Montana State And Community Partners Release Study On Local Beef In Schools

Montana State University researchers and community partners have released a case study report designed to encourage the use of local beef in Montana schools.The report details how the Montana Beef to School Project has evolved in six school districts and contains practical guidance on the factors that make the programs successful.   Montana has just over 1 million residents, about 2.5 million cattle, thousands of beef producers, about 20 state and federally inspected beef processors and 145,000 students across 821 schools, according to Carmen Byker Shanks, assistant professor at MSU.“Beef is a natural component of farm to school efforts in Montana,” said Byker Shanks, who is principal investigator of the USDA Western SARE-funded Montana Beef to School Project.At the same time, schools, processors and ranchers are facing challenges when attempting to make beef to school programs viable, she said. The Montana Beef to School Project is developing a toolkit to decrease barriers and increase opportunities for Montana beef to school efforts, she said.The case studies highlighted in the report include 28 schools and 11,149 students, two producers (Lazy SR Ranch and Muddy Creek Ranch), two processors (Lower Valley Processing and Ranchland Packing) and one integrated producer and processor (Bear Paw Meats).The three-year Montana Beef to School Project is funded by a $220,000 grant from USDA’s Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, the report said.