About Montana farmer-stockman. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1947-1993
Great Falls, Mont. (1947-1993)

The Montana Farmer-Stockman

The Montana Farmer-Stockman was first published as the Montana Farmer on August 23, 1913 in Great Falls, Montana. It was owned and printed by the Great Falls Tribune. H.P. Griffen was editor, Thomas Shaw was associate editor, and W.H. Castner was manager. The paper billed itself as "A Weekly Journal Devoted to the Interests of the Montana Farmer and Stock Raiser." In the first editorial, Griffen made the publication's goal clear: "We shall publish practical things, things that will be of actual help to Montana farmers on Montana farms, that will increase their farm yields and make the home life happier." By the 1940s, the paper's distribution expanded to include northern Wyoming. On May 15, 1947, the paper changed its name to the Montana Farmer-Stockman. Editor Lester Cole explained that " … in recent years an increasing number of readers have suggested that the name of the paper be broadened to reflect the dual nature of its editorial program and of the agricultural field it covers … It is clear, therefore, that most of our nearly 30,000 subscribers and approximately 120,000 readers are interested in livestock as well as in crops."

In stark contrast to its early days, the 1940s Farmer-Stockman ran an average of 50 pages per issue. The amount of agricultural information and advertising necessitated a twice-monthly publication schedule and pushed the paper closer to a magazine format.

The Farmer-Stockman dedicated its non-commercial space to a multitude of features and sections. Among other content, a typical issue contained short items of interest sent in by readers, a market outlook column for various crops, a veterinary section, politics section, and a section for "The Montana Rural Home."

The paper's wide distribution made it an ideal vehicle for farm and ranch advertising. Ford advertised new trucks and tractors, Conoco and Standard Oil advertised their fuel supply services, and Proctor and Gamble ran some of their first advertisements for Tide detergent.

In 1964, after 51 years of Montana ownership and operation, the Montana Farmer-Stockman was sold to the Cowles (pronounced "coles") Publishing Company of Spokane, Washington. Printing moved to Spokane, but Cowles maintained an advertising office for the paper in Great Falls and later Billings. After a large subscriber survey in 1993, the publication changed its name back to Montana Farmer and returned to featuring farming content. Stockgrower content was moved to a separate publication, the Western Beef Producer. The managing editor at the time explained that "agriculture today is so information intensive that we simply can't cover both beef and crops equally well in one magazine."

Northwest Farmer-Stockman Inc., a subsidiary of Cowles, sold the Montana Farmer and five other agricultural titles to Farm Progress Companies of Chicago in 1996. Farm Progress combined the Montana Farmer with several other publications to create the Western Farmer-Stockman. Altogether the new title covered Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, California, and Nevada.

Provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT