The agriculture industry is facing acute challenges: high input costs, tariffs, and a lack of federal support. The state faces limitations as it tries to help. MTPR’s Victoria Traxler spoke with Montana Department of Agriculture Director Jillien Streit to learn more.
Montana Department of Agriculture Director Jillien Streit stepped into her role in January. Since then, a number of federal policy changes have increased strain on the agriculture industry.
Streit says the state is limited mostly by its $22 million budget.
"Montana Department of Ag doesn't have the ability to just change and do something different overnight," she says."We have to do it legislatively. And so it takes time, it takes effort, it takes thought process."
Tariffs and federal trade policy have negatively impacted markets for important state agricultural exports like wheat and beef. Streit recently returned from trade missions to countries in southeast Asia and South America in an effort to promote Montana products.
"Even though we might have some tensions and there might be trade barriers that we run into – business to business, and Montana to these nations – our relationship still really matters," Streit says.
Another major challenge for producers is the partial closure of local U.S. Department of Agriculture offices that run important federal farm and ranch programs. Streit says the understaffing of these offices is “unacceptable.”
The state can’t do much about federal funding delays. But Streit says the state has programs that can help.
"I feel like the state here has, we do have some amounts of funds that we can work with producers with. That being said, it's not a lot."
There’s the state’s Beginning Farm and Ranch program or small Rural Assistance loans that can help with cash flow.
Streit understands the challenges producers face firsthand. She and her family farm on the Hi-Line and have made tough decisions. But she believes that resilience lies in adaptability today.
"You're going to have to do something different," she says. "You can't just keep doing the same thing. And then at the department now in having this role, is 'how can the department help more?'"
Streit says she’ll begin meeting monthly with the USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins starting in November.
