Fallon County, Montana
Overview
Fallon County is a small far-eastern Montana county anchored by Baker. The county economy is split between oil and gas production (the Cedar Creek Anticline has been a long-running MT oil province, and the Bakken play extends into the region) and agriculture — primarily dryland wheat and cow-calf ranching on short-grass prairie. Terrain is rolling to broken, with the Little Missouri River drainage on the eastern edge and the O’Fallon Creek system cutting through the county. Baker Lake, an artificial reservoir, is a local recreational and irrigation resource.
Weather & Moisture
Fallon County has no NRCS SNOTEL stations (no meaningful elevation for snow retention). The county is also one of two honestcattle.net counties (along with Carter) with no active in-county USGS discharge gauge on the Little Missouri River — the nearest active gauge on that system is across the North Dakota border. Water supply for agriculture comes from direct precipitation driving dryland grain and pasture plus groundwater wells for stock water. O’Fallon Creek has historically been a critical stock water source.
Summary of Current Conditions
Live data block above refreshes daily. Fallon County has no SNOTEL and no in-county USGS streamgauge, so those fields will read as “No Snowpack” and null respectively. Drought classification, Mesonet soil moisture (Plevna), and multi-month precipitation anomaly are the primary signals for this page.
Water Rights & Land Ownership
Fallon County water rights are primarily stock-water rights on springs and intermittent creeks, O’Fallon Creek and Little Missouri tributary rights, and significant groundwater use from wells penetrating the Hell Creek and Fox Hills aquifers. There are no major irrigation projects of the scale found in central and western Montana. Montana DNRC WRQS covers the county.
Hay & Winter Feed
Native grass hay from dryland meadows and limited small-scale irrigated hay are the feed base for Fallon County cow-calf operations. Most hay is locally consumed. In drought years, Fallon County producers often source hay from adjacent counties, from ND, or from SD.
Cattle Production
Large-scale rangeland cow-calf operations dominate the cattle side of the economy, combined with the oil and gas revenue that many landowners receive. Average ranch size is substantially larger than central Montana counties, reflecting the low productivity per acre of the short-grass prairie. Fall-weaned calves typically truck west to Miles City Livestock Commission (~80 miles via US-12) or southeast to Belle Fourche Livestock Exchange in South Dakota (~115 miles).
County Logistics
Baker sits on US-12 approximately 80 miles southeast of Miles City (I-94 access) and 115 miles northwest of Belle Fourche SD. No interstate access within the county. Montana Highway 7 runs south from Baker toward Ekalaka (Carter County). Trucking to Billings runs approximately 5 hours via US-12 and I-94.
Data Sources
- USDA NRCS National Water and Climate Center — no in-county SNOTEL (plains county)
- USDA Drought Monitor — weekly county drought classification
- USGS Water Services — no active in-county discharge gauge on O’Fallon Creek or the Little Missouri
- Montana Mesonet (UMT) — soil moisture (Plevna)
- NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance — county precipitation anomaly (1/3/12 month)
- USDA NASS — county cattle inventory and agricultural census