Dept Of Agriculture Montana

Dept Of Agriculture Montana, a U.S. state government entity headquartered in Helena, Montana, receives federal grants as a prime recipient to conduct agricultural pest detection, invasive species management, specialty crop development, and forest health protection services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and related federal agencies. The department operates as a child entity of Montana Dept. Of Public Health and holds no federal contracts; all recent awards are grants (96% prime recipient, 4% sub-recipient on federal grant programs).

The department's federal footprint centers on agricultural pest surveillance and invasive species control. Top customers by award count include the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (104 awards), which funds cooperative agricultural pest surveys (CAPS) for early detection and delimitation of harmful plant pests, invasive honey bee pests, terrestrial mollusks, Asian defoliator insects, spongy moths, and grain pathogens across Montana—work performed statewide with analytical support from the Plant Protection and Quarantine program operating from Arizona. The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service awarded 44 grants, predominantly Specialty Crop Block Grant Program awards (CFDA 10.170) totaling $2.73 million (2025–2028), $3.1 million (2024–2027), $3.076 million (2021–2024), and $4.08 million (2021–2025) to enhance competitiveness of specialty crops including apples, leafy greens, lentils, peas, and potatoes through marketing, research and development, and producer outreach. The USDA Forest Service Region 1–Northern Region awarded 14 grants under the Forest Health Protection program (CFDA 10.680) for integrated pest management and invasive species management on federal and non-federal forestlands, including multi-year awards of $425 thousand (2022–2027) for cooperative invasive plant cost-share work, $320 thousand (2025–2030) for noxious weed management, and $281 thousand (2025–2030) for on-the-ground invasive species response and active management actions across state, private, tribal, and National Forest System lands. The department also received a $250 thousand Rural Energy for America Program grant (CFDA 10.868) from USDA Rural Business Cooperative Services (2023–2025) to provide technical assistance on renewable energy and efficiency improvements for agricultural producers and rural small businesses, and holds an EPA Region 8 Formula Grant (2024–2027) for pesticide regulatory enforcement, applicator training, worker protection, and water quality monitoring activities.

Activity across the past five years runs 13 awards in 2022, 17 in 2023, 14 in 2024, and 15 in 2025, with eight awards reaching completion inside the next twenty-four months. Eight awards face recompete in that window. Recent sub-recipient work includes nested grant administration—the department serves as sub-recipient to Colorado State University (Regional Food Business Center, 2023) and Montana Department of Labor Industry (Montana AgCorps, 2022–2025), and receives sub-awards under the USDA Climate and Pollution Reduction Grants Program from Montana Dept Of Natural Resources & Conservation (2026) for nitrogen application precision and beef industry incentives, and from University of Montana (2025) for groundwater monitoring for agricultural chemicals in the Columbia Basin, pesticide disposal coordination, laboratory sample analysis, and pesticide container recycling.

The department's capability portfolio is strictly regulatory and protective: statewide pest surveillance networks, export certification support, early detection and rapid response infrastructure, noxious weed management coordination across county and tribal partners, specialty crop competitiveness enhancement through sub-awards to regional partners and educational institutions, and pesticide program administration. Combined potential value across all 232 awards in the source is $1.1 million; combined obligated dollars total $103.9 million, reflecting the high ratio of contract obligation to potential value common in state government grant programs where potential value ceilings are formal but actual spending substantially exceeds them.