Montana Value-Added Agriculture
The Montana Department of Agriculture is keenly focused on expanding value-added agriculture opportunities to allow producers to capture more of the value they create. The following are Montana ag businesses and organizations from across the state that are modeling innovative practices and adding value to Montana agriculture.
Highlights
41 Grains
Circle, MT
41 Grains owners Kacie and Rex Sikveland mill and process chickpeas grown on their family farm in Circle, MT into a variety of value-added, naturally gluten-free products packed with protein and nutrition. This multi-generational family farm business is successfully modeling how value can be added to raw ag commodities, like chickpeas, through processing and promotion.
Ag Processing Solutions
Great Falls, MT
A Growth Through Agriculture grant recipient, Ag Processing Solutions aims to add value to raw Montana commodities such as hemp through innovative and customizable processing techniques.
Aspen Grove Farm
Corvallis, MT
Melissa Allred started Aspen Grove Farm to share her passion and love for the land and beautiful berries. Aspen Grove is nestled in the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana. Their feature product is the Honeyberry, a super fruit rich in antioxidants that has five times the phenols of blueberries. Honeyberries have a unique sweet-tart flavor that could be described as a combination of raspberry and blueberry. The farm also grows strawberries and raspberries. Jams, syrups, and bulk berries are available for purchase at the farm and online.
Becky's Berries
Absarokee, MT
Becky Stahl began selling her small batches of handcrafted jellies at the local farmers market. With help from a Growth Through Ag grant and support from Joel Bertolino at the Beartooth Food & Ag Development Center in Joliet, she is now operating a certified processing facility that ships an assortment of specialty products including pepper jellies and barbecue sauce across the nation.
Big Mountain Ciderworks
Kalispell, MT
With their orchard situated right outside the ciderhouse, Big Mountain Ciderworks’ vertically-integrated and hyper-local business model crafts hard ciders from Montana-grown apples and pears. The DeSmul family incorporates other local products on their menu whenever possible and took home the Governor’s Choice Award at the first annual Montana Beverage Show in 2021.
Big Sky Hops
Bigfork, MT
bigskyorchards.com/hop-varieties
The Jones family’s Ramsfield Hop Yard grows over six different varieties of hops that are processed and often pelletized on-site before being crafted into value-added Montana craft beers. Big Sky Orchards received a grant through the Growth Through Agriculture program in 2020 to expand their hops processing capacity, which allowed the local business to offer pelletized hops year-round.
Blue Creek Marbled Meats
Billings, MT
To increase meat processing capacity and expand value-added ag opportunities in Montana, the state recently awarded Blue Creek Marbled Meat Company a $300,000 ARPA Value-Added Infrastructure Grant to build a new, state-of-the-art meat slaughter facility.
Buck 'N Dave's Eggs
Corvallis, MT
Buck Lunak and David Whitmoyer raise brown-shell, free-range natural eggs with no antibiotics, hormones, or chemicals in the Bitterroot Valley. It is their goal to provide the best quality farm-to-table eggs for customers and their community, and they are proud to be Made in Montana.
Duckworth Co.
Helle Rambouillet Ranch, Dillon, MT
“Like any true-blue Montana brand, Duckworth Co. was founded on a local ski hill - a ski lift, to be precise. Those fateful conversations between runs formed the cornerstones of their ethos and mission: to create versatile Merino Wool products made exclusively in the USA with Montana-grown wool. Using best-in-the-world quality Merino Wool – produced by fourth-generation sheep ranchers, The Helle Family from Dillon, Montana – Duckworth’s apparel is designed for superior performance with stewardship, sustainability, and American-made craftsmanship at front of mind.”
Farm to Market Pork
Kalispell, MT
Farm to Market Pork & Beef’s on-farm butcher shop, owned and operated by Duane and Janette Braaten, provides a variety of artisan Montana meat products, including everything from hickory smoked pork products to artisan beef cuts. The business expanded to serve more local consumers in response to supply chain disruptions brought on by COVID-19 with help from a Montana Meat Processing Infrastructure Grant awarded by the Montana Department of Agriculture.
Gallatin Valley Malt
Manhattan, MT
Gallatin Valley Malt (GVM) is a vertically integrated, multi-generational family and farmer-owned operation adding value to their high-quality barley by producing specialty single-sourced malt for craft breweries. GVM’s flagship Gallatin Pale earned a silver medal at the 2022 Craft Maltsters Guild Convention.
Grains of Montana
Billings, MT
Grains of Montana breads and pastries begin with quality Red Hard Spring Wheat grown at Nielsen Farms in Nashua, Montana. The commercial bakery provides a wide variety of quality goods for numerous loyal accounts including Montana Five Guys, which source their fresh-baked burger buns.
Hamilton Packing Co.
Hamilton, MT
Hamilton Packing Company adds value to Montana-raised beef, pork, and lamb through their custom slaughter and butcher processes. Owner Jason Schlange is building community resilience by increasing efficiencies and expanding their signature product.
Headframe Spirits
Butte, MT
Headframe Spirits was started in 2012 by founder John McKee and has become known around the state and beyond for their made-in-Montana spirits. Since their inception, Headframe Spirits has continued to push the envelope when it comes to distilling high-quality spirits. Along with being a certified B-Corp, Headframe boasts spirits that are made from 100% Montana grain. John and his team focus on giving back to their community while maintaining dozens of employees and supporting local agriculture and causes.
Hi-Country Snack Foods
Lincoln, MT
Hi-Country Snack Foods Inc. was started in 1976 and is widely known for its Montana-made beef jerky and meat snacks. In 2019, the company was sold to Travis Byerly, who invested in equipment to automate many processes that had previously been done by hand, helping the long-standing Lincoln business grow and modernize while continuing to support local producers and the community.
Hidden Legend Winery
Victor, MT
hiddenlegendwinery.com
Hidden Legend Winery is owned by Ken Schultz, who has been perfecting handmade mead since the late 1970s. Mead, often called honey wine, predates beer and grape wine and is made by fermenting honey with water and yeast. At Hidden Legend, they strive to use natural and local ingredients such as honey, tart chokecherries, huckleberries, apples, and more to produce a unique flavor profile. Much of their honey comes from Arlee Apiaries in Arlee, Montana, a multi-generation family apiary known for its Western Montana honey.
Hollenbeck Ranch / High Five Meats
Molt, MT
highfivemeats.com
The Hollenbecks employ innovative marketing to capture more of the value they create for their Montana-raised lamb and beef. Sara and Henry Hollenbeck have identified unique, value-added markets for their live lamb and wool, and they are strengthening local supply chains as co-founders and contributors to the Yellowstone Valley Food Hub and Cowboy Meat Company.
Kalispell Kreamery
Kalispell, MT
Sourcing farm-fresh milk from Hedstrom Dairy located next door, Kalispell Kreamery owners Mary and Jared Tuck embody their belief that knowing your farmer means knowing your food. Kalispell Kreamery produces a variety of value-added Montana dairy products, including cream-on-top milk and creamer, Greek yogurt, and ice cream.
Living River Farms
Stevensville, MT
livingriverfarms.com
Living River Farms’ mission is “to create a great environment where people can start fresh from the river of life.” Located just east of Stevensville, the farm is led by longtime friends and business partners Beau McLean and Christopher Green, who combine their education and experience to raise pasture-raised chicken and grass-fed beef without antibiotics, added hormones, or steroids, using feed formulated and ground on-site from locally sourced grains.
Lower Valley Processing Co.
Kalispell, MT
The Plummer family’s meat processing business provides value-added, customized cuts of Montana meats directly to consumers. With help from a Montana Meat Processing Infrastructure Grant, Lower Valley Processing scaled up operations in 2020 to meet increased demand, bolster food security, and support community resilience.
McCafferty Ranch Beef
Belt, MT
The McCafferty Ranch is a third-generation ranch outside Belt, Montana, with fourth and fifth generations living on the ranch, family-owned and operated since 1926. Their goal is to provide affordable, quality beef directly to customers through a “ranch to table” model, allowing customers to know where their beef comes from and how it was raised. Their cattle are finished year-round on fresh grass fodder (sprouts), which sets their beef program apart.
Midland Bull Test
Columbus, MT
With over 50 years of performance testing, Midland Bull Test remains a family operation dedicated to adding value to the beef cattle industry. Their program is home to one of the largest feed efficiency testing operations in North America, using systems like GrowSafe by Vytelle to measure residual feed intake (RFI) and other performance traits so producers can select bulls that gain efficiently on roughage-based rations.
Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center
Ronan, MT
missionwestcdp.org/food-enterprise-center
A designated Montana Food & Ag Development Center, the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center (MMFEC) is a 13,000-square-foot shared-use food processing and manufacturing facility in Ronan that helps value-added agriculture and specialty food businesses develop products, expand markets, and strengthen local food economies. Director Jan Tusick and her team provide processing space, food safety training, technical assistance, and business support so Montana producers and entrepreneurs can bring new products to market and grow their operations.
Molson Coors
Power, MT
Molson Coors sources more than one-third of its barley from Montana, supporting generations of grain growers through long-term contracting relationships. 2021 marked the 75th anniversary of its barley program, which continues to provide reliable demand for high-quality malting barley used in its beers.
Montana Craft Malt
Butte, MT
Montana Craft Malt is strategically positioned at the intersection of two interstate highways and a railway spur to support a strong supply chain from Montana producers to consumers. Its state-of-the-art facility produces 10,000 tonnes of malt annually using Montana-grown barley for craft beer and spirits, adding value to agricultural supply chains.
Montana Ciderworks
Darby, MT
Montana Ciderworks, founded in 2002 by cidermaker Lee McAlpine, is Montana’s oldest cidery and is known for its English-style, award‑winning ciders made from Bitterroot Valley apples. McAlpine planted hundreds of cider-variety trees and built the operation around McIntosh and heirloom apples, creating traditional and modern ciders that are now found on tap and in bottles across Montana.
Montana Milling, Inc.
Great Falls, MT
Montana Milling, Inc. has specialized in custom grain milling since 1972 and operates state-of-the-art processing facilities in Great Falls and Conrad, located in Montana’s “Golden Triangle” grain region. The company buys high-quality Montana grains and processes a full line of certified organic and conventional whole grains, flours, flakes, cracked grains, and specialty mixes to meet diverse customer specifications.
Montgomery Distillery
Missoula, MT
Montgomery Distillery, established in 2012, is a family-run, farm‑to‑glass distillery with roots five generations deep in Montana agriculture. Their family farm in Heath, near the geographic center of the state, has been in the family for nearly 90 years and sits on one of Montana’s largest spring creeks, which irrigates the wheat and rye they grow for their spirits. Along with sourcing local grain, Montgomery Distillery is one of the few distilleries in the state to use 100% Montana ingredients in many of its small‑batch vodkas, gins, whiskeys, and other spirits.
MSU Food Product Development Lab
Bozeman, MT
The Food Product Development Lab at Montana State University collaborates with agricultural producers, food entrepreneurs, and researchers to develop new value‑added food products using technologies such as high‑tech extrusion. The lab’s team provides consulting on product innovation, recipe development, and market testing, and has helped create items like chickpea puffs, lentil muffins, and cold‑hardy berry smoothies that showcase Montana‑grown crops.
Pasta Montana
Great Falls, MT
Pasta Montana produces more than 70 shapes of premium dry pasta in Great Falls using freshly milled 100% Montana‑grown durum semolina, pure water, and carefully controlled, slow‑drying processes. Located next to a sophisticated milling facility, the plant operates on a just‑in‑time basis to ensure fresh semolina and consistent golden color, high‑protein pasta that is shipped to foodservice and industrial customers across the United States and around the world.
Ranch House Meat &
Sausage Co.
Billings, MT
Ranch House Meat & Sausage Co. is a family‑owned business that supports Montana ranching families by turning locally raised, grass‑fed and grain‑finished beef into artisan smoked meats, jerky, snack sticks, bacon, and sausages made from premium, dry‑aged cuts. Building on their success in Billings and Shepherd, owners Shane and Tanya Flowers expanded into custom butchering through Pure Montana Meats in Miles City with support from Montana Department of Agriculture grants, further strengthening regional meat processing capacity.
School House Meats
Missoula, MT
school-house-meats
School House Meats is a state‑inspected meat lab and teaching facility at the Missoula County Public Schools Agriculture Education Center where students from Big Sky, Hellgate, and Sentinel High Schools learn the full livestock cycle from raising animals to processing and marketing meat. Under the leadership of ag teacher Tom Andres, the program produces beef and pork for the district’s school lunch program and the local community, using modern processing equipment and value‑added products to show how on‑site processing can capture more value for Montana agriculture.
Smoot Honey
Power, MT
Established in 1964, Smoot Honey is a multi‑generational family business in Power, Montana that produces and packages 100% natural honey from hives located along the Rocky Mountain Front. Their bees forage primarily on yellow sweet clover and alfalfa, yielding a light “water white” honey that is minimally heated and lightly filtered so it remains pure, raw, and all‑natural. Many Montana bakeries, meat processors, brewers, and body‑care makers use Smoot Honey as a key ingredient to add local flavor and value to their products.
