Every working ranch tells two stories, the one behind us, and the one we are still trying to write.

This episode marks the beginning of a 10 episode limited series collaboration between Ranchers Stewardship Alliance and the Dan Scott Ranch Management Program. Together, the series focuses on one of the most pressing challenges facing agriculture today, labor.

In Episode 1, host Haylie Shipp is joined by co host Rachel Frost and guest Marty Ropp to explore why the traditional agricultural labor pipeline is no longer enough. The conversation centers on why the industry must look beyond familiar avenues, reach people we are not currently engaging, and rethink long held assumptions about who belongs in agriculture.

Marty Ropp brings decades of experience from the beef genetics industry and shares insights from launching New Acres, a nonprofit focused on connecting people with life changing careers in agriculture. Rachel Frost provides perspective from the collegiate level through her leadership of the Dan Scott Ranch Management Program, which blends academic instruction with hands on, on the ground ranch internships.

Together, they discuss:

• Why the agricultural labor shortage requires new ways of thinking
• The importance of looking outside traditional recruitment channels
• Challenges that arise when bringing new people into rural and agricultural spaces
• How ranchers, educators, and industry leaders must adapt their approach to training and mentorship
• Why changing how we think about labor is essential to the future of working lands and rural communities

This episode sets the foundation for a series of honest conversations about labor, leadership, and the future of agriculture.

About the Series

The Ranch Workforce Project is a 10 episode limited series created in collaboration between Ranchers Stewardship Alliance and the Dan Scott Ranch Management Program at Montana State University. Each episode focuses on labor in agriculture, exploring practical challenges and real world solutions from multiple perspectives including ranchers, students, educators, and industry leaders.

Featured Organizations

Dan Scott Ranch Management Program (Montana State University)
https://www.montana.edu/ranchmanagement/
New Acres
https://www.newacresproject.org/

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

This episode of the Ranch Stewards Podcast features the audio-only version of a Rural Resilience webinar, created for listeners who prefer to learn on the go. The full video presentation is available for those who would like to see visuals and demonstrations.

In this episode, ranchers share real-world examples of how technology is changing land and livestock management while supporting long-term stewardship.

Rancher Ryan Lankford explains how GPS ear tags help him monitor cattle across large landscapes and make better management decisions whether he is on the ranch or away.

Custom grazer Steve Kenyon discusses how fall frost seeding with drones can make forage establishment easier, faster, and more efficient within extended grazing systems.

This recording includes a 60-minute presentation followed by a 30-minute live question and answer discussion.

Speakers
Ryan Lankford grew up in a farm family on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and returned home after serving in the U.S. Army and earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering to continue his family’s agricultural legacy.

Steve Kenyon owns Greener Pastures Ranching Ltd. in Alberta, Canada and has more than 20 years of experience teaching sustainable grazing management.

Watch the full video version of this episode at https://youtu.be/D3w7pqhGqCI

Upcoming live webinars in the Rural Resilience series
Ranch Health: Cattle Vaccination Best Practices on February 5, 2026
Ranch Water: Low-Tech, High-Impact Restoration on February 19, 2026
Ranch Insights: Sheep Industry Takeaways for Beef on March 5, 2026

Cost: Free
Pre-registration required
Register at ranchstewards.org/events

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

The Ranch Workforce Project is a limited series podcast collaboration between the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance and Montana State University’s Dan Scott Ranch Management Program. While the series is rooted in ranching, the conversations are relevant across all of agriculture, including farming, orchards, specialty crop operations, and diversified agricultural businesses facing workforce challenges.

In this preview episode, host Haylie Shipp is joined by Rachel Frost to introduce the purpose of the series and the shared labor issues affecting agricultural operations nationwide. From recruiting and training new employees to managing expectations, workplace culture, and long term career pathways, this series takes a practical look at how agriculture can better prepare, support, and retain its workforce.

