The water infrastructure behind Montana's legacy crops

When people think of agriculture and legacy crops in the Flathead, they instantly see the cherry groves lining the lake’s eastern shore. And for good reason. Flathead cherries have been part of the region’s identity for over a century, with orchards dating back to the early 1900s and a growers’ cooperative still going strong since 1935. It’s a genuine legacy crop with an image well known across the region. 

But cherries are only part of the picture at less than 5% of agricultural sales across Flathead and Lake counties. The broader ag economy runs on hay, wheat, barley, canola, and cattle. Hay alone covers more acreage than every other crop combined. That is the deeper legacy in terms of actual economic impact, and nearly all of it depends on irrigated ground. 

Over generations, farmers and ranchers have steadily improved how they apply water. Flood irrigation gave way to hand lines and wheel lines, and eventually to the center pivots. Each step reduced labor required and delivered water more efficiently to the root zone. But the same way it is easy to focus on the cherries and miss the hayfields, it is easy to focus on water at the farm level and miss what is happening upstream. 

Legacy crops in the region are built on legacy infrastructure. The first irrigation ditches in the Flathead were dug in the 1880s. By the early 1900s, larger projects expanded service areas to over 130,000 acres across the valley. While some canals, ditches, headgates, and diversions have been updated, most are still managed with the same tools and methods they were built with over a century ago. Many who manage this infrastructure have deep local knowledge, but the work is still labor-intensive and time-consuming, and coordination between upstream resources and downstream users is often a source of friction. Some entities have secured funding sources to help modernize, but for many, the technology available today is simply too expensive to deploy at the scale these systems require. The result is fragmented information and limited visibility into systems that entire communities depend on. 

That challenge is our origin story. We started Remsight in the Bitterroot Valley because we experienced many of these challenges firsthand. We believe the people doing this work, and serving our agricultural communities like those in the Flathead, deserve better tools at prices that make sense for ag. 

Fortunately, we’re not doing this alone. The ecosystem behind Montana entrepreneurs is stronger than most people realize. From the experience of competing in and winning the John Ruffatto Startup Challenge at the University of Montana, to the time spent with countless individuals who stepped well beyond their core responsibilities to help us refine our strategy and better serve our customers, the Montana startup ecosystem has been foundational to our success. We are excited about what technology built here in Montana can do to sustain our state's agricultural heritage, steward our resources, and support the communities that depend on them. 

Stephen McLaughlin is the president and co-founder of Remsight, a water technology company based in Victor.