Cruzado praises ag research at NARC field day

Montana State University’s president was the keynote speaker at the Havre agricultural research station’s field day Wednesday, in the middle of a tour that allows the leadership of the university to meet with producers across the state.

President Waded Cruzado and some 40 MSU officials stopped at the Northern Agricultural Research Center’s annual Field Day, where more than 200 people came to talk to NARC’s staff, and some of MSU's other researchers and to participate in three tours of work the center is doing.

The research center is one of Montana State University College of Agriculture’s seven ag research centers in the state.

In her speech after the dinner, Cruzado talked about why she started the annual tours of the field last year, and of the importance of land-grant universities and centers like NARC.

In an interview before the dinner, Cruzado said she started the tours — last year was focused on wheat, this year it is the “Follow The Beef Tour” — to make sure the university’s leadership connects to the residents of the state.

“Once a year, we want to make sure we take the deans and the vice presidents out of their offices in Bozeman and for them to get to know Montana, particularly those places where we have agricultural offices or campuses,” she said.

The tour this year has been successful, she added. Among other stops, the group toured IX Ranch out of Big Sandy before arriving at NARC, six miles southwest of Havre at Fort Assinniboine, and was headed to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation today.

“We decided to explore and get to know more about beef, since it’s such an important industry,” she said. “We have been stopping at some cattle ranches along the way, and we’re participating at the field day and will get to sit down with the local constituencies and get to hear them and get to know them better,” she said.

“I think it’s important for us to bring MSU out here,” she added.

Last year’s tour, which focused on wheat, ran from Three Forks through the Great Falls area, then on to Fergus County and finished up with the field day at the ag research center at Moccasin.

Cruzado said the tours help emphasize the importance of the ag research centers to the state — and world — ag producers and the Montana economy.

“We have extraordinary research centers,” she said. “One thing I hear over and over from our producers is how vital is the research is … how pertinent, how our researchers provide the answers we need for our producers to maximize profit and reduce cost.”

She said the tours of cattle ranches, so far, also has been successful.

“It’s been wonderful. It’s been very impressive, and the relationships that exist between Montana State University and those producers, and also they tell us what other things we can do for them,” Cruzado said. “It’s essential.”