- [Announcer 1] "Montana AG Live" is made possible by: The Montana Department of Agriculture, MSU Extension, The MSU Ag Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture, The Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery & Landscaping, The Gallatin Gardeners Club, and The Montana Federation of Garden Clubs.

(upbeat guitar music) - Good evening, everyone, and welcome to another episode of "Montana AG Live," coming to you live from the KUSM studios on the beautifully green campus of Montana State University.

I'm your host tonight.

I'm Tim Seipel.

I'm the Cropland Weed Extension Specialist here at Montana State University, and I'm sitting in for Jack in the chair.

We have an excellent show for you guys tonight.

We're gonna be talking about mental wellbeing in ag country and ag producers in Montana and the ag community.

And we have a great special guest who's gonna be sharing some resources with us tonight.

But you guys know what to do.

This is a call-in show.

Without you guys, it would not function.

So if you have questions about ag, ag economics, horticulture, weeds, crops, get those phone calls in to us tonight and we can answer your questions as best we can, and if we can't, we'll figure out how to get them answered.

So the panel tonight, I'll introduce it.

We have Gary, we have Gary Brester on the end.

He's our Ag Economics Specialist who's gonna be sitting in with us tonight.

So let's ask him lots of questions about the agricultural markets, commodities, and where things go and how they work.

Our special guest tonight is Alison Brennan.

She is an Extension Specialist in HHD, in the Health and Human Development.

And she's gonna tell us all about ag mental health resources in Montana tonight, when we come around.

We have Jane Mangold sitting in the middle tonight.

Jane is our Invasive Plant Extension Specialist, and she can help you out with all the weed problems that you have in your range, in your pasture, and all the places in-between.

We have Abi Saeed next to me tonight.

She's our Extension Horticulture Specialist.

Ask her a lot of tough horticulture questions.

Now we really can finally get started with growing plants in Montana.

Maybe we'll, we won't have a frost for a couple of nights.

We'll cross our fingers as we go.

So, Alison, tell us about mental wellbeing in Montana's ag community and the resources that Extension has and provides.

- Thank you.

Thanks for having me tonight.

So I'll just start by saying that I have been the Extension Mental Health Specialist for MSU Extension since 2019.

And I have worked very closely with our Health and Wellness Specialist, Dr.

Michelle Grocke-Dewey, to develop all kinds of resources specifically for farmers, ranchers, and ag workers, to help them manage their stress.

And really the idea being that we want to support human wellbeing in agriculture because we recognize the importance of the people behind the production.

And so we've been working very, very diligently.

We've done quite a bit of research, survey research and interviews with farmers and ranchers and ag workers directly to hear from them what are their stressors, how would they like help managing their stress, what kinds of tools and resources do they want?

And so one of the biggest things that we launched, actually in 2020, during the height of COVID, was our Stress Resources Clearinghouse.

And so that is, you can think of that as sort of a one-stop shop of information on understanding stress, so- - Where do we find this clearinghouse - Yeah, so that is actually housed within the MSU Extension website.

You can- - [Tim] So if you go to MONTANA.EDU/EXTENSION, you can find your way to those?

- Yes, exactly.

And so it is within that website, but you can also just in a search browser, type in "Montana farm stress" and it'll come up as the top result, if not one of the top results there.

- Does the ag community experience a greater amount of stress in everyday life, say, compared to people living in urban environments?

- Well, you know, it's hard.

It's sort of apples and oranges there, right?

The stressors are different.

And so what I think really is important to note and to really emphasize is that when we're talking about rural, agricultural communities, there's sort of this stressor pile-up, right?

You've got all kinds of stressors and they're chronic, so they're lasting over a period of time.

And a lot of times, they are outside of the control of an individual.

So we're talking about things like, I'm gonna turn over to Gary here, volatile commodity prices.

We're talking about things like increased cost of fuel as in input, or reduced access, and/or increased cost of fertilizers, right?

These are not things that an individual person has control over, and yet they profoundly impact the stress levels of our farmers and ranchers and ag workers.

- All right, thanks, and well, I'm sure we'll have a lot more questions coming in.

Folks, get those phones ringing.

Ask us a lot of questions tonight, especially about our mental wellbeing in the Montana's ag community.

And we have some great horticulture questions.

We have a few that have come in.

So Abi, a quick, and Jane can chime in on this one too.

This is a call from Missoula.

"Is anyone producing seed of native wildflowers in Montana?

And can people put them in their yards or along roadways, and where could they get them at?"

- Yeah, so there are quite a few resources that people are developing.

One of my favorite kind of hub for all of these is the Montana Native Plant Society.

They have this really great document that goes into all of the producers of native plants in the state of Montana.

And that includes seeds, but also transplants, things like that.

So I would say you can go to their website to check it out, but you can also reach out to your local Extension resources or your local conservation districts.

I know a lot of conservation districts put together wildflower seed mixes, and they often give those away to people who have these pollinator projects or conservation-type projects in mind.

