Bozeman Build #46

Welcome back to the Bozeman Build Report covering trade news and stories around Montana! Today we highlight the pulse grain cover crop, House Bill 55, Sawfly study, Dixon name change to Sćilíp, 100k for downtown areas announced, Montana Farmers Union top 4 priorities this year, Billings dredging, Hull Street Energy sells its Butte power plant, U.S. Energy Corporation purchases 24,000 acre industrial gas lands, four MDT pre construction proposals, a bit about Montana mining, weather updates, and the Great Cattle Die Up story.

In the Bozeman section, we will update you on the AF&T salvage fire, Cats loss, train/truck crossings, MSU computers to be used in a NASA flight, DNRC permits, justice center is near complete, and a water tower.

Thanks for reading.

Daniel

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_{When and what is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered Monday mornings focused on Montana trades. We are not a financial or building advisors.}

Montana and Bozeman Trade Pulse

Montana trade pulse

January 6, 2025 An analysis by Montana State University researchers has shown that replacing summer fallow with a pulse grain crop, even in dry regions, can increase profits for farmers. (MSU News)

January 8, 2025 Montana Public Service Commission elected former and incoming commissioner Brad Molnar as its new president last week (The Public Service Commission regulates monopoly utilities). House Bill 55 is in the works, to change the way public utilities plan and acquire energy resource and speed up parts of the process. (Daily Montanan)

• Bill proposes a “quick turnaround” time of 120 days for energy planning processes, “significantly shorter” than the current nine months set in commission rules.

• The bill also would cut the minimum time for public comment from 60 days to 45 days.

January 8, 2025 Two graduate students in Montana State University’s College of Agriculture have published new research on two aspects of management for one of the region’s most damaging agricultural pests. Wheat stem sawflies cost agricultural producers millions of dollars in losses each year, according to the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee. Surveys conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service found that nearly a quarter of respondents in Montana had lost up to 10% of their yield to the pest, and total losses statewide for 2024 were estimated at $66 million. (MSU News)

Jan 09, 2025 The town of Dixon, MT went through a name change to Sćilíp, MT. Sćilíp, means confluence is a reference to the Lower Flathead River and the Jocko River coming together. (KPAX)

January 09, 2025 The Montana Department of Commerce announced today that four Montana communities will share $100,000 in grant funding to regenerate Main Street businesses and downtowns. The funding is through Commerce’s Montana Main Street Program. (Montana Department of Commerce)

• The City of Bozeman will receive $30,000 for the I-Ho Pomeroy Peace Park project.

• The City of Butte will receive $20,000 for the Re-Lighten Up Butte Headframes project.

• The City of Glasgow will receive $30,000 for the Phase 5 Wayfinding project.

• The City of Sidney will receive $20,000 for a downtown master plan.

Jan 09, 2025 The opening week of the 69th Legislative Session saw members of the Montana Farmers Union (MFU) gathering in Helena to advocate for the future of Montana agriculture. Armed with four key priorities… (Montana Ag Network)

1. The Right to Repair

2. Promoting Local Produce in Grocery Stores

3. Securing Agricultural Data

4. Transparency in Meat Labeling

Jan 09, 2025 The City of Billings (City) is proposing to dredge the water treatment plant (WTP) primary raw water intake, identified as Intake #1. The purpose of the proposed project is to maintain the main water intake for the City of Billings in the event of future flood events, like the 2022 Yellowstone River flood, and severe ice jams that can create significant deposition near Intake #1. (FWP MT)

Jan 09, 2025 Hull Street Energy ("HSE") has sold Basin Creek HoldCo, LLC ("Basin Creek"), to Basin Creek Acquisition LLC, a power generation entity formed by Platform Partners LLC and William Pate. Located in Butte, Montana, the facility provides 53 megawatts of critical electric generation to consumers across the state. (PRN Newswire)

Jan. 10, 2025 U.S. Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: USEG, “U.S. Energy” or the “Company”) today announced that the Company has closed a transaction (the “Agreement”) with Synergy Offshore, LLC (“Synergy” or “SOG”) for the acquisition of operated acreage targeting helium and other industrial gas production across the Kevin Dome structure in Toole County, Montana (the “SOG Asset”). Approximately 24,000 net acres. (Globe Newswire)

MDT News

2025 Pre Construction projects posted last week (Jan 6th-8th 2025) by MDT News

• Proposed safety improvements - 2.5 miles of Powder River Road, north of Wolf Point.

• Proposed culvert repairs and replacements throughout eastern Montana - 14 existing deteriorated culverts in 10 locations. Project areas are in MDT’s Billings and Glendive Districts, throughout Fergus, Musselshell, Phillips, and Garfield Counties.

