Matt and Sarah Skoglund live on their bison ranch with children Otto and Greta. Dirt Capital, an investment firm, recently helped the Skoglunds acquire land to expand their North Bridger Bison operation. Photo: Chris Douglas
Montana Food Producers Look to Loans, State Programs, and Creative Partnerships
In 2024, when the neighboring ranch to North Bridger Bison went up for sale—putting 917 acres of pristine, open grassland and a historic event barn at risk of development— Matt Skoglund didn’t panic. In fact, he already had a plan.
Skoglund and his wife, Sarah, started North Bridger Bison from scratch in 2018. Based outside of Wilsall, the ranchers raise grassfed bison that are field harvested and sold in halves, quarters, or wholes to a growing customer base.
To scale the business, it was always clear that obtaining more land was essential. But Skoglund knew they would be unable to do so on their own.
Word of mouth connected him to Dirt Capital Partners, an impact-driven investment firm formed in 2014 to help acquire farmland for regenerative agriculture operations. Skoglund had already secured their support when he learned that the land was being sold.
Last summer, Dirt Capital bought all 917 acres of the neighboring ranch and will lease it to the Skoglunds for 10 years, with the shared understanding that North Bridger Bison will grow enough to buy them out within the decade. “They want to see us succeed,” Skoglund says. “We’re on the same team, which is great.”
The expansion will provide more pasture to grow the bison herd, allowing the ranch to eventually double its production. Skoglund also plans to use the restored event barn for agritourism offerings and weddings, and his family turned the farmhouse where they used to live into an Airbnb.
North Bridger Bison’s story is just one example of the creative ways that agricultural producers today are securing funding and capital. With federal grant dollars dwindling and less technical assistance available to farmers, more producers are looking to loans, private financing, or state dollars to make up the difference.
One of the most important takeaways for other farmers and ranchers, Skoglund says, is to be proactive.
“We got ahead of it. We saw that some land would change hands at some point, whether in a year or eight years, and we wanted to be prepared so that when that opportunity arose, we could jump on it to expand our ranch,” Skoglund says.
Martin Lemos, the director of impact and agriculture for Dirt Capital, says they were impressed with Skoglund’s stewardship ethos and grassland management.
All of Dirt Capital’s projects follow the model of purchasing farmland upfront and then leasing it while businesses grow enough to later buy them out. They have similar partnerships in Montana with Amaltheia Organic Dairy in Belgrade and a grain producer in northern Montana, and many other farms across the country.
“We’re basically financing the farmland and giving farmers the opportunity to really manage this land as if it was their own and have the runway to be able to secure this path to ownership,” Lemos says.
Individuals invest money in Dirt-Capital-managed funds that are allocated across various projects. Investors share Dirt Capital’s belief that supporting regenerative farmers with land access is an impactful investment, Lemos says.
At the same time, farmers often choose to work with Dirt Capital or similar impact investment firms because they tend to have more flexibility with forecasting financial outcomes compared to traditional banks, he says. Additionally, it can be appealing for the return on investment to go to supportive local investors versus a larger bank.
Another Montana agricultural business, the Old Salt Co-op, has received loans from a community-lending platform called Steward.
Formed in 2021, Old Salt Co-op is comprised of five Montana ranches aiming to build a regenerative marketplace for their livestock and meat that increases local food security and food system resilience.
Accessing adequate U.S. Department of Agriculture meat processing services has been a long-time need for the Old Salt brand, says president and co-founder Cole Mannix. Since Old Salt had been unable to find adequate third-party services, the co-op decided to establish its own. In July of 2022, Steward helped Mannix and his colleagues purchase a small Helena facility that was formerly a wild game processor under the premise that Old Salt could eventually convert it into a small USDA meat processing facility. However, plans were stymied after a city ordinance prevented the co-op from holding more than two large animals at the site at a time.
“We’re basically financing the farmland and giving farmers the opportunity to really manage this land as if it was their own and have the runway to be able to secure this path to ownership.” —Martin Lemos, Dirt Capital
Cooper Hibbard, rancher and co-founder of Old Salt Co-op, checks sheep at Sieben Live Stock Co. The co-op is comprised of ranches raising livestock with land stewardship in mind. Photo: 10Percent
So, after much searching, Old Salt purchased a property outside city limits in early 2024 intending to build a new facility. However, just as Old Salt was ready to begin construction in the spring of 2025, the co-op had the opportunity to purchase an existing USDA processing operation called Ranchland Packing in Butte. That purchase was completed in fall of 2025 with the help of loans from Steward, the USDA’s Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program, Bearpaw Development Corporation, and Headwaters RC&D of Butte.