So reach out to your local Extension office, and for Missoula, that's gonna be your Department of Ecology and Extension.

You have such a great resource there, so reach out to them and they can probably find where you're gonna get your best species mix.

Anything to add?

- Well, the one thing I would add is, I think part of that question, Tim, was like, can you plant them along roadsides and whatnot?

The one thing I would add is that it is somewhat difficult to get these native wildflowers, what we would call forbs, or broad-leafed plants.

It is kind, they're challenging to get established.

So when I think about just scattering seeds along a roadside, if there's already well-established grass there, it could be a little challenging.

So you want to try to make a safe site, a nice place where those seeds can land on some bare soil.

- Mm-hm.

- And the timing of seeding is important.

If you don't have irrigation available, like, you probably needed to seed about a month ago, maybe like, early to mid-May, 'cause now we're getting to that place where it starts to get warm and dry.

So the timing of seeding is really important too.

So you're gonna spend the money on, you're gonna put the work in to spend the money on that high-quality seed, make sure you're doing all you can to plant it in a place where it's most likely to grow.

- And I'm glad you brought up that timing, Jane.

I'm more of a fan of fall seeding for a lot of our wildflowers.

And that's because a lot of them need that cold period to encourage germination.

And then you also have kind of ideally a moist or snow-covered winter, and so they have a nice head start in the spring.

So thank you for bringing that up.

- Yeah.

If you think about a wildflower out growing in its natural environment, it's dropping its seed.

That seed is overwintering and being exposed to those cold temperatures before it would grow.

So yeah, you gotta think like a wildflower.

(group chuckling) - Think like a wildflower.

- We should get shirts with that.

- Yeah.

(group laughs) - Yeah, that's a good discussion.

Okay, I'm gonna have to be quiet.

I can't talk about that.

I have too many.... Okay.

Alison, question came in.

- [Alison] Mm-hm.

- And it's about, "What are ways to manage stress for ag communities in Montana?"

You know, we often can be in very rural parts of the state, not a lot of resources around.

What are good ways for people to manage this everyday stress?

As you said before, a lot of it's external and there's not much we can do to change circumstances, but.

- Yeah, well, I mean, what works for an individual person and from one situation to another is gonna differ.

But I like to just think of, go back to the basics of really understanding that your physical health and your mental health are so connected.

And often, you can do things that support both.

So physical activity is a really important one.

Making sure that you are, you know, regularly getting especially aerobic activity, that gets your heart rate up, that gets your breathing increased, because that is gonna help with stress management and that's gonna have a whole bunch of other ripple effects.

So I would say that.

Controlled breathing is one of my favorite go-to strategies.

And so there, you can go, as I mentioned earlier, on our Stress Resource Clearinghouse, there's a whole section on Manage Your Stress that is going to have specific strategies there.

But controlled breathing is one that I really appreciate because it really helps your nervous system regulate itself.

It requires no equipment; you can do it anytime, any place.

And then also thinking about basics, things like prioritizing quality sleep.

Not just are you getting enough sleep, but what is the quality of that and can you improve that by doing things like having the same bedtime each night and same wakeup time each morning, which is referred to as sleep hygiene.

So you're being consistent about when you're going to bed, when you're waking up, and really prioritizing sleep is a big one.

- Okay.

- I would think diet, you know, what are you eating?

- Yes, absolutely.

- A good diet and good healthy foods- - Yep.

- Can help a lot as well.

- Yeah, nutrition is also very important.

- Do you have an exercise routine for the average grain farmer in Montana?

A lot of times, I feel like you're out there, you're crawling under the cultivator, you're crawling under the drill, you're doing physical work all day long.

The last thing I want to do is come in and jump rope or do something like that in the evening.

(laughs) - So that is one thing that as, so as Dr.

Grocke-Dewey and I have traveled the state and talked to people about this, that we hear often is, "What are you talking about?

Agriculture is already like, this is already a very physically involved occupation."

But the thing is like, you might be, you're not necessarily doing aerobic activity over a sustained period of time.

But like even just a brisk walk.

Just think about taking a 20 to 30-minute brisk walk around, you know, around the farm or ranch.

And just the main thing is you're getting and you're sustaining that increased heart rate for 20 to 30 minutes.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

But yeah, no, I totally understand because my husband is an ag worker and it is extremely intense physical activity all day long.

But a lot of it is muscular strength and endurance.

It's not aerobic activity.

- Mm-kay, thanks.

That was a good answer.

Gary, we have a couple questions that have popped up here for you.

- [Gary] Okay.

- I'll give you, start with number one.

This is a question from Bozeman: "Please give us an update on the Farm Bill."

- Oh, my.

(Tim laughs) I wish I could.

I wish somebody could.

They're just, it's all over the board once again, trying to decide if something's gonna happen, when something's gonna happen.

A lot of other things have been taking precedence, of course, throughout the U.S.

and throughout policy.

We seem to keep reverting back to the last bill and sort of a continuation on that.