• Proposed MT 41 resurfacing north of Twin Bridges - to resurface approximately 6 miles of Montana Highway 41 (MT 41) near Twin Bridges.

• Proposed rehabilitation near Rexford on MT 37 - to rehabilitate about 11 miles of Montana Highway 37 (MT 37), south of Rexford

Montana modern day mining numbers and maps

Here’s a chart showing Montana mineral commodity production. Palladium takes the crown as of 2019 showing over $711 million in extracted value, followed by $457 million of combined minerals, and Platinum in third place seeing $116 million in 2019. Note that these are all 2019 figures and were the latest I could find. Palladium and Platinum production is likely down due to the Stillwater layoffs in 2024 where Palladium prices have been dancing around the $1000/oz mark over the last calendar year.

From a Statewide perspective, we found a labeled map of Montana’s mines put together by someone at Montana Tech, thank you, this is super cool!

Bozeman trade pulse

01/05/2024 AF&T Salvage caught fire, we were closed and no one was in the shop when the fire started. The shop is a total loss, and we are temporarily closed. AF&T has been around the Gallatin Valley since 1974 (Facebook)

1/6/2025 FRISCO, Texas – Cam Miller accounted for 320 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 2 seed North Dakota State to a 35-32 victory over top-seeded Montana State in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Game on Monday, Jan. 6, before a crowd of 18,005 at Toyota Stadium.

01/08/2024 Bozeman folks who interact with N. Rouse were talking about BNSF switching tracks during rush hour, meanwhile an Amazon truck went off-roading right above the train on the I-90 BNSF bridge. Busy day for this conjunction.

January 9, 2025 When NASA’s unmanned lunar lander launches from Florida next week, it will carry with it a radiation-tolerant computer developed at Montana State University. The computer was created by MSU faculty member Brock LaMeres. The launch of the lander, named Blue Ghost, is scheduled to launch Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 11:11 p.m. Mountain Standard Time atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lander will then orbit Earth for 25 days before taking a four-day journey to the moon, where it will orbit for 16 days. (MSU News)

January 09 2025 The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) is proposing to harvest timber on land located approximately 16 air miles northeast of Manhattan, MT on the Dry Creek Road. (DNRC)

Jan 09, 2025 Construction of new Gallatin County Justice Center wrapping up as courts move in. In 2021, Gallatin County voters approved a $29 million bond to construct the new courthouse, which has seven courtrooms for youth, justice, and district courts. “It is the largest block building in the state—198,000 blocks,” Borzak says. (KBZK)

Bozeman Classifieds

01/10/2025 - City of Belgrade seeking proposals from firms to design and build a new elevated water storage tank, with a minimum capacity of 3.0 MG. The City operates two existing water storage tanks, each 0.5 MG. As the City continues to grow, additional storage is required to meet the demands of the growing population.

01/10/2025 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN of a public sale of miscellaneous equipment belonging to Gallatin County that is no longer necessary for the conduct of county business. Sale will be held Saturday, January 25, 2025 from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 am

Weather

South Montana and Central Montana ranges received good snow cover over the weekend, Big Sky and the Bridger’s got a foot and Central ranges such as the Little Belts and Snowy’s stacked another 2 feet on top of their base.

In the near term temps will be relatively warm this week. On the flip side, the weather will turn cold starting next week around the weekend.

History of the week

During the early 1880s, the summers on the plains of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas had been wonderfully cool and winters had proven to be unusually mild, making it easy to feed livestock year around, thus lulling ranchers and beef speculators into a sense of false security. Cattle prices were high, and to increase profits, the ranges were overstocked and soon overgrazed. Beef prices started to fall and the summer of 1867 was unusually hot and dry, making it difficult to put up enough foriage to feed the stock in case the weather took a nasty turn…which it did.

It began to snow on November 13 and snowed every day for a month. The sparse food was hidden beneath the deep snow and the cattle, already in poor condition due to a summer of drought. began to die. In January, the temperatures plummeted, perhaps as low as -63°F. A chinook came then, melting the top of the snow, then temperatures fell again, creating a hard crus on top of the deep snow. Stories tell of horses and cattle cut and bleeding from the knees down as they attempted to navigate the crusted snow. Cattle roamed into towns, bawling for food and eating shrubbery. Since little forage had been put up, ranchers had no choice but to watch their herds, their very livelihoods, starve and die.

By spring over 500,000 cattle—90% of the open range animals—had died. The carcasses covered the fields and clogged rivers and streams. Both small ranches and huge cattle companies declared bankruptcy. Thousands of cowboys were put out of work. Some ranchers tried to steal unbranded calves, leading to range wars. Ultimately, it was the end of open range in the area. Barb wire cut the range into smaller sections, changing the face of Montana ranching forever. (Petticoats & Pistols)

See you next Monday,

Daniel

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