Southern Agricultural Research Center 

Dan Hansen opened the USDA Huntley Station as the first superintendent on January 19, 1910. Born April 10, 1884 in Brigham, Utah, following childhood he worked in agriculture at Plevna, Klamath county, Oregon. When he came to Huntley the initial mission was to establish research in agricultural production in what had been sagebrush and mixed grass prairie prior to the construction of the Huntley Irrigation Project. As the community developed following homesteading, the research at the station was instrumental in helping area farmers be successful in an area that only received 14 inches of annual precipitation. Those first few years he established research in crop rotations, irrigation management, manure and fertilizer additions, and later introduced dairy and hogs to the agricultural system of southern Montana. The Huntley station became well known regionally for their Holstein breeding program beginning around 1920. Early work also involved studies on saline soils, and improved drainage where soils became waterlogged once flood irrigation was introduced. The footprint of what has become the Southern Agricultural Research Center was laid down by Mr. Hansen largely in the first 10 years of the station’s existence.

Oliver A. Lammers served as superintendent from July 1, 1949 – September 15, 1951. Born March 13, 1909 on a family farm near Marion, SD, in 1911 his family moved to a Montana homestead 2 miles east of Nihill. He attended Montana State College graduating in 1931 with a B.S. in agronomy. He received a teaching degree in 1933 and taught at the Fergus county high school for a year. In 1935 he accepted an appointment as assistant county agent and served in several Montana counties prior to coming to Huntley.

Torlief S. (Torley) Aasheim was superintendent from September 16, 1951 – August 30, 1958. Born on February 22, 1913 in a sod house near Reserve, MT, he was the son of Norwegian immigrants Sven and Marthea Aasheim. He attended Montana State College graduating with both a B.S. and M.S. in agronomy. He served as the director of the Montana Cooperative Extension Service for 16 years from 1958-1974 in Bozeman.

James Krall was superintendent at SARC from September 1, 1958 – August 15, 1974. Born May 29, 1919 as the 13th child of Joseph and Mary Krall who homesteaded five miles west of Danvers, MT. He received a B.S. and M.S. in agronomy in 1950 from Montana State University, where he also played football for the Bobcats. Jim conducted research at Moccasin and Huntley serving as superintendent at both research centers. He was the first to use 2,4-D in research plots in Montana. He served as the director of the Saline Seep Program and helped develop Homesteader Days in Huntley.

Donald Baldridge became superintendent on August 16, 1974. He was born July 6, 1928 in Great Falls. Donald grew up on a farm in the Moccasin, Montana area. He received a BS in agronomy in 1950 and an M.S. in agronomy in 1959 both from Montana State University. He was employed by Montana Agricultural Experiment Station at Moccasin from 1946-1955, and at Huntley from 1955-1980, first as an agronomist.

Gilbert Stallknecht served as superintendent starting July1, 1981. He was born September 21, 1935 in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota where he grew up on a farm. He received his B.S. (1962), M.S. (1966), and Ph. D. (1968) in agronomy from the University of Minnesota.

Kenneth D. Kephart became superintendent February 1, 1998 and was tasked with reopening the station after it was closed in 1995 due to University budget cuts. He was born October 6, 1954, and moved with his family to Creston, Montana in 1969. During high school he worked at the Northwestern Agricultural Research Center near Creston, and then attended Montana State University where he received a B.S (1976) and M.S. (1980) in agronomy. He received a Ph. D. in agronomy from the University of Idaho (1983) and then stayed on in Moscow as an Extension Assistant Professor of Agronomy. In 1990 he became the Extension small grains specialist at the University of Missouri where he worked until becoming superintendent of SARC in 1998.

Kent A. McVay served as superintendent from July1, 2022 – present. He was born March 14, 1956 in Paola, Kansas, but grew up in western Kansas. After six years in the U.S. Navy he attended Kansas State University and received a B.S. in Agronomy (1986), followed by a M.S. in Agronomy (1988) from the University of Georgia. He worked for the Extension soil fertility program at the University of Missouri for 5 years and then returned to the University of Georgia for a Ph. D. in soil physics (1999). He was the Extension specialist for soil and water conservation at Kansas State from 1999-2006. He came to Huntley as the Extension cropping systems specialist for Montana State University in 2007 where he has worked in both research and Extension.