Judith Basin County, Montana

Overview

Judith Basin County is a central Montana agricultural county anchored by Stanford in the rolling prairie country between the Little Belt Mountains to the southwest, the Big Snowy Mountains to the southeast, and the Judith Mountains to the east. The county takes its name from the Judith Basin — the broad agricultural basin drained by the Judith River — which was one of Charlie Russell’s favorite ranching landscapes and remains some of central Montana’s most productive wheat and cattle country. Agriculture is split between large-scale dryland wheat and barley operations and cow-calf ranching supported by irrigated hay along the Judith River bottomlands.

Weather & Moisture

Judith Basin County has one NRCS SNOTEL station — Spur Park — in the Little Belt Mountains, which tracks snowpack feeding the Judith River headwaters and the north fork of the Musselshell. Water supply derives from snowpack in the Little Belts, the Big Snowies, and the Judith Mountains feeding the Judith River (the county’s namesake river) and its tributaries. The USDA-operated Central Agricultural Research Center at Moccasin (a Montana State University experiment station) is located in Judith Basin County and contributes long-running agricultural research data for central Montana’s dryland grain economy.

Water Rights & Land Ownership

Water rights in Judith Basin County are anchored by the Judith River and its tributaries — Ross Fork, Yogo Creek, Running Wolf Creek, and others draining the Little Belt Mountains. Senior irrigation rights support the valley’s hay and grain operations. Federal grazing allotments in Lewis and Clark National Forest (Little Belts and Big Snowies) add summer range for the county’s cattle operations. Montana DNRC WRQS is the primary research tool.

Hay & Winter Feed

Irrigated alfalfa and grass hay along the Judith River bottomlands and Ross Fork support the county’s cattle feed base. Dryland hay production on the benchlands is secondary; most of the county’s acreage is in small-grain crops.

Cattle Production

Cow-calf operations in the Judith Basin utilize Little Belt and Big Snowy summer range, complemented by irrigated hay wintering operations along the Judith River. Fall-weaned calves typically move through Lewistown-area order buyers (adjacent Fergus County) or to the Billings Livestock Commission via US-87 / US-191.

County Logistics

Stanford sits on US-87 approximately 65 miles southeast of Great Falls and 60 miles west of Lewistown. US-87 is the primary artery connecting the county to Great Falls (to the northwest) and Billings (to the south via Lewistown). Trucking to Billings runs approximately 2.5 hours via US-87 / US-191.

Data Sources

• USDA NRCS National Water and Climate Center — SNOTEL daily SWE (Spur Park)
• USDA Drought Monitor — weekly county drought classification
• USGS Water Services — Judith River above Carr Creek near Utica (06110020) daily discharge
• Montana Mesonet (UMT) — soil moisture (Moccasin, Benchland NE)
• NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance — county precipitation anomaly (1/3/12 month)
• USDA NASS — county cattle inventory and agricultural census
• MSU Central Agricultural Research Center at Moccasin — regional research station