And I haven't heard of any, it doesn't appear to have anybody that's gonna say, "We are gonna get a new something done and a new Farm Bill done."

So like I said, I wish I could say more, but I don't see much- - So- - Positive on the horizon in terms of something new.

- So do we just keep doing continuing resolutions?

What happens?

So the Farm Bill's a five-year bill, right?

- [Gary] Right.

Yes.

- And we haven't had one in number of years?

- [Gary] Yeah.

- And so how does farm policy get enacted at the federal government level then, when we haven't had a new Farm Bill?

- Right.

Basically, just updating.

Updating of, let's say, loan rates, updating, especially on the crop insurance side, updating of premiums, updating proven yields, all those kinds of things.

So really it's just been kind of a continuation of what we've seen.

Of course, there's a lot of things in the Farm Bill that are not specifically geared towards agriculture in general.

For example, the SNAP programs and all those things, including conservation programs as well.

So some of those things have been updated through sort of certain sponsored things, But it hasn't been a very big collective action and there doesn't seem to be, at least from what I can tell, any real emphasis on making something happen right now.

Every time you think something might happen, well the midterms, the elections are coming up, so we can't do any, those are the kinds of things we're seeing.

But there hasn't been a concerted effort to really do something new, or even- - So does that have negative impacts on the United States as agricultural production or producer wellbeing or things?

- It can; on the other hand, stability's a good thing too, knowing what's been happening over the last few years and continuing on that.

But I know all the farm associations, they'd like to see something more permanent and some changes made.

And so there just doesn't seem to be a champion for it right now.

And with trade and all the other things going on in the world, it doesn't appear like that's a priority for anybody at this point.

- Okay.

Well, status quo, I guess.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- Okay.

- [Gary] Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't know which, but yes.

- Yep.

Okay, thanks.

Okay, here's a call from Lewistown.

Caller has a, I don't know who this, plate this is gonna land on yet, we'll have to read it all.

Okay.

Caller has a half acre, mostly grass, used to be alfalfa and grass.

How can he restart alfalfa on 3 1/2 acres without tilling up the entire 3 1/2 acres and get the best reward out of it?

So he wants to go back into alfalfa without putting cultivation into the system.

- [Carl] You bet.

We'll see you now.

- You know, Hayes Goosey is our forage specialist.

- I feel like that's a question for a forage specialist.

- Yep, that's a good one.

My quick opinion is you're probably gonna have to spray that all out, then you're gonna have to wait a period because there's a certain toxicity to and then you come back in and you can redrill your alfalfa.

But you may want to level it out.

There may be some places that you want to deal with.

Hayes Goosey in the Animal and Range Science Department, ask him a lot of questions.

And if you can't find his telephone number, give me a call and I can connect you to him, for sure.

Okay, Alison, a question that came in: "How do we support farm...?"

This person commented a little on mental health and she said it's often a topic that comes up when people are feeling stress.

But how do we support farmers in good and tough times, both, in terms of mental health?

How do we build that resilience into our ag communities so that people are less stressed in the stressful times?

- Building resilience.

Well, I think, I mean, I think this is a place where community is very important and being willing to celebrate with people during the good times and being willing to help out in whatever way makes sense during the tough times.

And, you know, whether that is being that person that a farmer or rancher can go to and feel like they've got a listening ear, that there's somebody that they can talk to who understands, who's nonjudgmental, who can just listen.

Because sometimes, you know, it's funny because when I think about, I come from a family of farmers.

When I think about my cousins and my aunts and uncles, they are problem solvers.

They are great at problem solving and they are very, very strong people.

And sometimes, that's not what they're asking you to do.

They're not asking you to problem solve.

They're asking to be heard, to feel like somebody sees them and recognizes what they're going through.

And so I think that is like having that sense of community.

One of the things that I have really envied to some degree is as part of our involvement with the Western Region Agricultural Stress Assistance Partnership, Washington State University does these fabulous Pizza for Producers events, which are community events that are all about giving back to the producers.

So they actually cook wood-fired pizza and have these community events where people can come and socialize and just show their support for agriculture.

And so I think that some of it is, is creating the kind of community culture where people feel like they can have these conversations, like, people care about them and see what they're going through.

- You know, Alison, I've spent a lot of hours, fun hours, giving talks to various producer groups around the state for many, many years.

And one of the, as rural communities get smaller, it's sometimes hard to find that community.

And I always find that the annual meetings or the quarterly meetings or whatever of producer associations, that sort of discussion and support and things like that, and you really see that.

So I would say another element would be make sure you're involved with something, maybe peripherally related of course to your farm or ranch, but that has a little broader context for it.

And I see a lot of people finding that sense of community with those producer organizations.

- Yep.

- Yeah, is there a strategy to deal with it?

So say I'm living in Outlook or Whitlash and you know, there's not a big community around me.

How do we, how does an ag producer, is there a different strategy that they need to take on to deal with stress or build community or know when and how to talk to producers when your next neighbor may be miles and miles away?

