Season 3 Episode 3: A Conversation with Kathleen McLaughlin on Class Inequality & Cultural Extraction in a Changing Montana
Release Date: 12/21/2022
Bonus: A Roadmap to Farm and Ranch Succession Planning
Reframing Rural
You've heard the stories of succession planning from families around Montana this season, and now you're ready to start thinking about succession planning for your own family's farm or ranch. In this bonus episode, we bring you a two-part, practical roadmap for getting started. In chapter one, we take you to Winnett, where Megan hosted a live panel discussion with succession specialists Dr. Marsha Goetting of MSU Extension, Michael Stolp of AgWest Farm Credit, and CPA Stacie Arntzen. They break down what it really takes to begin a succession plan, sharing guidance on communication, business...
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Succession Stories | 5 | Back to Grass
Reframing Rural
Sig Pugrud’s ranch sits on a high bench above Flatwillow Creek, in one of the least-populated counties in the United States. Her family homesteaded in Petroleum County, Montana in 1910, surviving drought, the Dust Bowl, the farm crisis of the 1980s, and generations of economic uncertainty with a combination of grit and creativity. As a child, Sig watched her parents gamble on emerging cattle genetics, hauling 4-H calves as far east as Ohio and Kentucky to stay afloat. Decades later, she would make her own high-stakes decision: taking her family's ground out of production and reseeding it...
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Succession Stories | 4 | The Messy Middle
Reframing Rural
When Jake Fritz moved back home at 19, four generations were trying to make a living off the same acres northwest of Chester, Montana. With no succession plan from the senior generation, Jake's mother Dena and her husband Jim were leasing land from Jake’s grandpa and great-grandma, giving away a quarter of their crop while carrying all the operating costs. This episode follows the Fritzes through an era of piecing their farm back together: buying land from relatives, absorbing sudden expenses when Grandpa Errol decided to sell, and slowly shifting authority to Jake. Their story captures what...
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Succession Stories | 3 | From Sand to Soil
Reframing Rural
In the beaver flats outside Ekalaka, Montana, Ryan and Abbey Bruski are upending convention on their multi-generational ranch. After realizing that their traditional cow-calf model wasn’t working for the land or the family, they sold the cows, shifted to custom grazing, and began rebuilding the ranch from the ground up. As the Bruskis implemented regenerative grazing practices, including daily moves, diverse grass mixes, and a focus on soil health, they also confronted the strained succession history that had long cast uncertainty over the ranch. Determined not to repeat the past, Ryan and...
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Succession Stories | 2 | My Way or the Highway
Reframing Rural
When Valier rancher Gene Curry began planning the future of Curry Cattle Company, he approached succession with the same drive that helped him build his operation from a patchwork of leased pastures and foreclosure sales. But when it came time to pass the operation to the next generation, he found himself facing a challenge that demanded something ranch life had never asked of him before: softening his dominant personality and learning to let go. What began as a practical effort to preserve the ranch he’d pieced together over decades, became a personal transformation that asked Gene to...
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Succession Stories | 1 | A Diagnosis and a Deadline
Reframing Rural
When Howie Hammond learned he might only have months to live, he and his daughter Andrea had to make quick decisions about the future of their family's farm and ranch. In the Milk River Valley of northern Montana, the Hammonds' story shows how one family's health scare catalyzed the difficult conversations about succession that many rural families avoid until it's too late. From urgent meetings with their lawyer and accountant, to long days spent side by side in the field, Howie and Andrea share what it took to move from uncertainty to a plan that keeps the family farm intact.
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Bonus: Cowboy Poet, Jim Hamilton reads “The Changing of the Guard”
Reframing Rural
Curious to know the man behind the deep voice we heard at the beginning of Reframing Rural’s Season Four preview? That’s cowboy poet, Jim Hamilton. Here he is reading his poem about succession, "The Changing of the Guard."
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Season 4 “Succession Stories” Preview
Reframing Rural
Aging farmer demographics, rising land values and farm stress are creating a challenging environment for the successful transfer of farms and ranches to the next generation. Behind the legal, financial and familial considerations of farm and ranch transition, lay a wellspring of stories that do not often surface in conventional planning discussions. In Season Four, Reframing Rural will unearth the stories laying beneath the logistics, stories from families navigating complex social and environmental factors as they work to preserve their agricultural way of life.
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A New Season of Reframing Rural is in the Works
Reframing Rural
Megan has come back from maternity leave and is working with Winnett ACES on a new podcast season!
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A Note from Megan
Reframing Rural
Megan has some big life news to share and is working with collaborators on the creative direction of the fourth season!
info_outlineMontana has long held a distinctive place within the mythos of America. Today, it’s becoming an ever-more attractive destination for those in search of a stronger sense of community, or an escape, in response to a dizzying and hyper-digital world. In this honest conversation with award-winning, Butte-based journalist, Kathleen McLaughlin, Reframing Rural explores what an influx of wealthy newcomers means for housing access and affordability, open spaces and community cohesion, and how new and established residents of all class backgrounds can work together to create a place where all Montanans can thrive.