Montana Agritourism

Published: 2022
By Kim Woodring

Toole County MSU Extension Agent Kim Woodring recently finished her master’s degree in Agriculture Education. Her degree focus was on Agritourism in Montana. She hosted a four-part webinar series that included an introduction to agritourism, business management, resources available, and business marketing. The speakers were all local Montana experts in agritourism, and many had their own operations. The webinar series invited participants from many organizations and anyone interested. There were 35 to 57 participants during the series. As part of the webinar, each attendee was surveyed to record their awareness of agritourism before and after the workshop. This information helped to determine that the series successfully increased the audience’s awareness. Woodring presented her professional paper at the Association of American Agriculture Educators Western Region Conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico to fellow agriculture Education Graduate Students. She has presented her findings about agritourism at the Montana Cut Flower Association’s inaugural meeting in Helena and the MSU Extension Annual Conference in Bozeman. She has also been a member of the Montana Agritourism Steering Committee since its inception. She works with Shannon Arnold, MSU Ag and Technology Education professor, on the Montana Agritourism Fellowship Program. With the program, a group of fellows will travel to different locations in Montana to learn about various practices. The Montana Agritourism Fellows program aims to create a statewide agritourism association.