Jess Alger, Alger Ranch

Jess grew up on a family Ranch North of Stanford.

He graduated MSU Bozeman with a B.S. Degree in Animal Science in 1971.

Jess artificially inseminated the cows for a few years. He tried his hand at team roping with a one-eyed team roping horse. The crops he grew in those years were: alfalfa, barley, winter wheat and sweet clover for hay.

In 1981 due to his dad’s health problems the folks sold him the ranch.

In 1996 Jess bought a 100-foot sprayer and started custom spraying for neighbors. It seemed to him that the more chemicals they wanted added to the mix, the more weeds they had. It was the same on his place—the more chemicals he used, the more weeds he had.

In 2000 Jess began the process of organic certification and was fully certified by 2004.  In 2006 he did everything right to get the cows certified organic except the mineral and salt. Yellow food coloring and non-organic filler were not approved. In 2007 he used Redmond Salt #4 and New Life Mineral and was approved for full organic certification.

He rotates his cattle through 39 pastures over the course of a year. This current year (2022) he grew: Kamut, emmer, winter wheat, peas, Kernza, and cover crops for the cattle. He planted Rye for fall and spring grazing. He has red Angus cow-calf pairs and after he weans the calves, he keeps them for 18 months to two years. He has been selling them to Panorama Meats in Brush, CO, and Montana Premium Processing Co-op will be butchering the beef by middle of November this year. He also will sell some of his beef locally.

Anna and Doug Crabtree, Vilicus Farms

Anna and her husband Doug own and manage Vilicus Farms, a first generation, organic, 12,508-acre dryland crop farm in Northern Hill County, Montana growing a diverse array of organic heirloom and specialty grain, pulse, oilseed, and broadleaf crops under five and seven-year rotations. In fourteen seasons, Vilicus Farms grew from 1,280 acres to be a nationally recognized farm by using USDA’s beginning farmer programs, employing extensive conservation practices, and fostering unique risk sharing relationships with food companies and land investment firms. Over 26% of their land is in non-crop conservation and 400 acres seeded to native pollinator habitat. Annually they seed over 3,000 acres of cover crops and use integrated grazing. Vilicus Farms became Bee Better certified in 2019, Real Organic Project Certified in 2019 and has been transitioning towards Demeter Biodynamic certification.

Vilicus Farms offers the only structured organic grain farming apprenticeship in the U.S. with the vision of incubating new organic agricultural enterprises. They have hosted 14 apprentices, many interns and more farm campers than can be counted. Three new agrarian enterprises are under incubation at Vilicus Farms: a grazing operation integrated into the cropping system, an organic seed production operation, and a value-added rye enterprise.

Vilicus Training Institute (VTI) launched in 2015 to inspire increased scope and scale of organic land management across the Northern Great Plains. VTI is a not-for-profit learning laboratory that cultivates collaborations enabling both new organic land stewards and the circumstances that support their prosperous stability. VTI is a founding board member of the Montana Agrarian Commons. Projects include mapping risk/reward sharing mechanisms so they can be equitably aligned in the organic crop supply chains, documenting pathways for incubation of new at scale agrarian enterprises, developing organic grain farming apprenticeship curriculum and implementing associative economy principles to enable farm viability.

Anna is a Donella Meadows Leadership Fellow and a recipient of the White House Greening Government Sustainability Hero Award. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a minor in Sustainable Systems from Georgia Institute of Technology. Anna served on the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Council on Beginning Farmers & Ranchers. She currently serves on the Xerces Society Bee Better Advisory Board, Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT’s Board of Directors, and the Biodynamic Alliance’s Economy Advisory Board. Given the realities of farming, Anna still has an off-farm job with the USDA Forest Service. After several decades fostering more sustainable operations she is now currently serving as the Director for Data Governance for the Northern Region.

Doug serves as Board Member of the Organic Trade Association and the past Board Chair of the Montana Organic Association. He also manages crop contracts for the Montana Organic Producers Cooperative.  Prior to launching the farm Doug managed the State of Montana’s Organic Certification Program. He has worked as an organic inspector, agricultural researcher and farm manager. Doug holds a B.S. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and a M.S. Agronomy from South Dakota State University.

Anna, Doug, and their three Jack Russell Terriers, are avid members of the Lentil Underground (http://lentilunderground.com/).

Wendy Paulsen, MCIA

Wendy Paulsen has been a Staff Certification Specialist/Inspector at the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association (MCIA) for more than seven years. She works on all aspects of certification, from talking to new clients to issuing certificates, and works in all scopes of certification including crops, livestock, and processing. She coordinates and provides annual training for MCIA inspectors. Prior to this, she was an independent contract inspector for 10 years, working for a variety of certifiers across the Midwest and over to Montana. She has also served as a group field trip leader in IOIA inspector training courses. She keeps busy by expanding her garden and orchard every year and is now eating her last fresh apples from a great 2022 harvest!

Jeff Schahczenski, NCAT

Jeff Schahczenski is an Agricultural and Natural Resource Economist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology. His work includes publication of studies and education on crop insurance, conservation, national agriculture public policy, transgenics (genetically modified organisms), blockchain agriculture supply-chain management, soil health, biochar, and the role of agriculture in climate disruption. He was a past elected member of the Organizational Council of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Executive Director of the Big Hole River Foundation, and the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (WSAWG). He also has served as an adjunct instructor at Montana Technological University, Montana Western University, and the University of Montana.

Jeff has built his own straw bale house and greenhouse. He raises poultry and has been a commercial beekeeper. Before moving to Montana in 1991, Jeff worked for Rutgers University, started one of the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms in New Jersey, received graduate degrees in agricultural economics and political science, served in the Peace Corps in Belize, Central America, and worked many summers on his grandfather’s dairy farm in Wisconsin.

In 2021, Jeff wrote two funded proposals valued at $2.7 million. These two regional projects include this project with beginning farmers and ranchers in the northern Great Plains (MT, NE, ND, SD, and WY) on transitioning to organic grain farming. Jeff also is co-director of a project led by Montana State University working with the Southwest and Northern plains USDA Climate Hubs focused on issues of climate disruption and crop insurance.