Board of Directors Election

Lesley Robinson – Running for President

City: Dodson

Industry Involvement:  Lesley and her husband Jim have been married for 39 years, ranched their entire lives. They own and operate the Lazy JD Cattle Co, a commercial cow/calf and yearling operation. The family-run ranch has been in the Robinson family since moving from the Miles City area in 1958. Their daughter Kirsty and her husband John spend part of the year on the ranch and the other in Arizona.

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

Some of issues we face today were most likely on the agenda in 1884 when MSGA was organized. We have been hosting meetings across the state listening to producers directly to find out what challenges they face. Estate taxes and estate planning came to the top over and over. Other things like simplification of government programs that available to ranchers, obstacles for new ranchers just starting out or trying to expand and generational transfers were spoken of often. With all the dispersions happening across the state and the nation it’s important to keep agricultural land in production and ranchers in business. More and more people are understanding the importance of it for the health of the land, wildlife and communities. I look forward to serving as President of MSGA and continuing our work on all the issues that affect ranching while building relationships with other ag groups and agencies.

Turk Stovall – Running for 1st VP

City: Billings

Industry Involvement: Turk Stovall is a fifth generation Montana Rancher. Stovall Ranches LLC is a diversified ranch in Yellowstone and Big Horn counties on the Crow Indian Reservation operating as a cow/calf, hay production and backgrounding to grass operation. Before returning home to the ranch, Turk held management positions with Certified Angus Beef LLC, North Platte Feeders, Inc and ORIgen, Inc.

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

• Unity
• Keeping production ag a priority in policy
• Keeping real farmers and ranchers on their land and successful in production agriculture
• Make sure real facts are being used to discuss the industry
• Tell our story

Monty Lesh – Running for 2nd VP

City: Miles City

Industry involvement: Monty Lesh runs an Angus commercial cow herd selling NHTC program feeder cattle after the calves have been backgrounded. They also develop and breed heifers, selling bred heifers or 3 year old cows. As opportunity presents itself, they will purchase feeder cattle to background, run on grass and sometimes feed to finish. Operation is native range, owned and leased. The ranch also has irrigated pasture for hay. Monty has been actively engaged in the cattle business most of his life. Monty’s wife, Sherry, and son, Wyatt, are involved with daily activities and his daughter, Shayla, helps with the books.

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

Private property rights.Water rights. Public land uses/restrictions. Environmental/climate change agenda of the Federal government. Generational transfer of Agricultural properties and tax policy. International trade policies.

Chance Wilson – Running for the Northeastern District

City: Scobey

Industry involvement: Chance Wilson is the decision maker and operator of a cow calf operation in Daniels county. Chance has been back on the ranch full time since 2014. In January of 2016 Chance’s father DuWayne got in an accident, paralyzing him. Since then, Chance has taken on most of the ranch responsibilities. Chance’s wife Reagann and daughters help out as much as they can. 

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

In my opinion a couple of the biggest challenge facing the industry are regulation concerning the climate change hysteria. Another challenge that concerns me are animal activists such as PETA and the humane society.

Ian Glennie – Running for the South Central District

City: Judith Gap

Industry involvement: Ian Glennie moved back to his family’s farm and ranch in the summer of 2020. He is a fifth generation rancher but the first generation to live on the place full time. Ian’s father has been in banking, putting their ranch together from scratch. They run 500 head of commercial Black Angus cattle, farm 6,000 acres, and sell hay. Ian manages the day-to-day operations and has started leasing his own places, adding to the family place. 

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

I think that the beef industry will always maintain sustainability. A few major challenges that worry me the most about the industry are the barriers to entry as a young producer, the drastic rise in cost of equipment and land being bought up and taken out of production agriculture.

Sara Stevenson – Running for the South Central District

City: White Sulphur Springs

Industry involvement: Sara Stevenson was born into a cow/calf operation north of Helena and lived and worked there until she married. Sara married a seedstock producer from Hobson where they lived and worked the third-generation family ranch while raising their children. Sara and her family grew the ranch in size and scope until they had to scale back and rethink.

