Rural communities are big beneficiaries from the COVID-19 relief bill Congress passed on in March. The $1.9 trillion bill has some wellknown provisions, such as $1,400 stimulus checks, but also includes billions of dollars in relief for rural and farming communities across the country. Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union, said farmers and rural towns didn’t seem to get

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will conduct its biannual Agricultural Labor Survey during the second half of April. The survey will collect information about hired labor from more than 3500 farmers and ranchers in the Mountain Region states of Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. “The beginning of the year is the time when

Montana oilseed growers will soon receive a ballot in the mail proposing a 0.5 percent checkoff for canola, camelina, flaxseed, mustard, safflower, soybeans and sunflower crops. If passed, the Montana Oilseed Advisory Committee will advise the Montana Department of Agriculture (MDA) on how to invest the funds for research, market development and education. “Checkoff programs have a long history

The USDA Mountain Regional Field Office has released the following information regarding farms and land in farms from the region at the end of 2020. Arizona: The number of farms and ranches in Arizona in 2020 totaled 19,000, unchanged from the 2019 estimate. Total land in farms in Arizona, at 26.2 million acres, was unchanged from the 2019 estimate. The average size of farm was 1,379 acres, compared

In recent years, many parts of Montana have had to deal with drought and other environmental conditions that create lower quality forage production. Many producers are forced to buy whatever forage they can acquire, which sometimes means lower quality. So what can be done to still meet livestock needs? The first thing that is critical in creating an adequately balanced ration is to get a forage

Pasture and grazing management is an integral part of land stewardship for landowners with livestock, whether the property is big or small. Understanding how plants and animals interact in grazing systems is a critical component of sustainable land management and using a combination of native pastures and introduced forages can be beneficial to both the plants and animals across the landscape.