Backus beekeeping farm will remain abuzz with beginning farmer grant

BACKUS — Backus beekeeper Amanda Montague will no longer have to send her bees to Texas for the winter.

Montague owns Bee’n Happy Farms with her husband Pat Montague. The couple started keeping bees as a hobby.

“We started out just having some honey for some family and friends. Then, they started telling people about it, and pretty soon, everybody wanted honey,” Montague said.

They now maintain 75 hives. Those hives hit their largest numbers in summer and can reach over 100,000 bees apiece. But the weather fluctuations between Minnesota’s winters and springs aren’t typically kind to bees. Montague’s farm was no exception.

“When we used to keep our bees here, our survival rate was probably about only 30%. We had about 70% die off every year,” Montague said.

They started to send their bees across the country on trucks to Texas during the winter months. That approach lowered their risk of weather-related problems but exposed them to other bees — increasing the risk of transmissible diseases and pests.

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Bee'n Happy Farms

Now, Montague’s bees are in luck. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture awarded Montague a Beginning Farmer Equipment and Infrastructure Grant. The program supports farmers who have less than 10 years of experience by providing funds for equipment and developing infrastructure as they grow their businesses.

Montague is using the grant to buy a temperature-controlled structure to keep her bees safe in Minnesota year-round.

“It will allow us to hopefully increase our number of hives and have a higher success rate of survival in Minnesota without having to transport them to somewhere warm for the winter,” Montague said.

Farmers are eligible to apply after selling at least $1,000 of farm products in one year. The ag department also gives preference to those with lower revenue and those who don’t own their own land.

The department awarded $723,200 to support 91 beginning farmers in 51 Minnesota counties during the grant’s most recent funding round.

“This year we had a really wide range of things that people are going to purchase with their grant funds,” said Emily Toner, senior grant specialist for the ag department’s Emerging Farmers Office.

Some requests are geared toward livestock, such as equipment that improves handling safety. Other funds will help with purchasing tractors, irrigation systems, fencing, walk-in coolers and food storage.

“One thing I'm really proud of is the geographic reach that we've had with this program,” Toner said. “In the two years of the program, we've actually been able to give awards that cover 67 of Minnesota's counties. I think it's a program that's really able to support farmers in every corner of Minnesota, which is really cool.”

The grant is one of several programs the state offers to support beginning farmers. Farmers can also receive assistance with purchasing land or financing a new farm.

The number of farms in Minnesota declined by 1,300 between 2024 and 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farms and Land in Farms report. At the same time, the average size of the remaining farms ticked upward, reflecting the long-term trend of cropland consolidation.

“This grant is kind of one piece of the puzzle, and we're really trying hard to support people to get into farming and be able to succeed right away,” Toner said.

Toner said in the two years the grant has existed, the department has awarded more than $1.5 million dollars to nearly 200 beginning farmers.

Stella Mayerhoff is a Report for America corps member, covering Minnesota’s headwaters region for KAXE in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.