Gianforte picks federal agency director as ag boss lmtribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lmtribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Gianforte picks federal agency director as agriculture boss
December 23, 2020 GMT
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Governor-elect Greg Gianforte said Wednesday he has picked a former state lawmaker who now directs the federal Farm Service Agency in Montana to serve as the next director of the state Department of Agriculture.
Mike Foster, a Townsend native, is the first agency head to be named by the incoming Republican governor of Montana.
Agriculture has historically been Montana’s biggest industry, with about 27,000 farms and ranches on almost 60 million acres. Combined, those operations produced livestock and crops valued at about $3 billion in 2017, the most recent year available, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service.