SporeAttic
Bozeman, MT
SporeAttic is a commercial gourmet mushroom farm in Bozeman that officially hit the market in October 2020, specializing in varieties like oysters, lion’s mane, king trumpets, and chestnut mushrooms. In just its first year, the farm scaled to roughly 500 pounds of fresh mushrooms per week for local chefs, grocery stores, and farmers’ markets, and now produces around 850–1,000 pounds weekly that are sold across the Bozeman and Big Sky area and as dried mushroom products online.
Swanky Roots
Billings, MT
Swanky Roots is a family‑run aquaponics greenhouse near Billings where co‑owners Veronnaka Evenson and Rona Klamert grow fresh lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, herbs, and other produce year‑round in a closed‑loop system that recirculates water between fish tanks and plant beds. Their operation, launched in 2016 with production beginning in 2019, supplies local households, restaurants, retailers, and food hub customers across southeastern Montana with sustainable, Montana‑grown leafy greens and educational farm tours.
Western Cider Co.
Missoula, MT
Western Cider is located on the banks of the Clark Fork River in Missoula and grew out of co‑founder Michael Billingsley’s decision in 2012 to plant 2,500 cider apple trees in the Bitterroot Valley, an orchard that has since expanded to nearly 5,000 trees and more than 50 varieties. Using fruit from their Billingsley Cider Orchard, neighboring Bitterroot orchards, community gleaning projects, and Northwest growers, Western Cider produces “easy‑going” session ciders and traditional, orchard‑driven ciders that reflect the cider heritage of western Montana.
Whistling Andy Distillery
Big Fork, MT
Whistling Andy Distillery, located just off Highway 35 in Bigfork, opened on New Year’s Day 2010 as Montana’s oldest operational distillery. Named after founder Brian Anderson’s father, “Whistling Andy,” the grain‑to‑glass distillery handcrafts spirits with select local grains, Flathead cherries, true first‑cut cane sugar, and locally sourced botanicals whenever possible. Their whiskies, gins, rums, and seasonal releases highlight Montana‑grown ingredients and age‑old recipes alongside innovative blends that reflect the landscape and community of the Flathead Valley.
White Raven Winery
Columbia Falls, MT
White Raven Winery, located near the base of Columbia Mountain just outside Columbia Falls, makes small‑batch wines on site, including several “Totally Montanan” wines made from Montana‑grown grapes. Drawing fruit from their own cold‑hardy vineyards and partner vineyards around the state, White Raven works with varieties such as Marquette and Petite Pearl that are adapted to Montana’s climate, crafting value‑added wines that showcase the wild character and terroir of the northern Rockies.
Willie's Distillery
Ennis, MT
Willie’s Distillery in Ennis was established in 2010 by founders Willie and Robin Blazer, a veteran‑owned, grain‑to‑glass distillery created to embody the independent spirit and authenticity of the American West while supporting local farmers and the rural economy. Using Montana‑grown grains, regional ingredients, and non‑chill‑filtered production methods, Willie’s has grown into one of Montana’s premier destination distilleries and one of the largest employers in Ennis, known for whiskies, honey‑infused liqueurs, and other award‑winning small‑batch spirits.
Willow Mountain Winery
Corvallis, MT
Winner of the Governor’s Choice – Best in Wine Award at the 2021 Montana Beverage Show, Willow Mountain Winery crafts Montana‑grown wines from grapes grown in its own Corvallis vineyard in the Bitterroot Valley. Owners Roxann and Brian McGuire focus on cold‑hardy varietals such as Marechal Foch in their Montana Vineyard Red Blend and work closely with statewide grape and wine organizations to help expand Montana’s vineyard and winery industry while adding value to the state’s agricultural economy.
Yellowstone Valley Food Hub
Billings, MT
Yellowstone Valley Food Hub is a grower’s cooperative and online, year‑round farmers market connecting central and eastern Montana with local food from more than 35 farmers, ranchers, bakers, and makers. Through online ordering, home delivery, and pickup sites around Billings, Laurel, and Red Lodge, the hub aggregates and distributes Montana‑raised meats, vegetables, grains, dairy, baked goods, honey, and other value‑added products, making it easier for families, chefs, and food banks to access fresh, sustainably produced food from nearby farms and ranches.