| HELENA Montanas agricultural research centers are in
need of long-term capital improvements and a Huntley lawmaker is asking
the Legislature to appropriate $6.2 million for new construction and
renovation.
Weve taken the best care possible, but the age of the buildings
is not designed for current research, said Ken Kephart, superintendent
of the Southern Agricultural Research Center at Huntley. The irrigated
agriculture research site is one of 12 across the state that make up the
Agricultural Experiment Station based at Montana State University in
Bozeman.
Funding for the station and its satellites is normally part of the
University System budgeting process. However, Rep. Monica Lindeen,
D-Huntley, is asking the Legislature to approve a list of priority
spending that is specifically dedicated for projects at each of the 12
sites. The projects were drawn up with the assistance of an architect from
MSU-Bozeman and local farmer advisory groups.
This is not a capricious list, Kephart said. It is based on
real needs for the facilities and for the mission of the centers.
The request for the Huntley center is $1.4 million with major
expenditures for a new office/lab building at $600,000 and a machine shed
for $450,000.
The Huntley diversion dam, constructed in the first decade of the 20th
century by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, gave rise to irrigated
agriculture along the Yellowstone River that has thrived for almost 100
years. Cash crops of sugar beets, malt barley and corn provide a strong
economic base for Yellowstone and surrounding counties.
The list represents the greatest needs, said Kephart. Huntley was given
priority status over the other 11 sites. The center at Moccasin, near
Lewistown, is second with a funding request of $367,000. Centers at Havre
($1.2 million) and at Sidney ($1.7 million) are next.
Kephart said the U.S. Department of Agriculture first built the Huntley
facilities in the 1920s-30s. Sometime in the 1950s, the center was
turned over to the state.
Maintenance is costly, said Kephart, and continues to spiral.
The Huntley center was closed in the early 1990s for lack of funding
for all the Experiment Station units. Funding was restored by the 1997
Legislature and Kephart reopened the station in February 1998. He removed
several of the dilapidated structures and consolidated the operation. At
present, the staff is operating out of a rented trailer. The center has
four researchers and two support staffers. Kephart said he hopes to add an
Extension Service specialist later this year.
We spent money to reopen the center and to hire the best staff
possible, he said. I have brilliant researchers here and they need a
facility to operate with. The research is valuable to the bottom line of
farmers.
Kepharts farmer advisory group includes nine counties in south
central Montana. In a report prepared for the Yellowstone County
legislative delegation, the advisory group tried to emphasize the economic
impact of irrigated agriculture to those counties.
Our report was well received and some of the farmers will testify in
Helena, Kephart said.
Yellowstone Countys delegation, at a meeting Wednesday, made the
funding request its number 2 priority for cooperative action during the
current session. |