We are…
TRUSTWORTHY.
FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED.
HUMANE.
ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE.
EFFICIENT.
ECONOMIC DRIVERS.
TRUSTWORTHY. FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED. HUMANE. ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE. EFFICIENT. ECONOMIC DRIVERS.
TRUSTWORTHY
The food we produce is the same food we feed our own children, spouses, grandparents, and friends – it’s safe, healthy, wholesome, and tasty!
Food production is highly REGULATED to ensure SAFETY, starting from the FARM or RANCH, all the way through to the GROCERY STORE, federal agencies inspect livestock, food products, processing establishments and more to verify the use of safe standards:
U.S. Department of Agriculture - oversees Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) tasked with “ensuring the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.”
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - oversees Food and Drug Administration (FDA) focused on the safety of fresh and processed food products.
PREFER TO SKIP THE GROCERY STORE?
About 8% of U.S. farms market food locally through direct-to-consumer sales.
Family Owned
and Operated
It’s not just our business, it’s our livelihood and we enjoy putting our heart and soul into our land and animals, preserving both for future generations to steward.
86% of U.S. agricultural products are produced on FAMILY FARMS or RANCHES.
2 MILLION farms dot America’s rural landscape, and 98% are operated by FAMILIES, individuals, family partnerships or family corporations
HUMANE
Our animals’ health and happiness is of utmost priority not only to support their production but because we care for their wellbeing like our own.
ANIMAL CARE GUIDELINES are outlined for each food-producing species by PROFESSIONALS within that community.
Read more about the guidelines for raising animals in a healthy and humane way for beef, dairy, veal, chicken, turkey, eggs, sheep, and pork production
BY CLICKING THE BUTTON BELOW.
Environmentally
SUSTAINABLE
Farmers and ranchers are the original environmentalists – without healthy range, wide open space, clean air, and fresh water farms and ranches wouldn’t even exist, nor would the lifestyle agriculturists choose and love to live.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the AGRICULTURE industry accounts for 9% of TOTAL U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Let’s compare:
transportation accounts for 28%
electricity generation accounts for 28%
cattle, including emissions from the feed production, fuel, and electricity, only account for 3.7%
The U.S. has the LOWEST emission intensity PER POUND OF BEEF produced, and has been the world leader in this since 1996.
WHAT ABOUT THE LAND?
More than half of America’s farmers intentionally provide HABITAT for WILDLIFE. Deer, moose, birds and other species have shown significant population increases for decades.
Careful STEWARDSHIP by America’s food producers has spurred a 34% decline in erosion of cropland by wind and water since 1982.
EFFICIENT
Farmers and ranchers are tasked with doing more with less, not only to meet the global demand for food, but also to decrease their environmental impact and continue operating on increasingly thin margins.
The global population is expected to increase by 2.2 BILLION by 2050, which means the world’s farmers will have to grow about 70% more food than what is now produced.
Today, ONE U.S. FARM feeds 166 people annually in the U.S. and abroad.
After accounting for input costs, farmers and ranchers receive only 8 cents out of every dollar spent on food at home and away from home.
AGRICULTURALISTS are doing MORE with LESS.
TOTAL U.S. CORN yield (tons per acre) has INCREASED more than 360% since 1950.
The pounds of FEED (grain, forage, etc.) a dairy cow needs to eat to produce 100 pounds of MILK has DECREASED by more than 40% on average in the last 40 years.
The U.S. produces 18% of the WORLD’S BEEF with only 6% of the WORLD’S CATTLE.
Economic
drivers
Farm and ranch families are the glue that binds many rural communities and small towns together through the support of other businesses, participation in local activities and organizations, and more.
1 out of every 6 Montana workers is employed in an AG-RELATED field.
CATTLE and WHEAT remain Montana’s largest commodities, and together account for three-fourths of the state’s agricultural cash receipts.
Livestock genetics from Montana’s well respected beef herds are sold to ranches as far away as RUSSIA and ARGENTINA.
As much as 80% of Montana’s high-quality GRAIN for BAKING is sold from West Coast ports to buyers in Asia and the Middle East.
Montana ranks FIRST IN THE NATION in production of LENTILS and CERTIFIED ORGANIC WHEAT, and ranks second or third (depending on the year) in spring wheat, durum wheat, barley, flaxseed and safflower.
Montana also ranks within the TOP 10 STATES in production of honey, beef calves, winter wheat, alfalfa hay, garbanzo beans, sheep and lambs, wool and sugar beets.
Learn more about the impact of agriculture on Montana’s economy and how the state ranks nationwide by clicking the button below.