Hi Country highlights changes during Gianforte Ag Week Visit

LINCOLN – Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte stopped by Hi Country Snack Foods Wednesday, March 20 as part of several Ag Week visits around the state highlighting Montana's 27,000 farms and ranches and related businesses.

Hi Country has emerged as one of the states leading value-added agriculture businesses after transitioning to the use of Montana-grow beef for its products. In 2022, Montana Manufacturing Association and Montana Chamber of Commerce recognized Hi Country as the value-added ag manufacturer of the year.

"Value added. Thats a big part of ag, so we couldn't tell the story without coming to Lincoln," Gianforte said during the visit.

During his visit Gianforte, joined by his wife Susan, toured the Hi Country facility and took a look at some of the recent automation that has been installed, including their.new Ohlson vertical weighing, filling and packaging machine for jerky, and the equipment for packaging the spice lines produced at Hi Country.

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Yellowstone Naturals Holding Co. partner Chase Myers discusses the spice lines produced at Hi Country with Gov. Greg Gianforte as Wyatt Nielson and Montana First Lady Susan Gianforte look on.

Although it wasn't discussed in depth, the governor's visit also underscored other recent changes at Hi Country including it's new ownership structure under Yellowstone Naturals Holding Company.

The new company is a partnership between Chase Myers, Jeff Edwards, Wyatt Nielson and Travis Byerly, who had been sole owner of Hi Country until the creation of Yellowstone Naturals in December of 2023.

"Hi Country still does jerky as it always has since 1976," Myers told the BVD before Gianforte arrived. "We now have a couple more lines we produce here. There's one called Wild Society. It's a freeze dried food line - so backpacking, camping, hiking, fishing. Just add water to it and it rehydrates in the bag."

The facility also recently began producing a premium dog food called Elevate Pet Provisions.

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Governor.Greg Gianforte, Wyatt Nielson and Montana first lady Susan Gianforte head to the Hi Country Trading Post.

Myers said he met Byerly at an industry show.

"We realized we were both from Montana," he said. "At the time we were using a co-packer out of state for the freeze dried meals and were looking for production capacity in the state of Montana. Travis had a USDA facility here and we had already established Elevate and a nutrition line."

Yellowstone Naturals Holding Company serves as the umbrella organization for three product lines.

"The whole premise behind Yellowstone Naturals Holding Company is a tip to tail approach for utilization of a piece of protein," Myers said. "We take a beef, for example, utilizing every part of that animal through different channels and brands run by the same company. So nothing goes to waste."

Myers detailed their use of an entire cow.

"Top and bottom round goes to jerky; flank steak ground goes to Wild Society." he said. "All the offal , the drop, any grind we don't use, bones, all that goes into our pet side. We're really trying to stick by the ethos of not wasting anything while utilizing...locally produced proteins and buying cattle from locally owned ranches."

The shift to Montana-raised beef began in 2019, when Byerly first bought Hi Country. He began with a move away from imported beef and started sourcing meat from Idaho and Montana. By 2022 more than 80 percent of thier beef was Montana grown.

Myers and Nielson told the governor they are buying Montana-raised grass fed and grass finished cows.

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Wyatt Nielson, Chase Myers and Gov. Greg Gianforte at the Hi Country Trading Post.

Myers explained the expansion into pet food was due in part to the fact the jerky market is getting crowded, and since they adopted a policy of using the entire animal, pet food is an avenue to help them do that.

He also noted they are often buying cull cows – cows that ranchers need to get rid of because they aren't producing calves – and picking them up for processing, saving ranchers shipping and auction fees.

"So you're buying direct from the ranchers?" Gianforte asked. "I'm sure the stock growers love you."

Nielson told Gianforte ranchers have actually begun seeking them out."It's pretty incredible. If you pay a fair price for a cull, word seems to get around .People find out that we're paying for a cull and the phone is ringing off the hook. So we haven't had a problem finding suppliers."

The cows are currently being processed at facilities in Butte and Hardin.

"We've doubled the amount of processing in the state," Gianforte said. "We've got a lot more to do."

Following the factory tour, Gianforte visited the Hi Country Trading Post, which sells a wide array of Montana-made products.

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Hi Country Trading Post manager Rea Fallis speaks with Gov. Greg Gianforte.

"I am impressed with the Hi Country team and the automation they've brought to bear," Gianforte told the BVD as the tour wound down. "They're starting to land bigger national customers and they need that expanded production capacity, so the fact they got the Montana manufacturing extension office involved to help them spec higher production lines is going to help them be more profitable, give them just a more competitive advantage in the marketplace."

Gianforte said he also loved the fact they are using exclusively Montana beef. "We refer to this as value added agriculture, and it's part of why we;re celebrating that during national agriculture week this week. "It's part of why I wanted to come back to Lincoln. I like the work they're doing. If I can have just one last comment, it's eat Montana beef."

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Billie Schaff, Wyatt Nielson, Montana first lady Susan Gianforte, Gov. Greg Gianforte and Chase Myers pose for a photo at a the Hi Country Trading Post.