- Oh, man.

- [Carol] Well, great.

- I'm not having any specific strategies come to mind.

But I mean, so.

Come back to me.

Let me think on that one.

- Okay, I'll let you think about that one.

- I would say, I feel like the work that Extension has been doing since, you said you started in 2019- - Yep.

- I mean, I've been with Extension almost 18 years now and the first, how many you've been here seven years now- - Mm-hm.

- So the first 11 years, no one was talking about this.

Now we're at least talking.

I mean, I shouldn't say at least, but we're talking about it.

And to me, that seems like the foundation for building resilience- - Yep.

- Is like having- - Having conversation.

- An open discussion and conversations and you're building all these resources.

But even just recognizing that ag producers and ag workers, they're dealing with stress and depression just like everybody else in a community, I think that goes a long ways.

- Yep.

- [Carl] Thank you for calling Montana- - All right, thanks.

Gary, we had a couple questions come in for you.

"Why are cattle prices so high and are screwworms gonna make 'em go even higher?"

- [Carl] Yeah, I'm sorry to say that- - Well, cattle prices, for the listeners who aren't familiar with cattle prices, let me start by saying just a few years ago, if someone would've said, "We think we could someday get $2 a pound for calves," that was sort of the holy grail.

It's like, "Really?

You think that can happen?"

And now, futures markets for this fall delivery are showing $3.75 for calves.

Some of the lighter calves in Montana might get $4.

So we've gone from this $2 holy grail to something that's almost unimaginable.

And those prices, this has happened for There's always multiple causes.

Primarily, one of the main causes is that we've just got a much lower cattle inventory right now, and in fact, lowest in terms of cow numbers for about 70, since about 70 years ago.

(chuckles) So we have very... Now, that's a little misleading, because back in the 1970s, for example, a beef breeding cow would generate about 500 pounds on average of wholesale meat.

And today, last year, the numbers showed more like 850 pounds.

So you don't need as many animals anymore because of technological change and better nutrition and better management and better health outcomes for animals, better genetics, all those things.

Nonetheless, we do have a low cow herd and we do have less production, somewhat less production over the last couple of years.

And on the consumer side of things, of course, cattle and beef prices are related to one another very closely.

But on the consumer side, we can import more beef, and we have, and so we can meet that consumer demand.

But on the cattle side, packing plants need to run at capacity or near capacity in order to be profitable.

And so as those packing companies are animal units, they've had to compete against this smaller and smaller group, and that's why we've seen these cattle prices go as high as they have.

Now the second part of your question was, would, a screwworm is an insect, a parasite, that can cause animals to die or to not perform very well.

And so certainly, and it's something that appears to be coming from Mexico now, at least in the southern New Mexico, southern Texas.

Anytime there's a disease problem, you're further exacerbating the problem of not having enough supply and not having enough animals, and that could cause prices to go even higher.

Another element of cattle pricing as it is we've seen a huge increase, it doesn't sound huge, but at least a 1.5% increase in demand for beef over the last 10 years annually.

And so we've seen diets change, people's desire for more protein.

And this has affected both poultry and pork as well, but especially on the beef side, and that increase in demand by consumers.

And it's been caused by all sorts of things, diets being one of them, incomes, tourism has started to expand again.

And all those things have caused beef prices at the retail level to go up significantly over the last several years.

And don't forget inflation.

When we went through the COVID period and you take a 7% inflation rate and another 7% and they compound on each other, about 70% of the increase in beef prices has been because of inflation, increase in cost of people, increased cost of processing, increased transportation costs, all those sorts of things.

- Well thanks, that was a great answer.

So given the super El Niño people are forecasting for this year, which would bring the western United States into drought, we probably don't expect the cattle herd to increase at all over the next few years?

- That's another element.

We have low cattle numbers.

Why haven't they become higher?

Normally when you see high cattle prices, calf prices, profit, those interested in making profit, which is everybody, they find that, look, "If I have more animals to sell, I would make more money.

And that helps my stress level quite a bit."

And, but we haven't seen that, even with these very high prices.

And so, why?

Why is the change?

And primarily, it relates to what you mentioned.

If you don't have grass, it's very difficult to expand a beef cow herd.

They can be fed in confinement without being out on the range.

It's very expensive, very labor-intensive.

And as a result, we've just had so much drought in various places, generally across the West, but in specific regions, that people are just going, "I don't have the capacity."

And we have to remember that, as a society, we made some decisions about having fewer cattle on federal and state lands because of drought being part of it.

We want, lots of us want more open space and we want areas where, that cattle don't roam.

All those things have hurt this element of grazing.

And there's nothing negative about that.

It's just a fact that we don't have as much capacity for grazing anymore.

And until that changes some, it's gonna be hard.

Rain would help a lot.

(group laughs) It would help a lot and it would get people thinking forward about trying to expand herds.

But until that happens, we can import beef from other countries, and we do, to meet our demands.

