Garfield County, Montana
Overview
Garfield County is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the United States, anchored by Jordan in the remote Missouri River Breaks country of east-central Montana. Much of the county is contained within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which stretches along the Missouri River from Fort Peck Reservoir upstream. Agriculture is exclusively cattle-focused: large-scale rangeland cow-calf operations running on deeded ground, BLM allotments, and Charles M. Russell Refuge grazing permits. The terrain is classic Missouri Breaks — rolling prairie broken by sedimentary badlands and the Missouri River’s incised valleys.
Weather & Moisture
Garfield County is semi-arid plains with no meaningful elevation for snow retention — there are no NRCS SNOTEL stations within the county. The county also has no active in-county USGS daily discharge gauge on any stream (the Missouri River at Fort Peck is upstream of the county’s western edge, and the refuge-area tributaries don’t carry operational gauges). Water supply for operations is almost entirely direct precipitation plus springs and groundwater wells; the Missouri River itself is the boundary rather than a diverted irrigation source for Garfield County ranchers.
Summary of Current Conditions
Snowpack · SWE
No SNOTEL stations in this county. Basin-index snowpack not tracked.
Water-Year Precip
Water-year precip index not tracked for this county.
Drought Monitor
Streamflow
No real-time USGS gauge in this county.
Soil Moisture
Precip Anomaly
Live data block above refreshes daily. Garfield County has no SNOTEL and no active in-county USGS streamgauge, so those fields will read as “No Snowpack” and null respectively. Drought classification, Mesonet soil moisture (Sand Springs NW, Jordan), and multi-month precipitation anomaly are the primary signals for this page.
Water Rights & Land Ownership
Garfield County water rights are primarily stock-water rights on springs, intermittent creeks, and reservoirs — the classic Montana rangeland water-right pattern. Groundwater wells supplement surface sources where aquifer conditions allow. The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge occupies a substantial share of the county’s federal land. The Montana DNRC Water Rights Query System (WRQS) and Montana Cadastral cover Garfield County.
Hay & Winter Feed
Native grass hay from dryland meadows is the primary feed base for Garfield County cow-calf operations. Irrigated hay production is minimal given the scarcity of surface water. In drought years, many Garfield County ranchers source hay from adjacent counties or from North Dakota.
Cattle Production
Garfield County is a classic large-scale rangeland cow-calf county, with some of the lowest livestock densities per square mile in Montana reflecting the arid, low-productivity short-grass prairie. Average ranch size is exceptionally large. Fall-weaned calves typically truck long distances to Miles City Livestock Commission (~95 miles south via MT Highway 200 and US-12) or to video sales.
County Logistics
Jordan has no interstate access. Montana Highway 200 is the primary east-west route, connecting Jordan to Glendive (I-94 access, ~100 miles east) and to Winnett / Lewistown (~95 miles west). No rail service. The county’s remoteness means trucking cost is a significant input to any cattle marketing decision.
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
- Montana Mesonet (UMT) — soil moisture (Sand Springs NW, Jordan)
- NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance — county precipitation anomaly (1/3/12 month)
- USDA NASS — county cattle inventory and agricultural census