Montana
Montana ranchers urge for state help following Remington fire damage
BROADUS — Gov. Greg Gianforte held a roundtable on Thursday with local officials to discuss fire-relief steps.
In attendance at the Broadus Community Center were several federal and county officials, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), the Montana Stockgrowers Association, and tribal representatives to present fire information and resources to the governor.
Raylee Honeycutt is the executive vice president of the stockgrowers association and was one of the speakers at the table.
Justin McKinsey/MTN News
“(Gianforte) is great at showing up and really being a listening ear and trying to find solutions for those local needs,” said Honeycutt. “I’m excited to be a part of the conversation and be able to offer solutions and work with the governor hand in hand on supporting locals.”
She and the other attendees hoped to provide as many places for affected ranchers to find help. Money has been raised to assist them, but they now need a place to go.
“The key takeaway from this meeting was to kind of have a one-stop shop for people affected to go to and find resources,” said Honeycutt. “Over the next couple days, we’ll be building out our website and providing those resources available for everybody to kind of connect to federal agencies, local partners, local agencies as well to help them recover as quickly as possible.”
Honeycutt encourages all who were affected to report their losses in livestock, hay, and land. The numbers reported will also assist in determining if a disaster declaration would be filled, something the officials asked for assistance with from Gianforte. Justin McKinsey/MTN News
Also in attendance were ranchers that were affected by the devastating Remington Fire. While the fire is at 88% containment, the damages have been severe.
“The fire pretty much got it all. Right now we’re at 105 miles of fence that’s burned up,” said rancher Jae Notti, who attended the roundtable. “We lost our shop, 40 by 60 shop. Everything. Had 39 years of my tools and pieces and parts.”
Notti said he was glad he attended Thursday’s meeting as the help will be much needed in the long recovery.
“That’s going to be a long-term fix and a major expense. We usually take care of ourselves, but this is a big one. I wanted to learn more about the fences and actually thank some of these guys that have been in on this and coordinated it,” said Notti.
Gianforte made sure to highlight the community effort from all parties that helped stop the fire.
“We have a whole lot of people step up, a lot of hay, fencing stuff. It’s amazing,” said Notti.
The links below have several relief, recovery, and support resources:
Farm Service Agency Disaster Assistance Programs
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Montana Department of Natural Resources
MSA Wildfire Relief Fund
HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.
“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.
It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)
Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026
“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”
But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.
“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.
Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.
“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.
The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.
“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.
While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.
Montana
Frontier Conference women: MSU-Northern, Montana Western pull upsets to advance to semifinal round
BUTTE — MSU-Northern and Montana Western pulled a pair of upsets Saturday at the Butte Civic Center to wrap up the quarterfinal round of the Frontier Conference women’s basketball postseason tournament.
The fifth-seeded Skylights started the day with a red-hot shooting performance to down No. 4 Rocky Mountain College 82-74. Western, the sixth seed, used a third-quarter surge to defeat No. 3 Carroll College 65-56.
MSU-Northern (17-11) and Western (14-13) now advance to Sunday’s semifinal round, where the Skylights will play No. 1 seed Dakota State at noon and the Bulldogs will face No. 2 Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m.
MSU-Northern 82, Rocky Mountain College 74
MSU-Northern sizzled in the first quarter, making seven 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead, and put together a crucial third-quarter run to get past Rocky and advance to the semifinal round.
Becky Melcher splashed four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and Taya Trottier, Canzas HisBadHorse and Shania Moananu added one apiece as the Skylights built a 29-13 lead. Melcher scored 14 first-quarter points and finished with a game-high 30 on 10-of-19 shooting (7 of 15 from 3-point range). She added 11 rebounds, a blocked shot and three steals to her stat line.
Rocky battled back to tie the game at 36-36 in the second quarter on a Brenna Linse basket, but MSUN responded with consecutive triples from Trottier and Melcher and took a 44-38 lead into halftime. The Bears eventually stole the lead back in the third quarter following a 9-0 run capped be an Isabelle Heggem bucket.
But the Skylights again answered — this time with a 13-2 run to take a 60-51 lead. MSUN led 66-59 going to the fourth and wouldn’t trail the rest of the way. The Skylights trailed for less than two total minutes of the game.
As a team, MSUN made 14 of 26 3s in the game. Ciera Agasiva was 3 for 3 from behind the arc, and Trottier was 2 for 3. Trottier had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Agasiva had 13 points.
Paige Wasson led Rocky (20-9) with 29 points but was 0 for 10 on 3-point attempts. Heggem had a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds.
Montana Western 65, Carroll 56
After neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Western broke open a 25-25 tie game by outscoring Carroll 20-9 in the third quarter.
Bailee Sayler scored 10 points in the quarter, including making two 3-pointers, to help the Bulldogs take control. They led 45-34 going to the fourth, and Carroll wouldn’t get closer than six points the rest of the way.
The Fighting Saints were just 18-of-65 shooting (27.7%) for the game.
Sayler scored an efficient 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting. She was 2 for 3 from 3-point range and 6 for 7 at the free throw line. The Missoula native also had nine rebounds.
Isabella Lund added 16 points for the Bulldogs, and Keke Davis had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Carroll (19-10) was led by Kenzie Allen with 12 points. Willa Albrecht and Meagan Karstetter scored 11 points apiece for the Saints.
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