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Robinson tours Northern Ag Research Center

Lesley Robinson, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, braved the rain Tuesday to take a tour of the grounds and facilities of Montana State University's Northern Agriculture Research Center south of Havre.

Robinson met with the Montana State University-Northern's Collegiate Stockgrowers Association this morning. She said that she then planned to head to Malta later in the day to attend to her duties as a county commissioner.

She said that she will be in Havre Saturday for the Hill County Republican's pumpkin giveaway before attending the final gubernatorial debate in Great Falls later that night.

Robinson, a fourth-generation rancher from the Zortman area and a second-term county commissioner, is the running mate of retired Bozeman businessman Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for governor.

The pair are going up against incumbent Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock and Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney and Libertarians Ted Dunlap and Ron Vandevender in November's general election.

Since Gianforte tapped her to be on the ticket in February, Robinson has portrayed herself as a champion of agriculture and rural Montana.

During her hour-long visit, Robinson was shown NARC's conference room and seed lab by NARC Superintendent Darrin Boss. Boss later took Robinson on a drive around the station to get a glimpse of NARC's crops, cattle barns and the Fort Assinnibone buildings the center still uses.  

NARC is one of seven off-campus sites of Montana State University's College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experimentation Stations.

Robinson said that she hadn't visited NARC since its main office and laboratory complex was completed in 2011, allowing facilities to be moved out of the old buildings of the fort.

NARC was established at Fort Assinniboine in 1915. The U.S. Army facility was decommissioned in 1911.  

Robinson said that through its research, NARC, which receives a large portion of its funding from the state, works to make agricultural production more efficient while increasing crop yield and quality.

She also said NARC's work ties into the central message of her and Gianforte's campaign: To increase the number of high-wage jobs and to keep young people working in Montana instead of leaving the state.

Boss touted during the tour some of the center's projects. He said that in the last legislative session the state Legislature approved $15 million through the Montana Research and Economic Development Grant to spur agricultural research within the state.

As a result, Boss said, the center is now conducting research into cover crops and precision agriculture.

"We've got to feed 8 billion people in less than how many years,"  Boss said. "Technology and efficiency are the two things we have to play on."

 

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