Carter County welcomes new brand inspector

Montana native, Jake Eshelman, recently took the role as brand inspector for the southeastern Montana counties of Carter, Fallon and Wibaux. As a brand inspector he will be handling grazing permits, supervising deputy and local brand inspectors, doing horse inspections and acting as law enforcement personnel for the Department of Livestock.

Eshelman grew up on the western side of the state in Lincoln. He grew up around agriculture with his dad helping several of the local ranchers. He took a strong interest in it.

“I was really active in my 4-H club,” he added.

This interest extended beyond the 4H club and into his college years at Montana State University Bozeman, where he graduated with a degree in Animal Science in 2008.

After college Jake continued on to work for a natural beef company that was based in Billings at the time. The company then sold and moved to Nebraska.

“I wanted to stay in Montana,” he explained. “So that’s what led me to this. I decided I really liked the work.”

At that point he took a job with the Department of Livestock, where he worked for nine years, before moving to Columbus where he worked as the District Inspector.

Eshelman explained that it was always in his family’s plans to move to Ekalaka. “My wife is originally from Ekalaka,” he noted.

Eshelman is married to Dana Kreitel, a 2004 graduate of CCHS.

When they lived in Billings they would often come back on the weekends to help out on his in-law’s ranch. “I really enjoyed doing that. We always talked about how nice it’d be to be able to stay so we feel really fortunate to be able to live and work in the area we want to.”

Eshelman hopes that people will feel welcome to call him with any livestock issues or concerns they come across. “I’m very eager to get to know everybody in the area and help out people with whatever livestock issues they may have.”

Eshelman can be contacted at 406-951-0587.