Blaine County

Published: 2020
By Julianne Snedigar

Blaine County is located in North Central Montana. The Missouri River is the southern boundary and the Canadian border provides the northern boundary. Agriculture is the backbone of Blaine County, with cattle and wheat as the primary enterprises. Blaine County produces over 5.7 million bushels of wheat each year from 190,000 planted acres. There are 45,000 mother cows in the county supported by an irrigated hay base of over 60,000 acres located along the Milk River, enhanced by irrigation supplied by the Corps of Engineers St. Mary’s diversion project. Population in Blaine County stands at just over 6,800 people with approximately half residing on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Blaine County MSU Extension serves the community through a variety of programming carried out by two full-time Extension Agents, a part time SNAP-Ed paraprofessional, and a full-time administrative / 4-H program assistant. Programming is concentrated in the areas of 4-H Youth Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Family Consumer Sciences. The MSU Extension program is supported through an annual county budget which includes a portion of the agent’s salary along with MSU's direct support of the agent’s salary. MSU also supports the program indirectly and the county benefits with returned services for every dollar invested. This is truly a partnership between MSU and Blaine County that provides citizens access to high quality education and knowledge from the state’s land-grant university system.