Fergus County in context

Adjacent counties in the the Judith River corridor. Fergus County shares the Little Belt and Judith Mountain snowpack with these neighbors.

Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.

Snowpack & Moisture Detail

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

Fergus County snowpack is sharply split — high-elevation stations holding, lower drainages below median at the last spring reading (June 4, 2026). Snowpack has since melted out for the season, so this section shows how the 2026 snow season ended, not current conditions. One SNOTEL station monitors county snowpack. Fergus County watershed snowpack well below normal (Crystal Lake 59% of median).

Basin Index: Fergus County watershed snowpack well below normal (Crystal Lake 59% of median). Drought Monitor (valid 2026-11-10): No drought (D1+) in the county. Coverage at or worse than each class: D0 0.6%, D1 0%, D2 0%, D3 0%, D4 0%. Station snapshot as of November 13, 2026 — live dashboard above is current.

Two-Week Rainfall

Observed (prior 14 days) and forecast (next 14 days) · Fergus County · as of 2026-11-13

Observed detail: 2 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.40 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.

Moisture Outlook: 1, 3, 6 and 12 Months

Expected precipitation against the 1991–2020 normal · Fergus County · NOAA seasonal outlook issued Oct 15, 2026; monthly outlook Oct 31, 2026 · refreshed monthly

• Odds, November 2026: 36% chance of a drier-than-normal month, 34% near normal, 30% wetter.
• Odds, Nov 2026–Jan 2027: 45% drier than normal, 33% near normal, 22% wetter.
• Temperature: November 2026 leans warmer than normal (55% chance of a warmer-than-normal month); Nov 2026–Jan 2027 leans warmer than normal (45% chance of a warmer-than-normal three months). Warmer weather pulls more moisture out of soil and snowpack.
• Spring growing season (Apr–Jun 2027): these three months normally bring 7.90 in, about 46% of the year’s moisture. NOAA’s early read: 45% drier, 33% near normal, 22% wetter — expected 7.40 in (94% of normal).

How it is built: NOAA Climate Prediction Center outlook odds read across Fergus County, applied to the county’s 1991–2020 precipitation record (NOAA NCEI). Inches are county-wide averages that include mountain ground, so valley and bench ranches usually receive less; the percent of normal carries over better than the inches. Full method and limits → Prepared by Dirk Adams with the assistance of AI.

Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership

The Judith River rises in the Little Belt Mountains near Utica and flows northeast through Lewistown before joining the Missouri River in Petroleum County. Key confluences include Warm Spring Creek and McDonald Creek above Lewistown.

The Judith River system supports irrigation for hay and small grain production in the Lewistown valley and limited stock water diversions across the benchlands. Senior water rights on the Judith date to the 1880s–1890s homestead era, with many priority dates in the 1900–1915 range for smaller ditches. The lower Judith can be over-appropriated in dry years, particularly below Lewistown where late-priority holders may be shut down by August. Spring-fed creeks in the Judith Mountains provide reliable secondary stock water for operators in the uplands. The county has modest adjudicated surface rights; most ranch operations supplement with developed springs and stock reservoirs.

Federal Grazing Leases

BLM and U.S. Forest Service permitted grazing on public-land allotments · Fergus 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 Fergus 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 2,777,171 acres · land in farms 2,315,398 acres (83% of the county).

🗺  Open the interactive land map for Fergus 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 Fergus 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 Fergus County.

Cattle production

Fergus County is one of central Montana’s core cow-calf counties, with the Lewistown area supporting a mix of commercial Angus and Hereford herds alongside retained-ownership stocker operations. Backgrounding calves on native range through fall is common before selling at Lewistown or trucking to Billings. Several operations hold USFS grazing allotments in the Judith and Little Belt Mountains under the Lewis and Clark National Forest, moving cattle to summer range in late May or early June. Ranch sizes run large — 3,000 to 8,000 deeded acres with comparable lease ground is typical for a mid-scale family operation.

Hay & winter feed

Flood-irrigated grass hay and alfalfa-grass mix dominate the Judith River valley floor, with most first cutting coming off in mid-July. Irrigation water comes from Judith River diversions under senior priority rights held by the valley’s established ranches. Dry-land hay on the benchlands is common but yields are highly variable and frost risk extends into late May. Current year prospects depend on spring soil recharge and Judith River runoff timing.

Logistics · sale barns & trucking

Lewistown Livestock Auction on US-87 is the primary local sale point, drawing buyers from across central Montana. US-87 connects north to Great Falls (100 miles) and south to Billings (130 miles), providing reasonable trucking access to both. The Central Montana Railroad historically served grain shippers but truck is now the primary livestock move. Mountain passes on US-191 to the south add seasonal weather risk for fall shipping runs.

Licensed Processing Plants

1 federally inspected and 1 state-inspected plants operating in Fergus County — establishment IDs and contacts, verified against the federal and state directories

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.