But you can't really import cattle from anywhere 'cause the U.S.

and Canada, some in Mexico, not many, these are the only places that have the kind of cattle that we're gonna slaughter here.

You're not gonna import live cattle.

And so it's, until we get some grass growing, I don't see... There's every incentive to do it.

It just can't happen without better range conditions.

- All right, thanks.

Okay, we got a lot of calls that have come in.

Jane, here's one from you from Potomac.

I believe that's on the Blackfoot.

I think this caller called in a couple weeks ago too, maybe.

Has three acres of a particular plant with a bulb-type root.

He pulled one, and the root ball was 10 inches across.

- Whoa.

- And four inches deep.

How can he get rid of it on three acres?

- [Jane] Wow!

- We don't- - 10 inches, a bulb that's 10 inches across and- - [Tim] Root ball, I think we'll call it, with a bulb-type root, bulb-type root.

Yeah, - I- - [Tim] That was 10 inches across and four inches deep.

- Yeah, I- - [Tim] Send a sample to the Schutter Diagnostic Lab.

- Yeah, get a sample in.

Well I would, so Potomac I think is in Missoula County.

- [Tim] Yep.

- I would take a sample in to your local office in Missoula, and they have a plant clinic there and are really good with plant ID.

And if they can't tell him what it is, then they'll send it onto the Schutter Diagnostic Lab.

But being able to ID that plant before we start talking about any kind of management plan is really important.

- I'm so old it almost sounds like a Jerusalem artichoke.

You remember those sorts of things?

I mean- - Yeah.

- Is that- - Those are called artichokes.

In modern slang, they're called artichokes.

- Okay.

- Okay.

(group laughing) - I'm just- - Okay.

- Okay.

- Just participating.

- Yep.

We got a couple others, and we could talk about why that might be, but we have a lot of call, we have a lot of questions stacked up.

Caller from Fort Benton.

Caller has rolled out clay strips and incorporated polyacrylamide crystals into it with flower seeds, then rolled them up like cinnamon rolls and placed them on the area he planted.

Is he overthinking it, or do you think this will work?

- That seems really complicated to me.

I would say, I'm not sure why you would need the clay or the polyacrylamide crystals, specifically.

So I would say that might be, from my perspective, maybe a bit too much.

I think like the basics, like Jane was saying, is good contact for the seed to come into contact with the soil, you need good, sustained moisture for germination, and you need the right environmental conditions, depending on the plant you're dealing with.

But there's a lot of different tools or supplies that people will sell you that may have a minor benefit or may do something specific.

But for the most part, those basics are pretty much what you need for healthy germination of wildflowers and other plants as well.

- Sometimes those water-absorbing and can actually hold water so tightly that the seed and developing seedling can't get it.

So you gotta be careful with some of those water-absorbing - Mm-hm.

- 'Cause they can overcompete for the moisture with the developing seeds.

- Is there a lot of pelletilized wildflower seed out there?

Is that, and so that's like a clay silica sort of stuff that they pelletilize seeds sometimes with it.

Are there many wildflower seeds that are available pelletilized?

- I see more commercially available wildflower seeds coming in pelletized formation.

But for most people, I encourage those local sources and they don't have any sort of coatings or anything that's usually involved.

It's simply just the seeds themselves.

- All right.

Okay.

Another question for you, Abi.

Caller has an established raised vegetable bed for vegetables, established a new raised bed for vegetables and ants are becoming a problem.

How do you control or deal with the ants?

- Yeah, so usually when we see a lot of ants, that could indicate that it's pretty dry.

Ants like those drier conditions; they don't like a lot of moisture.

So maybe that means that you could, depending on what the composition of whatever you filled that raised bed in, you can add a few more materials to increase the water-holding capacity of that.

So you can add a little bit of compost and add a little bit more moisture, the ants will just shift out of there.

Ants aren't going to harm any plants.

They're not feeding on plants themselves.

So for that, I would say address the moisture issue, maybe do a nice thorough irrigating or soaking, and that should drive away the ants.

- When you have raised beds, I don't have, I've not been, I have never figured out how to garden with raised beds.

Do raised beds tend to dry out more quickly than soil otherwise?

How much more water do you have to put on a raised bed versus something in the ground?

- They do dry out more quickly.

So I would say, I don't know if there's an exact formula and it would depend on the composition.

So if you have a heavier clay soil that you filled into that raised bed, it can hold onto that moisture a little bit more.

But for the most part, I would say because they're more exposed, they're less insulated, they dry up faster, they warm up faster, and they also cool down faster, if we have those cooler or dropping temperatures in the fall or in the early spring.

So you do need to be a little bit more careful.

They're a little more protected than just planters or containers that are smaller.

But you do usually need to irrigate them more frequently to maintain that moisture.

- Okay, thanks.

Question for you, Alison.

- Mm-hm.

- "How do we reduce stress in daily life?"

This was another question that popped up.

And maybe that's in, you mentioned a little bit, exercise, routine.