Drawing on experience working directly with both producers and students, this episode sets the stage for honest conversations about what is working, what is not, and where opportunities exist to strengthen the agricultural labor pipeline, regardless of operation size or production type.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why workforce challenges are affecting every sector of agriculture
• The disconnect between interested young people and agricultural employment opportunities
• Managing expectations for both employers and employees
• The role of mentorship, communication, and workplace culture in employee retention
• What listeners can expect from the Ranch Workforce Project series

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

Who wouldn’t want a deep massage? Turns out, your soil might be overdue for one. In this episode, host Haylie Shipp talks with Montana ranchers Todd Barkley (near Baker) and Casey Buffington (Chester) about bale grazing, a winter-feeding strategy that can build soil health, redistribute nutrients, reduce daily feeding chores, and add flexibility to ranch life.

They also discuss how the “new sexy thing” in grazing, virtual fencing, is being used alongside bale grazing to control access, improve hay utilization, and keep cows where you want them, even during an oddball open winter.

What We Cover

• What bale grazing is and why it is more than “feeding hay”
• Placement of your bales
• The benefits of seven-day feedings, including labor, fuel, and equipment savings
• How cows often return later to clean up what they left behind
• Managing boss cows versus timid cows and thinking about access and space
• Setup strategies such as grid patterns, star or pie patterns, and bale spacing
• Bale orientation, including on end versus on side and when rolling out makes sense
• Calving considerations and why rolling out hay can reduce risks
• Weed pressure, soil response, and reframing weeds as forage
• Virtual fencing possibilities, including timed breaks to control daily access without moving wire

Practical Takeaways

• Try it once. Bale grazing is a technique that can be adjusted to fit your operation.
• Use it for flexibility when work or weather makes daily feeding difficult.
• Dial in the math by accounting for cow weight, bale weight, hay quality, and stockpiled forage.

Links and Resources

• Todd Barkley contact: https://barkleyshomegrown.com/contact/

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

In this special, off-script episode of the Ranch Stewards Podcast, host Haylie Shipp flips the mic and interviews Megan Torgerson, founder and host of Reframing Rural, an award-winning documentary podcast that centers the voices and lived experiences of rural people and places. Now in its fourth season, Reframing Rural is focused on succession planning, an issue deeply important to ranching families and to the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance.

Haylie and Megan talk about how Reframing Rural got started, Megan’s background growing up on a farm in northeast Montana, and why rural stories are so often misunderstood or oversimplified in mainstream media. They also dig into the emotional realities of succession planning including family dynamics, communication, legacy, and the weight of passing the baton.

Following the conversation, listeners are invited to hear Episode 1 of Season 4 of Reframing Rural, an intimate and powerful story featuring Howie Hammond and his daughter Andrea Lien near Malta, Montana. The Hammond family are longtime supporters of the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, and their story is one we hold especially dear.

In This Episode You Will Hear:

• How Reframing Rural grew out of Megan’s academic work and lived experience
• What mainstream media often misses about agriculture and rural life
• The real statistics and realities around farm and ranch succession
• Why emotion, vulnerability, and storytelling are essential to succession conversations
• The diagnosis that accelerated the Hammond family’s succession planning
• The emotional weight of legal and financial meetings when time feels short
• A daughter's fear of being the generation that loses the ranch
• Why “equal is not always fair” and why the ranch has to come first

Guest Bios

Megan Torgerson
Megan is the founder and host of Reframing Rural, an award-winning documentary podcast sharing nuanced stories of rural people and places. She grew up on a farm and ranch near Dagmar, Montana, and began the podcast in 2019 to challenge oversimplified narratives about rural life. Reframing Rural is now in its fourth season.

Howie Hammond
Howie has farmed and ranched for more than 45 years in Montana’s Milk River Valley near Malta. Alongside his wife JoAnn, he built a family operation spanning thousands of acres of rangeland and cropland. Following a rare muscle disease diagnosis, Howie became a vocal advocate for early succession planning and mentors families across Montana.

