Farm and Ranch Tours Ignite an Interest in Local Agriculture

Published: 2022
By Wendy Carr

Sanders County MSU Extension offered a series of Farm and Ranch Tours in conjunction with local producers this summer and fall. The tour season started at a newly developed lavender farm where participants made their own teas to help with health and well-being, learned about growing mushrooms in buckets, and toured beautiful lavender fields. Our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) gave us a tour of several greenhouses and taught us about irrigation systems, new and improved gardening tools, how to set up a greenhouse, and starting seeds. Other educational tours included a shrimp farm, blueberry farm, fruit orchard, large gardens, regenerative organic farm, and Mangalitsa Heritage pig farm. The end of summer brought a beautiful day tour of three local vineyards and a winery, a unique experience of seeing and tasting Montana grapes and wine. The highlight of the tour season included two historic horseback tours of local cattle ranches. Participants stepped back in time to learn the history of the ancestors of county MSU Extension Agent Wendy Carr. Riders explored still-standing homesteads, a one-room schoolhouse, and post office remains as they learned the history of actual people who made a go of homesteading the area or who couldn’t, and left. The second horseback tour included a ride on the Whiskey Trail where bootleggers transported and delivered moonshine during prohibition. Riders roamed where the buffalo roamed when gathered up by local cowboys. Tour attendees explored the deep history of two ranches on the Flathead Indian Reservation while also learning about the cattle and crops the ranches currently raise.