After 25 years in Hobson, the family decided to expand onto their own ranch to accommodate their kids. In 2020, they transplanted their cows to White Sulphur. The family continues to sell in two sales per year with the Stevenson Angus Ranch, but their ranch is separate and wholly owned and operated by Sara and her husband.  

Sara also still assists her father with his ranch in Helena on an as-needed basis. Once her son completes his active duty in the Army, she hopes that he takes over her role on her parents’ place. Sara’s daughter and her boyfriend are assisting with the ranch here. 

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

Although I do not want to relax efforts on the major topics currently facing our beef industry, such as continuing to work on Tax codes that allow for the next generation to do what we all love. This includes a total tax statute that allows for asset transfer from income Tax to Estate taxes. This continues to be a challenge and needs guidance from our boots on the ground. Our other current challenge is qualified ranch help. I like the H-2A program and believe it can assist us through this difficult time. But I also see a few more new challenges coming down the road that may require our foresight and wisdom. A couple major challenges of the Beef industry and agriculture in general in the next ten years will include water usage, and competing land values as the increasing human population expands out of the cities and into rural areas. I see these two topics effecting the industry in different ways. The water usage is already starting and will continue to grow in concern as the population size increases. There is only so much available water and we need to learn new and varied practices to treat it as the precious resource that it is and not to take it for granted. If we act proactively, we may not find ourselves in a reactionary state like the agriculturists in Central California. The growing human population lends itself to numerous agricultural challenges. First and foremost, food supply. We as American Agriculturist are doing great at increasing efficiency and meeting this challenge, but we may need to make a few adjustments in the future. We will also be faced with land usage challenges; all these new humans, need a place to live. Again, if can visualize a solution before it is a problem, we can possibly alleviate or mitigate some potential problems.

Corey Schultz – Running for the Southeastern District

City: Billings

Industry involvement: Corey Schultz was born and raised in Kansas on a farm and ranch. There, he met his wife and in 2015 moved to Montana to work for Joe Goggins and family. Since then, Corey has started his own commercial cow herd of 300 head, backgrounds 500-1000 head, and runs around 300 yearlings every year. On the business side he manages day-to-day operations of Public Auction Yards, and oversees the budget and finances of Vermilion Ranch Corporation.

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

The beef industry challenges I see coming all revolves around the producer. The median age of the producers continually increase and with rising costs of land and production the access to capital for young producers to enter the livestock industry becomes daunting and almost impossible. The lack of industry connection and unification will further drive smaller producers out due to taxes, high input costs, and no way to protect themselves without large amounts of capital. I also believe animal disease traceability will be further discussed as we move into the future but I also think with improved technology and the ever changing environment of handheld information we can see some exciting things that do challenge the industry to change but maybe change for the better. The next ten years there will be alot of outside money thrown and methane production and environmental type programs, like carbon, that will further challenge producers. I believe with correct knowledge and understanding producers could see some incentive and monetary capturing because I believe there will be alot of big money thrown and some of these programs. I also believe that “fake meat” will be a big push to see if they can lab produce the taste and quality necessary and this will be a huge challenge the livestock industry if they can produce this “meat” and get people to eat it.

Jim Garrison – Running for the Western District

City: Glen

Industry involvement: Jim Garrison operates a family owned ranch that has been in the Garrison family for over 100 years. His dad Bill is a past president of MSGA. The Garrisons run about 280 spring calvers, 160 fall calvers, and 100 yearlings. Jim’s three children all have a few head of registered herefords.

In your opinion what are the major challenges the beef industry will face in the next ten years?

Several. We rely on a lot of government leases to run our operation and I think it is going to get harder to keep some of these if the wrong people keep running the government. Another challenge is just the cost of expenses in trying to run a ranch. Equipment, fuel, supplies, ect.