Andrea Lien
Andrea manages Hammond Ranch with her husband Wyatt and her parents Howie and JoAnn. After earning a business degree from Rocky Mountain College and working in finance, she returned home to continue her family’s agricultural legacy.

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

In this episode of the Ranch Stewards Podcast, we dig into the growing world of agritourism and how creative ideas can bring new opportunities to working lands. From educational offerings to niche on-the-ground experiences, agritourism is becoming an increasingly valuable way for farms and ranches to diversify and connect with visitors in meaningful ways.

Guests Shannon Arnold and Tamara Robertson join the conversation to talk about what agritourism looks like in Montana today, how producers get started, and why interest in these kinds of enterprises continues to grow across farm and ranch country.

Guests

Dr. Shannon Arnold

Professor of Extension and Non-Formal Education
Montana State University
A quiet powerhouse behind Montana’s agritourism movement, Shannon has spent years building programs, gathering resources, and helping producers explore what’s possible. Her work has opened the door for agritourism to grow statewide.

Tamara Robertson

Wandering Acres
Forsyth, Montana
Tamara and her family run a cow-calf operation — and they added an unexpected twist: a niche flower farm that has grown into a unique agritourism experience in eastern Montana. Her story shows the creativity and adaptability that make agritourism so promising.

What We Talk About

• What agritourism is and the wide range of activities it can include
• Agritourism as an added revenue stream for working operations
• Real producer perspectives on branching into agritourism
• Why charging for experiences can feel uncomfortable
• Insurance considerations when welcoming visitors onto the land
• How people discover agritourism businesses
• The creation of the Montana Agritourism Association

Resources & Links

• Montana Agritourism: MontanaAgritourism.com

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Thanks for listening and for being part of this community.

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

In this personal and heartfelt episode, host Haylie Shipp shares how a major health crisis in her family in 2024 changed the way she views wellness on the ranch. Ranchers plan for drought, markets, and succession, but rarely for themselves. Preventative healthcare is another kind of ranch insurance. It protects the most important asset on any operation: the people who keep it running.

Haylie visits with Dr. Kevin Ross of Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, a critical access hospital serving northeastern Montana, and rancher and registered nurse Carmen Salveson. Together, they discuss what preventative care looks like in rural communities, how access to healthcare is evolving, and why taking care of yourself is one of the smartest investments you can make in your ranch’s future.

In This Episode:

• Why preventative care is essential ranch insurance
• How Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital supports rural health as a critical access facility
• The importance of early detection and regular screenings
• Addressing the stigma surrounding mental health in rural communities
• Building a culture of care that sustains families and operations
• If you're going to do the bare minimum, what are a doctor's suggestions?

Resources Mentioned:

• Depression Self-Assessment (Mayo Clinic): https://anxietycoach.mayoclinic.org/depression-coach/depression-self-assessment/
• Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, Glasgow, Montana
• Aaniih Nakoda College “Grow Our Own” nursing program

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.

In this episode, Haylie Shipp sits down with eco-nutritionist Sara Keough and rancher Craig French to explore the surprising ways soil health and human health are connected. Sara shares what it means to look at people as ecosystems. Craig tells the story of meeting Sara at the Soil Health Symposium and the big changes he has seen since working with her, including weight loss, better sleep, and more energy. Together they talk about practical shifts in food choices and the parallels between soil microbes and the gut microbiome. The conversation also touches on the importance of mental health in agriculture and how preventative care can help keep people and operations strong.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Event: Gut Check: How Soil Health Shapes Human Health – Oct 11 in Malta, MT
• Sara Keough’s website: eco-nutrition.com
• Sara’s article: Meat is Medicine

Support the show

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA) is a rancher-led, grassroots organization, dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities throughout the Northern Great Plains. Through collaborative conservation projects, rancher education events, and local community outreach, RSA works to strengthen our rural community, economy, and culture for generations to come.

For more on the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, head to www.RanchStewards.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Your feedback is always welcome. Email info@ranchstewards.org. Want to support our mission? Visit www.ranchstewards.org/support.