The Montana Grains Foundation carries out the educational, cultural and charitable activities of the Montana Grain Growers Association. In furthering those goals, the Corporation is empowered to promote and encourage by means of scientific investigations, research or otherwise:
Blake Wiedenheft
Winifred Asbjornson Plant Sciences Chair
Before receiving the Endowed Chair position at Montana State University, Wiedenheft, a Montana native, first arrived at MSU as an undergraduate and later returned as a graduate student to study viruses that thrive in the boiling acid environments of Yellowstone National Park. After graduating from MSU in 2006 with a doctorate in microbiology, Wiedenheft moved to the University of California, Berkeley, to train as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jennifer Doudna on what would become the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of CRISPRs. In 2012, Wiedenheft and his partner, Michelle Flenniken, who is a professor in MSU’s Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, moved “home,” to MSU, where they each established their own research programs.
The Montana Plant Science Chair is a position funded in part by the cereal grain industry to support expanded research capacity critical to Montana grain growers.
Recognizing that the depth of research at Montana State University must expand to meet current and future crop science challenges, leaders of the Montana Grains Foundation partnered with the MSU Alumni Foundation to perpetually endow the first Chair in the 120 year history of the College of Agriculture. More than 60 Montana grain producers, along with the Foundation, the Montana Grain Growers Association, the Montana Wheat & Barley Committee and several agribusinesses around the state donated in support of the endowed chair.
Brad Dugdale, an attorney in Havre, Montana served the farming industry for over 56 years. Brad’s dedication to helping farmers make and save money through careful planning and strategic business structuring helped to keep thousands of our Montana farmers profitable and tax efficient.
The Montana Grain Growers Association and the Montana Grains Foundation have established a fund, to be managed by Montana Grains Foundation, to cover the costs of providing high quality presenters for these sessions. Please consider your own contribution to this fund to help us in honoring Brad, his legacy and contribution to Montana farmers.
The Montana Grains Foundation sponsors a specialty license plate available at all Montana County Treasurer’s Offices. Proceeds are used to carry out charitable, scientific and educational activities on behalf of Montana’s grain industry, including establishing scholarships and educational programs aimed at improving the skills of those engaged in growing and marketing grain and supporting agricultural research at Montana State University.
Don’t miss this opportunity to support Montana’s producers who are “Raising the World’s Finest Grain”!
According to the Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN), approximately 1 in 10 Montanans struggle with hunger and 1 in 6 children in Montana live in food insecure homes. Hunger is directly related to the larger problem of economic insecurity in our state. Low wages, job loss, and insufficient fixed incomes leave many families unable to keep food on the table while trying to afford the rising costs of housing, child care, and medical care.
Montana farmers have always lent a helping hand to neighbors in need. It’s in that spirit of giving that the Montana Grain Growers Association created “Our Neighbor’s Daily Bread”, a wheat-to-flour donation project, in response to a plea from the MFBN for much needed flour to feed Montana’s hungry.
Donating is simple. When you deliver grain to your local elevator, just tell the manager how many bushels you want to donate to “Our Neighbor’s Daily Bread”. The donated bushels will be sold at the same time your share is sold and a check for the donated amount will be sent to “Our Neighbor’s Daily Bread” in care of the Montana Grains Foundation. When flour is needed, corresponding bushels are purchased, milled, bagged and loaded into Montana Food Bank delivery trucks at a Great Falls flour mill for distribution to partner agencies of the MFBN.
All contributions to “Our Neighbor’s Daily Bread” are managed through the Montana Grains Foundation, a 501(c)(3) foundation and the charitable arm of the Montana Grain Growers Association. For more information or to learn how you can help, please see the information posted below or call the Montana Grain Growers Association at 406-761-4596.
Learn more about “Our Neighbor’s Daily Bread”:
What Can I Do To Help– includes charitable donation tax info
To qualify, each graduate applicant must be enrolled as a full time student at MSU Bozeman.
Graduate scholarship applications are due April 1; notice of awards will be made by May 1
