FERGUS COUNTY— When Jill Smith walked to her shed on the morning of August 14, she expected the ordinary: a day of cleaning garlic, brushing dirt from bulbs and getting ready for market.

Instead, she looked up and watched a small plane pass. She says it circled their property again and again for nearly two hours. By the next morning, the life in her fields was gone.

Smith and her partner, Paul Armstad, spent more than a decade building Surenuff Garlic into a small and respected operation.

They planted by hand, harvested by hand, and even cleaned each bulb with a toothbrush to preserve the outer wrappers so their garlic would store for months.

Watch the full story: Montana Ag Network: Garlic operation disrupted by aerial spraying

At peak production, they harvested roughly 6,000 to 1

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