What other ways are there to reduce stress in daily life?

Especially, yeah, in the day-to-day routine of cooking, cleaning, and doing all the things that we do in life?

- Oh, man.

Well, there's a whole wealth of tools I could recommend, but I think one of the most important is first figuring out is this something that I have any control over, right?

So you can think about it as sort of this different buckets of stressors that are within my control, stressors that are not within my control.

If they're within your control or parts of it are within your control, then you modify, you do what you can.

If they're not within your control, then really it's about managing your reaction or kind of your perception of the stressor.

Is now a good time for me to mention our Mental Wellness Conversation Curriculum?

- Yes.

Go for it.

- Because that is where like, if there are questions about how do we manage stressors and having those stress management tools in the toolbox, that's where I really want to emphasize that we have developed, actually, what we're calling a Mental Wellness Conversation Curriculum, which is, it's a standard deck of playing cards that we have organized around wellness themes.

And so within these themes, the idea is that there are different stress management strategies that you can try related to that theme.

And so we actually, on the website, in addition to like if you wanted to, you could get a deck of the cards, that you could email me or call me and request a deck of the cards.

We developed this video series that goes through each of the themes and has practical suggestions for how you can integrate this and directs you to different resources.

And so like things like everyday stressors, like, "What am I gonna cook for dinner?"

Well, we can direct people to some of our MSU Extension resources for recipe ideas and ensuring that you're having a balanced meal and things like that.

But you know, stress is just part of the human experience.

And so really, like what is within your control, what is not within your control, and then sort of like managing your reaction to the things that are not within your control.

Yeah.

- Thanks.

Okay.

Before we get too far and things get too far away from us here, wanted to mention a couple things.

One is the Field Days for the College of Agriculture, the Montana Ag Experiment Station, start up this Thursday.

The first one will be in Havre on the 17th at the Northern Ag Research Station.

I think we have a graphic somewhere that has a list of all those.

But they're gonna be going on all summer long all the way into August in Corvallis, Montana, and at the BART Farm here on campus, the Horticultural Farm.

We encourage everyone to attend, even if you're not involved in ag and are just curious about what happens at a Field Day and what happens at the Ag Experiment Stations, please attend.

It's not just for producers, it's not just for people involved in agriculture, but we want the whole community to come out, and it's always a great day in Havre.

It's always a fun day to see you.

- [Abi] They have great food!

- Great food.

- Everywhere, on all... They have ice cream at the Corvallis one.

So yeah, the Western Ag Research Center Field Day.

- Yep.

- I hope I see you there.

- Yep, Jack was voting his best meals of the Field Days last week.

(laughs) But it's great to get out there and talk to all the people involved in Montana's agricultural research And then I'll also mention MONTANA.EDU/EXTENSION.

We have the Ag Profitability Podcast that's up there.

We have a bunch of different topics dealing with new soil nutrition, inputs, things like that, how to become more profitable.

Weed management was one that Jane and I recorded, talking about profitability.

So those are available on wherever you listen to your podcasts, I believe.

And you can certainly find 'em at MONTANA.EDU/EXTENSION.

Okay.

Thanks for all of those answers, Alison.

And then, so I have a couple, there's a couple more questions that came in for you, and then we'll come back.

Is therapy or widely available in Eastern or rural Montana, and how does someone, if they feel like they want to talk or if they want to maybe engage in some therapy, is that something that can happen in east, And how does that, is there resources available for people to look into that?

- Well, I would say first, it depends on are they looking for in-person services or are they comfortable with telehealth services?

Because I know, there are certainly a lot of communities in which in-person services do not exist or there would be a very long wait list.

However, if this is somebody who is a farmer, a rancher, an ag worker, a family member of anybody involved in ag, here in Montana, we have, we are very fortunate in that Frontier Psychiatry actually provides free telehealth therapy services for anybody involved in agriculture.

And that program is, it was previously funded through a USDA grant to the Montana Department of Agriculture.

But my understanding is now, that program continues with support from Arthur M. Blank, the AMB West Foundation.

And so that is, if you go to the Frontier Psychiatry website, Beyond The Weather is the name of of that program, and has been supported also by Northern Ag Broadcasting Network.

And yeah, so they specialize in providing telehealth services to rural Montana.

So I would recommend reaching out to Frontier Psychiatry to explore those options.

- Yeah, I have seen the Northern Ag Network talking about Beyond The Weather- - Beyond The Weather, yep.

- In their discussions, and I think those are really important, as Jane mentioned, getting, talking about things beyond the daily- - Beyond The Weather.

- Beyond The Weather, okay.

Here comes some questions, Jane.

Hopefully they're not beyond the weeds.

Okay.

- [Jane] Shoot.

- So near Judith Gap, producer has a lot of henbane around their homestead.

How can they control it?

- [Jane] Yeah, so probably black henbane.

- Yep.

- Yeah, there's quite a few options for black henbane.

It's a really strong taprooted species.

