Cattle bills ‘Moove’ forward in both legislative chambers

Mooing and cow puns briefly filled the House chamber on Tuesday morning as legislators passed one of the final cattle-related bills this session.

The House passed House Resolution 34, which is in support of Montana beef producers, while down the hall, the Senate moved House Resolution 52 forward, which continues the discussion of a checkoff, or marketing and education program, for Treasure State cattle products.

HJ 34 was brought by Rep. Randyn Gregg, R-White Sulphur Springs, while HJ 52 was sponsored by Rep. Eric Tilleman, R-Cascade.

“I moo that this bill do pass,” Gregg said on the House floor.

His wasn’t the only bit of humor, as Rep. Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings, asked Rep. Bill Mercer, also a Billings Republican, about the bill.

“I just wanted to ask,” Zolnikov said. “Are you ‘mooved’ by this bill?”

The resolution calls for sustainable beef production and encourages state and federal governments “to prioritize policies that ensure fair market conditions,” and remove regulatory burdens.

The resolution also “strongly opposes” lab-grown meat, which the Montana Legislature voted to ban earlier this session with House Bill 401, currently on the governor’s desk.

As of January 2025, there were 1.2 million beef cows in Montana and, additionally, about 1 million calves in the state. Agriculture in Montana is a $6.5 billion industry. 

Tilleman’s bill would study ways to grow that, following up on a somewhat controversial checkoff marketing legislation, HB 119, that was tabled in the Senate Agriculture fCommittee earlier this session. The bill would have created the Montana Cattle Committee and asked about 9,600 beef producers across the state, through a vote, whether or not they wanted to be taxed per head of cattle for the program.

“We decided to do a study bill to where we can get it ironed out, make it work for everybody,” Tilleman told the Daily Montanan. “Because we know our beef in Montana is some of the best, and everybody keeps buying.”

That idea was based on the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, which was established in 1967 to promote Treasure State versions of those products. That committee works with the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Oregon, Tilleman said.

“They’ll actually take our wheat from Montana,” Tilleman said. “And they design special dishes for each of the different countries to try to show that our wheat is the best.”

If the Montana Cattle Committee is created in a future session, that’s the direction Tilleman hopes it goes. HJ 52 will also target educational opportunities. 

Tilleman is the Office of Public Instruction’s agricultural education specialist and sees it first hand. In Kalispell, for example, there’s six agriculture teachers with around 600 students. Tilleman said about two-thirds of schools in the state have some sort of agricultural education.

“There’s a big push in our area for that,” Tilleman said.

Several bills have touched on livestock this session, including increased financial protections for goat and bison producers. 

House Bill 356, which is on its way to the governor’s desk, added black bears to a predation list. It allows livestock producers, through the Livestock Loss Board, to receive compensation for animals killed by black bears. The list was previously grizzly bears, mountain lions and wolves.

“We have a lot of good bills that we’re trying to kind of rectify some of our code and try to actually help mitigate livestock loss,” Tilleman said. “And that was the big ones I was pushing, is being able to use those dollars to help mitigate a little more and doing that education.”

Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Rep. Katie Zolnikov was addressing Rep. Bill Mercer in her comment on the floor.