

And now we only have four, 50 years later.

And so there's been a real effort by this administration.

We've just rolled out a intermediary loan program for lenders to help with expansion of meat processing.

There's all kinds of efforts.

In fact, a USDA a wide effort in food system transformation, it's huge, so.

- Sounds good.

Mary provided me with Hayes Goosey our forage specialist number for the person at Bell Fort.

And that number is 406-994-5688.

And if you have any forage questions, Hayes is really knowledgeable and will be able to help you.

This is a question I find fascinating, I've been here long enough that at one point we had pretty good air service around the state when we had Big Sky Airlines.

I think we still have Cape Cod.

- Cape Air.

- But what is the future in your opinion of airline transportation to Rural Montana?

- I believe there was some assistance in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for airports and for services, and then, I don't know if your viewers are aware, but there's a push to reactivate the southern passenger rail route too.

- I saw that.

- Yeah, which is super interesting.

So, we know how important being able to get to Minneapolis without having to drive to fly from there, et cetera.

So, I think, I mean, it always depends on who's in office, but I think most everyone is pretty clear on how important that subsidized air access is.

- I could add too that when we have companies looking to move to Montana manufacturers, that's one of their big requests is tell us about the air service.

- [Jack] Yeah, that makes tremendous sense.

- Yeah, it does.

- Absolutely.

One for Jane.

Person has a pasture, but they have this funny-looking bluegrass moving in called bulbous bluegrass.

They'd like to get rid of it.

Do you wanna help 'em?

- Yeah, we've talked about bulbous bluegrass before, it's very noticeable right now.

Now is not the time to try to control it.

You're probably looking at spring of next year and probably using a herbicide imazapyr or plateau will work on it, early spring applications of the glyphosate will work, but it has to be very early because it's a early greenup and early maturation.

- Okay, thank you.

Paddy, this person from Fairfield is thinking of packaging pulse crops, and there are some already doing that in the state.

How would they go about getting ahold of you or Kathleen to find out the assistance they could get?

- Just give us a call.

- Okay, and your number has been on the screen?

And there it is.

All right, we have just a few minutes left.

I'm gonna let Kathleen tell us what else you'd like to get done here in the state.

And I'll cut you off when I have to.

- Oh, well, we just wanna make sure that Rural Montana has a chance to thrive and where we can help, however, whether it's tribal community colleges, and renewable energy, and building your own housing, and there's just program, after program, after program to help Rural Montana be successful.

Yeah, so, we're looking forward to helping.

- Yeah, I like that idea.

I'm gonna say a couple more things.

(jaunty guitar music) Mary wants to see you all in Moccasin on Wednesday and in Havre on Thursday.

And we'll start again here in Bozeman July 7th for a research center Post Farm Field Day and Eastern Ag on July 12th, and we'll get to the rest of 'em next week.

And next week's show will be the last spring series featuring women in agriculture, Krista Evans, who is the executive director of Montana Ag Business Association will be here.

You got a lot of information from her.

Thank you for watching.

Have a good week.

- For more information.

- Good and stay home.

- And resources visit montanapbs.org/aglive.

(jaunty guitar music continues) - "Montana Ag Live" is made possible by (jaunty guitar music) the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU Ag Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, the Northern Pulse Growers Association, and the Gallatin Gardeners Club.

(energetic piano music)