So, I mean, depending how much you have, you can actually dig that plant up and pop it out of the ground.

It is toxic, so it would be a species, if you ingest it, it's toxic.

So you would want to make sure you're handling those plants well.

You could do something even like mowing, especially about the time the plant starts flowering but before it would be producing seeds, you could mow it.

There are also herbicides that you could use to treat black henbane.

I think usually products containing Metsulfuron or Chlorsulfuron would work on henbane, if I remember correctly.

I think the trick with treating it with a herbicide, you would want to be treating it before it's bolting.

We say bolting, that's when a plant grows upward.

You want to hit those rosettes.

So we're probably getting a little late for black henbane.

I saw henbane just kind of starting to flower last week in Madison County.

So lots of options.

- Can goats eat it?

- Can goats eat it?

- [Tim] Nope.

It's toxic.

- I don't think so.

- [Tim] Toxic to all livestock.

- It's a fairly, one of those, like, this is definitely toxic plant.

- [Tim] But animals also tend to avoid it.

- Yeah, it's bitter- - Because it has, yeah, it has such a horrible taste to it.

- It's something that plants usually want, or animals want to eat.

- Oh, okay.

- Thankfully.

That's a good thing.

- Good, yeah.

Good that they avoid it.

- Should we hand Jane?

Well, we'll come, we'll give Jane a break and we'll come back to her in a second.

Okay.

Caller has, this is from Bozeman, 5-year-old elm and a Princess Kay Plum, bet that plum's not making any fruit this year, covered in aphids.

How can she control the aphids?

- Yeah, so a couple of strategies for aphids.

One thing, aphids are very sensitive.

They're really squishy.

They don't handle very much external stressor really well.

So if you take a strong stream of water and hose them off, and you can do that repeatedly, you can do that every few days or every week and just knock most of them off, that'll significantly knock down the population of aphids.

They also like the really tender new succulent growth.

So avoiding over-fertilizing or cutting back on your fertilizer use can reduce aphid issues.

And if you've tried these other strategies and if hosing them off with water is not working as well, there are a lot of products labeled for aphids.

But some of the ones that are gonna be, have lower residual activity, can be things like your insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils.

But the thing with aphids is that they are often well-protected in a plant.

So if there's a lot of feeding damage, those leaves will curl and they'll be hiding on the underside.

And a lot of these products are contact insecticides, which means that they need to come into direct contact with the aphid itself.

So you need to make sure you're getting really good coverage if you are using one of these contact insecticide products.

And if the plant is really tall, you may consider reaching out to a certified arborist who can get to those aphids better.

But that water strategy, especially if you stay on top of it, works pretty well.

- Is all that true for aspen tree, in addition to all the other problems I've got with aspen trees that I planted myself, is this the same issue with, the whole story?

- Yeah, the same thing would apply for any aphids on woody ornamentals in general.

- Yes, another thing I've learned.

- But remember, Gary, aspens are kind of like weeds.

You let them grow for 10 years and then you cut 'em down.

- I know.

- And then a new one will grow up behind it after that.

- I know.

In my next life, I'll do things differently.

(group laughing) - Okay, so Jane, before we get too far away, we just have a few minutes left.

Tell us about your show-and-tell that you have in front of us here.

- Yeah, I brought a spotted knapweed with me.

So this is a Montana noxious weed.

It's probably one of our most widely distributed plants.

I think there's like 2 million acres of spotted knapweed in Montana.

This is what it looks like right now.

It's, we call it bolting.

in about a month, it'll start flowering with purple flowers, and I think we have it there, we have an image of that.

Most people in Montana know what spotted knapweed is because it is so common.

It's kind of like our poster child noxious weed.

The reason I wanted to bring this tonight is because I wanted to talk a little bit about management.

It has been in Montana a long time.

We've done a lot of research on spotted knapweed and there's a lot of different tools for managing it, including things like mechanical control.

Like, when this starts to flower, you can mow it.

One of the tools that has been, a lot of people use, is biocontrol.

There's a lot of different insects available that attack only spotted knapweed.

And a friend of Jack's actually shared some photos with him.

This is the Cyphocleonus achates larvae.

This larvae overwinters in the roots of spotted knapweed, and it burrows into the roots and eats out the roots and it actually, here's a nice photo.

You can see those larvae, they're like white grubs with brown heads.

They root into that, or they tunnel into those roots and they really decrease the competitiveness of spotted knapweed.

So they don't usually kill spotted knapweed, but they will stunt the plant and just overall decrease its competitive ability so that other species might be able to live with spotted knapweed around.

In about a month, the adult weevils will be showing up on spotted knapweed.

They're a fairly large kind of pale brown bug.

They're like, they're one of like, even I can see this bug.

(group laughs) The Cypho weevil, it's almost like a half-inch long.

There's a photo of it.

And they'll be climbing up onto the tops of the plants, so be looking for those.

They're one of the most effective biocontrols we have for spotted knapweed.

They don't fly very well.

