My name is Trina Jo Bradley, and my family and I own and operate a cattle ranch west of Valier on the southern end of the Blackfeet Reservation. On the ranch, we raise black Angus/Hereford  cattle, quarter horses, hay, and grizzly bears.  

I joined Montana Farm Bureau in 2022 at the urging of President Cyndi Johnson, and I am so happy she recommended membership. In the last two years, I have learned so much about MFBF and what the organization does for Montanans in agriculture, and have been excited to join in many conversations from the local to the state level, and have even had the opportunity to connect to the federal level on occasion.  

Consequently, President Johnson was also the one to urge me to apply for the ACE Leadership Program. In 2016, I was part of the inaugural Montana Stockgrowers Association Leadership Series, and learned so much about how to step up my leadership game. Since then, I have stepped into several leadership roles, but my constant thirst for knowledge always keeps me wanting more. Participating in ACE was an opportunity to not only continue learning, but to compare my current skills with what I had walking into the MSGA program - which was basically nothing. Having had the opportunity to work with Sarah Bohnenkamp both during the MSGA Leadership Series and ACE has been nothing short of amazing - she is so great at getting people fired up to do better and showing us how to accomplish our goals.  

I am currently the Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Front Ranchlands Group and Chair of the Montana Conflict Reduction Consortium. Honing my skills in ACE has really helped me be a more effective leader in both capacities, and I feel more prepared to take on more challenges once I graduate from ACE.  

In my capacity as Executive Director of RMFRG and Chair of the MTCRC, I focus mostly on reducing grizzly bear and wolf conflicts - both livestock and human related. I work with a large variety of stakeholders from farmers and ranchers to federal and state wildlife managers to the conservation community. With my ACE training, I think I will be able to better serve the agricultural communities that I represent through effective communication, conflict resolution, and the media. ACE not only helped me to find my strengths, but it helped me to identify the areas where I struggle, and has helped me work on strengthening those areas so I can be most effective and efficient.  

I have not been active in my local Farm Bureau (Front Range Counties) but I would love to take my newly acquired ACE skills and use them there, as well. The idea that all MFBF policy comes from the county level is amazing to me - I love that a century later, Farm Bureau still values the opinions of the “little people,” and who better to write policy than the people working on the land? 

Every single person in the agricultural community has the responsibility to advocate for our way of life, and developing leadership skills - especially good communication - is key to making sure we stay on the landscape. Through programs like ACE, we can not only hone those skills, but also provide ourselves an avenue to help our neighbors find their voices, and collectively, we can change the world and carry on the legacy that Montana Farm Bureau has been working toward for the last 105 years.