Myriad events celebrate 100 years of NARC

The annual Field Day at Montana State University's Northern Agricultural Research Center offered more than just education and a good meal Wednesday as the center celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Field trips across the station offered participants the opportunity to look at work on and expert explanation of beef cattle research projects, crop variety, rotational crops and water use and diseases - all with a nod toward historical work as well as present.

Different this year was the equipment show and ag demonstrations, including using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to view and analyze crops and doppler ultrasound technology in cattle management.

During the pre-dinner ceremonies NARC Superintendent Darrin Boss said that the first Field Day-type activities at the center were boys camps in 1920 and 1921. The camps were designed to help educate about and instill an appreciation for agricultural production.

One tour gave attendees a look at historic wheat and barley crop varieties grown this year from seeds dating as far back as the late 1800s.

Field Day at the research center, the only one of the seven across the state that studies both livestock and crop production, is important to local producers, said Seth Goodman, a Big Sandy farmer who farms about 3,800 acres of organic crop land.

"I just learned a lot about cut worms and how they work, and that oats are good to fight against them," he said as examples.

Goodman also said that he has visited at his farm with Field Day presenter Perry Miller, sustainable cropping systems researcher for MSU, but learned something new that day. As a result of Miller's talk about winter peas, Goodman will be heading to the research center in Moccasin to learn from their researchers.

Like in any good celebration, honors and gifts were bestowed on attendees.

Among the many people thanked during the ceremonies, the NARC Advisory Council of area producers was pointed out specifically by Boss and Barry Jacobsen, associate director of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, research centers department head at MSU.

Jacobsen said he was dean when the center got appropriations from the state Legislature to build a shop, the first building built off the original Fort Assinniboine grounds.

"This place is strong, has been strong, because of the long, strong support from producers, Extension people, other people that serve on that Advisory committee," Jacobsen said. "They always let us back in Bozeman know what to do, where to go, and how to do it, and I really appreciate their support."

The newest building at NARC, an office, lab and conference room facility, was named the Gregg R. Carlson Agricultural Science Center in honor of the former superintendent who had worked at NARC for 30 years before retiring in 2010.

Boss revealed a Don Greytak drawing commissioned to commemorate the center's 100 years of work and research. He said that a limited number of prints would be sold, with proceeds going to the research center's foundation to help fund their programs.

In a collaboration with the Havre/Hill County Historic Preservation Commission and the Fort Assinniboine Preservation Association, Boss revealed the 2015 pewter Christmas ornament depicting the fort's old bachelors' quarters and library that served as the first offices for NARC.

The center was on the receiving end of the gift-giving, too, with artwork of a scene with bobcats, the MSU mascot, given the center by Gregg Carlson and his wife, Ruth. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's ag liaison Jesse Anderson presented the station with a U.S. flag flown May 8 at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in honor of the station's 100 years.

In all, about 500 people attended the event and ate the Montana-grown meal with steaks from Bear Paw Meats and potatoes from the Montana Potato Growers Association.

"It's not very often that a hundred years comes around," said Boss, in a poignant joke during the ceremony.