So they are well-established across the state and they do best at elevations of 5,500 feet or less.

But if you, they don't move on their own very well.

So it is one of the insects that is worth collecting and moving to new infestations, 'cause they don't move around well on their own.

So.

- Okay.

- That's why I wanted to bring this show-and-tell today.

- Can people get these from somewhere?

- They can.

So the state has a Biocontrol Coordination Project.

It's run out of Missoula County.

And they will help, they'll hold collection days where people can come collect insects and then take them home with them and release them on their own.

They will also collect insects and get them to Extension offices or So there's that way of obtaining insects.

You can also purchase Cyphocleonus achates weevils, or the spotted knapweed root weevil, if you don't want to try to remember that big, long, scientific name.

There are commercial suppliers, and you'll pay about, I think it's about a buck an insect, and you typically release like 50 to 100 of them at a time.

You want to use these biocontrols in places where you have at least an acre of spotted knapweed.

Five acres is better 'cause the insects need plants to live on, so.

- Yep.

All right.

Thanks, Jane.

That sounds- - Yeah, you're welcome.

- I might have to get into the Cyphocleonus business.

That sounds pretty good.

(group laughs) Okay, we're getting close to time here today.

Thank you guys for all your great calls.

I don't think we'll be able to get to all the questions we have stacked up in here, but we'll keep working through 'em.

Question for you, Gary, regarding pasture rental prices and considering the price of beef, what's going on for the rates of pasture rentals?

Has it been going up, and what's a good rate to charge?

- I don't know what the rates are today, but certainly, we've had a reduction in the supply of pasture.

We just don't have as much grass around.

So when we reduce supply and people would like to expand, those rates are gonna start increasing, if they haven't increased already.

So I don't know what the right, the number is today, but certainly there's upward pressure on those rates for both those reasons.

And again, rain would help lower them.

- [Tim] Yeah.

- Which would help the beef industry a lot.

- Okay.

And another quick follow-up.

"Why do we import beef in Montana?"

This was a question that came in, or, "Why do we import beef into the United States?"

- Well, we both import and export, but we import and export different things.

We export about 15% of our total supply of beef.

We import about 15% and we export about And the reason is is that we import and export different things.

We export things like inedible and edible offal, and hides as well, the byproduct of processing.

And we also export high-quality cuts, table cuts of steaks and roasts.

What we import is generally ground beef.

Because out of our grain finished system, which produce very highly, good marbled beef, very tender beef, we often end up with half of an animal is always gonna be ground beef, and that half the animal is very often 50 or 60% fat.

In other words, you simply can't eat it because it needs to be leaned down.

We lean that down using cull cows and bulls, that is, animals that are no longer useful for breeding purposes, but we don't have enough.

And so we import a lot of trimmings, or other ground beef, essentially, from grass finished areas, primarily Australia, New Zealand, some from Brazil.

And so we import and export different things to keep the system working so that we end up with beef that is 80/20, 90/10, that many people want.

That's not possible on a large scale out of our current system.

On the other hand, while we import more beef in volume than we export, we actually historically have exported more value than we've imported, because we're exporting this higher-value products.

And the last thing is when we say "we," you know, the U.S., and "we are doing."

It isn't the U.S.

And it's easy, it's convenient to talk about the U.S.

importing and exporting.

But it's hundreds of companies that make decisions about where they're gonna source beef, where they're gonna sell beef.

And so it's convenient to talk about the U.S.

importing/exporting, but that isn't the case at all.

It's like hundreds, if not thousands of companies making these decisions.

So the the bottom line is we import and export different things.

The one exception being beef that comes out of Canada is very similar to our own grain finished animals here.

But in general, we just don't have enough lean trimmings to make our hamburger palatable.

And that's the importance of having those imports.

- All right, thanks.

That was very informative.

So we just have a couple minutes left.

Alison, do you want to add anything more about mental health and ag production and ag communities across Montana?

- Yeah, I do want to add that if you are ever concerned about someone, if they are showing signs or symptoms that they might be in a mental health crisis, I would really strongly encourage them to reach out to the AgriStress Helpline, which is operated by the AgriSafe Network, and they are trained crisis responders.

And if not that, there's always 988, which is the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

- All right.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Alison, for joining us tonight to talk about mental health in our ag communities out there.

And here's to hoping to we build strong mental health in our ag communities.

Jack will be back next week and hosting, and thank you to the panel tonight.

And I was remiss, I wanted to say to Carl and to Carol, thank you for answering the phones and being busy tonight.

Thank you all for tuning in and we'll see you next week.

- [Announcer 2] For more information and resources, visit MONTANAPBS.ORG/AGLIVE.

(upbeat guitar music) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer 1] "Montana AG Live" is made possible by: The Montana Department of Agriculture, MSU Extension, The MSU Ag Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture, The Montana Wheat & Barley Committee, Cashman Nursery & Landscaping, The Gallatin Gardeners Club, and The Montana Federation of Garden Clubs.

(PBS theme music)