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BELGRADE – U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, along with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), released new brucellosis testing guidelines at a ranch in Belgrade Wednesday. The new testing guidelines are a push to support Montana ranchers and agriculture by expanding research and improving strategies to wipe out and decrease the effects of brucellosis, according to a release from Sen. Daines’ Office. Sen. Daines’ Office’s release says prior to the new testing guidelines, researchers ability to study the disease on livestock and wildlife were restricted because they could only examine infected animals in an enclosed indoor space. Montana agriculture leaders including

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Wednesday morning in Belgrade, USDA undersecretary Greg Ibach spoke with Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte. Ibach announced new outdoor testing for studying brucellosis, a disease in livestock and wildlife. He said brucellosis is an issue affecting Montana cattle producers. Ibach said the new research will not only help Montanans but cattle producers across the U.S. “I don’t expect this to happen in a year or maybe even two — this is something that’s going to take some time,” he said. Ibach said he’s hopeful this new way of studying brucellosis will lead to a vaccine

MONTANA — On Wednesday, USDA Undersecretary Greg Ibach along with U.S. Senator Steve Daines announced the USDA is continuing research on brucellosis in Montana. The infectious disease can severely harm cattle and wildlife. Ibach said it has been eliminated in all other parts of the state except in the Yellowstone area. “It’s going to take some time to be able to find the right research project, the most efficacious way to deliver the vaccine either orally or through other methods that we might could use in wildlife, so I don’t expect this in a year or maybe even two. This

MISSOULA — Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) is thanking firefighters for their tremendous efforts during what has turned out to be a record-breaking fire season across the U.S. and he’s once more promising the Senate will act on a series of sweeping reforms to improve forest management. Sen. Daines made those comments Tuesday, stopping in Missoula with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Jim Hubbard to thank the “smokejumpers” and other personnel for their work during an especially fierce fire season that saw more than 30-thousand firefighters deployed. While the largest fires struck the West Coast this year, Sen. Daines and Hubbard noted it

BUTTE, Mont. — Sen. Steve Daines came to Butte Tuesday morning, joined by Chief Executive Dave Palmer, to further discuss cleanup developments moving forward. While no plans were outlined, Daines expressed his desire to one day get Butte off the Superfund list. The Environmental Protection Agency also joined the meeting and announced the next steps moving forward. “You folks made it happen,” said Gregory Sopkin, regional administrator for Region 8. “It’s your community. You deserve better cleanup. What was happening was not acceptable, it was taking too long. The follow-through is going to be very important.” Remedial designs outlined by

Progress rode into Anaconda on a sharp west wind Tuesday. At a building site at Polk Street and Highway 1, gusts kept blowing down the pictures of the $10 million Forge Hotel and new Barclay’s II Restaurant, but there were plenty of hands to keep putting them back up. Best of all, the pictures were backed up by an EPA consent decree and settlement with the Smelter City, and real money. Bill Everett, Anaconda chief executive; Doug Benevento, acting deputy administrator of the EPA; and U.S. Sen. Steve Daines braved the wind to celebrate real accomplishment after nearly four decades

Toward the end of a fire season that set records for acres burned and firefighters deployed, Montana Sen. Steve Daines and U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Jim Hubbard visited the Missoula Smokejumper Base to say thanks. “This fire year has been one of those that got a lot of attention,” Hubbard said during a brief ceremony at the Smokejumper aircraft hangar on Tuesday. “Our season is still far from over in California. The weather and vegetation will continue to keep it active.” Daines’ staff presented about a dozen Lolo National Forest firefighters and smokejumpers with copies of a Senate proclamation commending

A ridge east of Paradise Valley where a bomber crashed in 1962 has officially been named “B-47 Ridge” in honor of the four Air Force pilots who died there. President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan B-47 Designation Act into law on Tuesday. The bill honors Capt. Bill Faulconer, Lt. Fred Hixenbaugh, Lt. David Sutton and Lt. Lloyd Sawyers, who died in a plane crash in 1962. The crew took off from the Dyess Air Force Base in Texas on July 23, 1962, for a training mission. During the flight, their B-47 bomber crashed into a ridge on a southwestern slope