Fallon County in context

Adjacent counties in the the O’Fallon Creek and high plains corridor. Fallon County shares the eastern high plains dryland system with these neighbors.

Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.

Snowpack & Moisture Detail

SNOTEL station-by-station read for Fallon County. The dashboard above gives current aggregate; this section shows where the water actually is.

Fallon County’s water supply is anchored by O’Fallon Creek flowing northeast toward the Yellowstone and by Baker Lake, a natural lake near the county seat that supports some municipal and stock water use. The county sits on the high plains with no mountain snowpack influence; winter snowfall accumulation and spring precipitation determine O’Fallon Creek flows and stock dam fill. Powder River headwaters drain the southwestern corner of the county.

Basin Index: O’Fallon Creek flows are driven by local precipitation and snowmelt; Baker Lake levels serve as a proxy for regional moisture conditions. Drought Monitor (valid 2026-09-08): Worst class D3 (extreme) over 70% of the county. Coverage at or worse than each class: D0 100%, D1 100%, D2 100%, D3 70%, D4 0%. Station snapshot as of September 16, 2026 — live dashboard above is current.

Two-Week Rainfall

Observed (prior 14 days) and forecast (next 14 days) · Fallon County · as of 2026-09-17

Observed detail: 1 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.04 in.

Forecast source: NWS/NOAA api.weather.gov (days 1–7) blended with Open-Meteo gridded model (days 8–14). The next-14-day total is model-derived — NOAA quantitative precipitation forecast is precise only through ~7 days, and days 8–14 are a model blend, not an observed gauge reading.

Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership

Fallon County’s primary drainage is O’Fallon Creek, which flows northeast through Baker and empties into the Yellowstone River near Fallon, with Powder River headwaters draining southwest portions toward Wyoming.

O’Fallon Creek carries the county’s senior water rights for stock water and limited flood irrigation, with the oldest appropriations from the early 1900s. Baker Lake is a natural water body with associated rights that predate the irrigation era. The creek is intermittent in dry years; senior rights are rarely called but junior holders face curtailment in drought conditions. Powder River headwater rights in the southwest are sparse and carry limited volume. There is no major irrigation district; most hay irrigation is individual diversion under private water right certificates. Stock dams across the rolling plains interior supplement creek-based sources. Water court adjudication covers the O’Fallon Creek basin under the Montana system.

Federal Grazing Leases

BLM and U.S. Forest Service permitted grazing on public-land allotments · Fallon County

AUMs (BLM) and head-months (USFS) are both animal-unit-months — one animal grazing for one month, the standard measure of authorized use. Acres are BLM public acres and USFS GIS acres on the mapped allotments.

Statewide maps: BLM allotment map · Forest Service allotment map. Excludes Montana DNRC state-trust grazing leases.

Land Resources

Three independent estimates of how Fallon County’s land is used — shown side by side, never blended

Every acreage figure below comes from an independent source that measures the land a different way. We show them side by side — and never blend reported acreage, satellite pixels and tax classifications into one unexplained number. Total county area 1,037,180 acres · land in farms 862,293 acres (83% of the county).

🗺  Open the interactive land map for Fallon County →
See crops, range, irrigated fields, public land and ownership parcels drawn live on the map.

Principal crops — official vs. satellite

These columns measure different things, so they should not match. The Census counts acres actually harvested in the census year, as reported by producers; the Cropland Data Layer counts every acre the satellite saw in that crop, including fields in a crop–fallow rotation and stands not harvested. Winter wheat is the clearest example: much of the county’s wheat ground sits in fallow in any given year, so the satellite total runs well above harvested acres. CDL also over-attributes hay and forage on native range. “Withheld” means the Census suppressed the value to protect an individual operation’s privacy.

How the county’s acres classify

Three ways of counting the same ground. Census figures are producer-reported acres in farms; the satellite column is a wall-to-wall pixel classification of the whole county (so it also sees developed land, water and non-farm ground the others do not); the assessment column is the Montana Department of Revenue’s parcel-level tax classification (CAMA), which is why its cropland total tracks the Census closely while the satellite tends to run higher. Developed and open-water rows come only from the satellite. Where they disagree, no single number is “wrong” — they are measuring different things.

Irrigated land, three independent ways

The single most important acreage figure for a cattle operation, and the three sources genuinely differ. The Census counts acres actually irrigated and harvested in the census year; the Montana DOR figure is what is classified and taxed as irrigated; the DNRC mapping captures the full remote-sensed irrigated extent, including ground that carries irrigation but was idle or in another use that year — so it usually reads highest. We publish all three rather than pick one.

What each estimate means

• USDA Census of Agriculture — producer-reported, the official record. Highly credible, but taken every five years and suppressed in counties where a value would identify a single operation.
• Satellite (Cropland Data Layer) — USDA’s annual, wall-to-wall satellite classification. Complete county coverage every year, but it infers crops from imagery, so it mislabels some ground and over-calls hay and forage on native range.
• Tax / assessment — Montana Department of Revenue parcel-level classification from the CAMA assessment roll (2026 tax year), aggregated from the Montana State Library cadastral. Parcel- and ownership-based; a land classification, not an annual crop report.

Sources: USDA NASS Census of Agriculture 2022 (Quick Stats); USDA Cropland Data Layer 2023 (CropScape zonal statistics, USDA-NASS); Montana Department of Revenue CAMA assessment acreage via the MSDI cadastral parcels layer (tax year 2026); Montana DNRC Statewide Irrigation dataset. Prepared by Dirk Adams with the assistance of AI.

Local Help

Verified contacts and official destinations for Fallon County — not a directory dump, just where to actually call

Extension, USDA, market, brand and diagnostic links go to the official Montana source; the DNRC office and phone are the specific regional office serving this county. Provider directories (veterinarians, feed dealers) will be added only once a repeatable verification standard is in place. Prepared by Dirk Adams with the assistance of AI.

Production & Sales

Operation character, hay base, and how cattle reach market from Fallon County.

Cattle production

Fallon County is a solid mid-size cow-calf county with operations ranging from 150–500 head. Baker serves as a regional hub with a livestock auction, feedlot connections, and supply infrastructure. Some yearling stocker activity in wet years. USFS land is absent; most grazing is on BLM and private lease. Fall calf runs move through Baker Livestock or truck to Miles City.

Hay & winter feed

Alfalfa and alfalfa-grass mix from O’Fallon Creek bottoms is the primary irrigated hay source near Baker. Dryland native hay production is widespread on the uplands. First cutting targets late June to early July. Most larger operations supplement with purchased hay. Yield outlook is moisture-dependent through late spring. [draft — verify against current conditions]

Logistics · sale barns & trucking

Baker Livestock Auction is the primary local sale point. Miles City Livestock Commission is 80 miles northwest on US-12. Billings is about 2.5 hours via US-12 west. Baker sits at the intersection of US-12 and MT-7, providing solid north-south trucking access to Wyoming markets as well.

Licensed Processing Plants

No federally inspected or state-inspected processing plant currently operates in Fallon County — the nearest licensed plants are listed below

Meat from federally inspected and state-inspected plants can be sold; custom-exempt plants are not listed here. Verified August 2026 against the USDA FSIS Meat, Poultry & Egg Product Inspection Directory and the Montana Department of Livestock state plant list (Jan 2026). Grants of inspection change — call before you haul.