Gianforte visits Stricks Ag in Chester in all-county tour

Gov. Greg Gianforte visited Stricks Ag, a pulse processing facility in Chester Wednesday, part of his 56 County Tour, where he spoke to employees and was shown the business's new building while being taught about the business's history.

Stricks Co-Owner Jill Streit said the business was officially formed in 2014 when her family, the the Wicks family, teamed up to create an agriculture business that employees say has since brought people to the area.

The name of the business is combination of the partner families, names.

Streit said the business, even after a shift toward selling more domestically, ships its goods to 35 different countries, and its product is used by major brands like Sabra.

"If you believe in it and you get the right people around you," she said to Gianforte, "you can make it."

Streit said it was tough to make headway in the pulse business when they first started but since then have been able to help lead the way for others to make it in to the market.

She said diversifying their product base in recent years has massively improved the business and the quality of the soil they use on the farming side of operations and the generational knowledge passed down through the families of the business's owners and employees has allowed them to make something special.

Streit said the drought has slowed things down somewhat on the farming side of the business, but there is an existing backlog of product that has kept the processing facility busy.

She said the drought is certainly not good for ag producers, but it may give Stricks time in the future to eliminate that backlog so there is at least one silver lining to the situation.

Before taking him on a tour through the facility employees introduced themselves to the governor, talking about their experiences with the business and what they want to see in the future.

Jill Streit's father-in-law, Leonard Streit, said he's happy with Gianforte's work keeping the government out of the way of business and urged him to keep working to do away with the burdensome regulations that hold them back.

After the tour Gianforte said he'd heard about Stricks for a long time and the work they're doing to add value to Montana agriculture and it was great to see the facility in action.

"It's this sort of innovation that we need in agriculture so that we can keep value here in Montana," he said. "Ag is the backbone of Montana's economy."

Gianforte said businesses like this, especially when they sell domestically, create jobs in towns like Chester and keeps more economic value in the state while strengthening local food chains.

He said during the tour he learned that the original market for pulse crops was overseas but in a world of shifting tariffs and foreign policy access to the pulse markets was always uncertain causing the business to shift focus to selling 80 percent of its product within the U.S. including Montana.

He said this makes sense for businesses because it's more stable than overseas markets and they get paid premium prices.

Gianforte also commented on the surge of COVID-19 in the U.S. and Montana and whether the state should be doing more to mitigate the spread.

He said the state is already doing so, focusing their PSAs on advocating for vaccination as the administration continues to monitor the situation.

He said the situation is concerning, but it's worth noting that 90 percent of people being hospitalized are unvaccinated, which is evidence that the vaccines are highly effective and he will keep telling people to get them as soon as possible.

"It's the best way to protect yourself and your family," he said.

The Havre Daily News had more questions for Gianforte, but was told the governor had to go after two minutes.