The former owners of Ranchland and many of the former employees have remained part of the operation under Old Salt. But the acquisition will allow Old Salt to significantly increase sales volume of its branded meat while also providing custom processing services for other farms and ranches.
“It definitely helps us have a little bit more control on what we’re producing there and what equipment is available,” Mannix says. “Without that control over that part of the process, the brand did not have a growth opportunity.”
The purchase was a pivot from the original plan to build a facility from scratch, but when the opportunity to buy Ranchland came up, it didn’t make sense to turn it down, Mannix says.
He added that without loans from state organizations and community lenders such as Steward, Old Salt knew they would not be able to scale.
“We all agreed that continuing to be dependent on the status quo conventional marketplace was riskier than starting Old Salt,” Mannix adds. “Old Salt is riskier by far in the short term, but we think it’s less risky in the long term. Ultimately, we’re trying to create a food system that regenerates community and land.”
Old Salt has also received a handful of grants since its inception, but in total these have amounted to only about 13 percent of the total capital necessary, he says.
Industry experts have seen more producers seeking other funding avenues as the federal administration redirects dollars away from agricultural grant programs. For example, the USDA’s Increasing Land, Capital and Market Access Program was canceled in April, despite $300 million already allocated for awardees. Also in April, federal officials paused the Rural Energy for America Program, and still other programs have been impacted by staffing cuts at the USDA close to 25 percent.
Sam Blomquist is the former director of the food and agriculture development center (FDAC) for Prospera, a Bozeman-based economic development organization. Funded through the state Department of Agriculture, the center is one of 12 FDACs in Montana.
Prospera helps entrepreneurs navigate regulations and obtain funding through loans and state and federal programs. Blomquist’s work has given her a front seat to the impacts of some COVID-era and long-standing federal grant programs now sunsetting.
In Montana, the situation that Blomquist saw happen most often in 2025 was grant awards being unexpectedly stalled.
One Montanan impacted is Judy Cornell, owner and operator of Choteau-based Conservation Grains, which sources grains from regenerative and organic Montana farmers to process and sell to restaurants, bakeries, home millers, and home cooks. In summer 2024, she applied for a USDA grant for $92,800 to cover part of the cost of purchasing a color sorting machine. The color sorter would allow Cornell to clean grain to a higher standard so she can sell whole-berry grain to interested bakers and home millers—a new market.
But she didn’t receive word on her application before the administration change and subsequent January freeze on federal loans and grants. When Cornell began to hear about other farmers who made expenditures and were delayed reimbursement from the federal government, it was “nerve wracking,” she says.
Still, in May 2025, she finally received the notice of the award and, as is standard, paid for the color sorter before being reimbursed. By December, it was up and running. The Montana Department of Agriculture liaison provided reassurance to Cornell as she waited for the final reimbursement, which eventually came through later in January.
With the uncertainty, Blomquist expects to see a continued pivot from relying on federal grant programs to other solutions. Creative ways to pay for land acquisition are critical, she says; the cost of land is so high in the Gallatin Valley that young farmers can’t afford to buy real estate and aging farmers are hard-pressed to do much other than sell to developers.
“All the creative ways that aren’t a federal grant, and they aren’t charitable, but they’re somewhere in between—I think that there’s a lot of space in there,” Blomquist says, noting some examples of partnerships where expensive infrastructure is shared among businesses.
Robin Kelson, the executive director of Abundant Montana, says that state-level programs have generally been less impacted by federal changes.
Abundant Montana helps build awareness and market demand for Montana-grown food. The nonprofit has a Local Food Guide and recently launched its 33×33 campaign, an effort to have a third of the food consumed in Montana grown here by 2033 (see “Bringing Montana Food Back to Montana Plates” in the Spring 2026 issue of Edible Bozeman).
Kelson said state-level programs have been doing great work for years. For example, Montana’s Business Enhancement Program provides small grants to connect businesses with the resources they need in order to grow. Those resources include the Food Product Development Lab at Montana State University and the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center.
Montana’s Growth Through Agriculture Program has also been a long-standing investment into value-added agriculture in the state, and that is continuing to be funded, Kelson says.
She also mentions the important role that the FDACs in Montana—such as Prospera—play in providing local technical assistance and helping manage loans.
“In many ways, Montana is ahead of the game because we have resources and a foundation of having worked on local-food systems as a state for over 25 years,” Kelson says of the current funding ecosystem. “We are in a great position to support greater food self-reliance moving forward. … Doing this work to enhance our ability to provide more of our own food within the state of Montana is a win-win for everybody.”
