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Gov. Steve Bullock heard concerns about agriculture and and health care during a round table discussion in Havre Tuesday.
Bullock said agriculture is a critical economic factor for the state and he wanted to hear locally what was going on in the market and how he could provide assistance.
"Recognizing that in, not only in a community like this or an area like this ... in every corner of our state, production agriculture is still critical not only to that community's vitality but critical to our entire state," Bullock said.
Bullock and Montana Department of Agriculture Director Ben Thomas were at Bear Paw Development Corp. with local politicians, farmers and a representative of the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce to discuss the agricultural market, health care, infrastructure and other issues facing the state and Havre.
Agriculture and tariffs
Bullock said at the roundtable that he wanted to know what the impact, to date, is of the uncertainty in the trade climate and what could be done about it.
Jeff Bangs, who farms and ranches north of Inverness' said uncertainty is the biggest issue to date for Montana, with wheat following a decline in the other markets and creating another uncertainty for farmers. He added that wheat has always been uncertain but prices this year fluctuate so rapidly, seemingly overnight, that the things known about trade market development, stable relationships with buyers, are not applying.
People in the midwestern are already seeing farm foreclosures, Bangs said, adding that he fears that it's not necessarily a question of if but when Montana will follow.
It is "uncertainty thrown into an uncertain way of living," Bangs said.
Montana Wheat and Barley Committee District 4 Director Mike O'Hara of Fort Benton said that since March, China has not purchased anything and it is hard to put a dollar amount on the impact that will be felt in the market.
"We don't need any less places to sell," he said.
O'Hara added that the $12 billion emergency aid to farmers prepared by President Donald Trump Administration's is not enough for farmers to recover from the influence the tariffs made on the international market.
"Personally, I feel it's somewhat of an insult to get $0.07 a bushel paid on our wheat," O'Hara said.
Another concern he has is the pulse industry, O'Hara said.
"Look what has happened to the pulse industry. It's dramatic, market is gone," he said. "Prices are down, some are 50 percent."
For Montana producers, the amount of energy and capital invested in pulse production over the years has been great, O'Hara said, but now the industry is at risk. He added that he also predicts that will cause a major retraction of acres for pulse production, possible retractions up to 70 percent, crippling a industry "that just got its feet on the ground."
He added that retracted acres will be most likely filled by wheat.
Wheat and Barley Committee District 2 Director Randy Hinebauch of Blaine County said the pulse market grew in reaction to what was going on in the wheat market two years ago. Farmers were going toward pulse crop production because of the money in the market at the time, he said.
"It's just going to be a juggling game, I think," Hinebauch said.
Bear Paw Development Executive Director Paul Tuss said there is a direct correlation between the success of Montana farmers and ranchers and the success of our communities.
"We can feel it very intimately," Tuss said. " ... it's a huge, huge issue for Main Street, throughout our state, and certainly rural Montana."
Tuss, a Democrat, is facing off against Sen. Russ Tempel, R-Chester, in Tempel's bid for re-election for Montana Senate District 14.
Hill County farmer Dave Aageson said rural America has lost its voice and that he believes the governor should provide that voice. He added that O'Hara brought up a good point about the pulse industry and that the infrastructure that has developed around it across Montana is at risk. He said that for the first time in his life, the soil quality of Montana is great due to crop rotation, but it could easily change depending on the future.
"If the pulse industry flops here, we are going to be back into our same old rotations," he said, "that I don't think are going to benefit your children, my grandchildren, it's not a good sign. It's worth fighting for, because a lot of it is driven by tariffs, uncertainty in the marketplace and weather."
Aageson added that he has heard some "horror stories" about major grain traders in the state that haven't been paid in six- to nine-months and the effects of that will be felt by producers. Contracts that were signed months ago, prior to the tariffs, he said, he feared won't be honored due to the uncertainty of the market.
Expansion on health care and agriculture
Bullhook Community Health Center Chief Executive Officer Brian Hadlock said it is very interesting to hear what is going on in the agricultural community because he is seeing a relation to what they are seeing in the community health center.
"Because of the uncertainty, we are seeing a spike in behavioral health issues. Depression is skyrocketing," he said.
The the No. 1 suicide demographic is white males over 40 years old, he added, many of them struggling with uncertainty in jobs, politics and government.
"We are seeing a spike in anxiety and depression, I think, as a result of the environment politically, concerns and worries about what is happening in agriculture in this area," Hadlock said. "This is real, this is actually evidence that is showing us that people are struggling in agriculture and we don't know what to do with that."
He said having limited funds makes it is difficult to get proper care to patients who are struggling, and it is difficult to recruit people into the medical field.
Thomas said his department recognizes suicide is a major problem in the area of agricultural, and one of the things they are working on in a mediation program is coaching operators for Suicide Hotline on how to talk to agricultural producers in a more relatable way, providing them the care and understanding of the caller's situation that is needed.
Bullock said another problem in health care that they are looking into is how to give incentives for health care professionals to come into rural Montana.
"You can't have a solid community without a solid health care infrastructure," Bullock said.
Hadlock said communities that don't have medical health centers could struggle dramatically because they would receive many people who are in need but don't have insurance to pay for it and would have to close down. That is one of his fears for the Hill County area, he said, is that if the area loses it agricultural base the community will die.
"If you can't have a community that is bringing in some type of income from a major industry that has always driven the communities, your going to lose the communities," Hadlock said. "I can't recruit doctors to communities that are falling apart and people that are moving away. So it will affect every, every corner of the community."
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