Jim Darcy Ag Day connects Helena students to Montana agriculture

At Jim Darcy Elementary School in Helena, Ag Day has become more than a classroom tradition: it is an early look at the jobs, land use and food system that still shape Lewis and Clark County. Students moved through more than 20 stations on livestock, farm careers and crops, a hands-on format meant to make agriculture feel practical in a county where more than 36% of the land is classified as farmland.

The stations brought students face to face with goats, cattle, emus, pigs and other animals, while also showing that agriculture reaches far beyond a pasture or a barn. Organizers framed the day around the idea that food production, stewardship and the business side of farming all depend on one another. For a school in the state capital, the lesson carried a local edge: Lewis and Clark County had 707 farms in the 2017 Census of Agriculture, and county farm revenue that year topped $47 million.

Tyrell Wilson and his son Carter Wilson gave that lesson a family face. Tyrell helped present, and Carter helped teach classmates why the work matters. Carter said kids need to learn about farming because without farms there would be no food. Tyrell said teaching agriculture is important to pass it on to his kids and spend quality time together. Their presence reflected the kind of intergenerational knowledge that still drives much of Montana agriculture, where families not only produce food but also sustain the land.

The scale of that economy helps explain why the school’s annual event matters. The Montana Department of Agriculture says agriculture is the state’s No. 1 industry and supports more than 30 programs. The USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 24,266 farms and ranches in Montana, with more than 57 million acres of land in farms and ranches. Montana State University Extension says agriculture has long been the foundation of the state economy; in 2017, farms and ranches used 58 million acres, about 62% of Montana’s land, and generated $3.5 billion in agricultural product sales.

Lewis and Clark County’s own numbers show the same mix of small and large operations that students need to understand if they are thinking about future work in agriculture, food processing, veterinary care, equipment, soil health or land management. The county profile lists 65 farms of 1 to 9 acres and 90 farms of 1,000 acres or more, along with 91,586 acres of cropland and 761,405 acres of pastureland. Jim Darcy’s long-running Ag Day gave Helena students a concrete look at that economy, and at the people who keep it moving.