Judith Basin County, Montana
Central Montana · Stanford · Judith River headwaters · between Little Belt and Big Snowy mountains
- Check current snowpack, drought, streamflow, and soil moisture before stocking, hay buying, or destocking.
- See where Judith Basin County calves moved in 2023 — destinations, seasonal pattern, and shipping windows.
- Look up water rights, parcels, and ownership via Cadastral, DNRC WRQS, and WaterMapper.
- Reach the District 3 brand inspector and verify cattle-buyer bonds before consigning.
Snowpack · SWE
Snow Water Equivalent — water that would result if today’s snowpack melted now.
Water-Year Precip
Total precipitation since Oct 1 — the start of the NRCS water year.
Drought Monitor
Worst drought class anywhere in the county per the U.S. Drought Monitor.
D0 abnormally dry · D1 moderate · D2 severe · D3 extreme · D4 exceptional. Percentages = share of county area at or worse than each class.
Streamflow
Cubic feet per second flowing past the nearest in-county USGS gauge right now.
Soil Moisture
VWC = Volumetric Water Content — the percent of soil volume that is water. Montana Mesonet probe average.
Shallow ≈ 4″ depth · Deep ≈ 20″ depth.
Bands (shallow + deep average): ≥ 30 % moist · 22–30 % adequate · 15–22 % drying · < 15 % dry.
Precip Anomaly
Inches above (+) or below (−) the 10-year normal precipitation for each trailing window. Calendar rolling windows ending today — not the water year (see the separate Water-Year Precip tile for that).
1-mo = last 30 days · 3-mo = last 90 days · 12-mo = trailing year.
12-mo bands: > +1″ wet · −0.5″ to +1″ near normal · −2″ to −0.5″ dry · < −2″ very dry.
Reading this dashboard — what these terms mean
Median vs. mean. We use the median (NRCS standard) so a single very-wet or very-dry year doesn’t skew the baseline.
Water year. Hydrology runs Oct 1 → Sep 30. Most of a year’s snowpack accumulation is captured in the same season it melts.
Percentile (streamflow). 50 = exactly typical for this calendar date. 19 = today’s flow is lower than 81 % of all readings ever recorded on this date. 81 = lower than only 19 %.
VWC (soil moisture). Volumetric Water Content. Rough field bands: under 10 % = dry, 15–25 % = productive growing-season range, over 35 % = saturated.
Drought scale. D0–D4 from the U.S. Drought Monitor, weekly Thursday release. The percentages tell you what fraction of county area is at or worse than each band — a county can be 100 % at D2 with 0 % at D3.
Precip anomaly. Inches above or below the 10-year normal precipitation for that trailing window. Trailing calendar windows ending today, NOT the water year — the Water-Year Precip tile is the water-year measure. Anomaly is in inches; “% of median” is a ratio. Both useful; anomaly is easier to interpret when comparing a dry summer month to a wet spring month.
Forage Condition. A 0–100 county-scale index of rangeland forage conditions relative to this county’s own historical normal, blending satellite-observed vegetation response, growing-season moisture, drought stress, and usability. Higher = more favorable relative to local normal. Categories: 0–25 Poor, 26–50 Fair, 51–75 Good, 76–100 Excellent. Long-Term Forage Potential is a separate long-run rating, not part of the score. Beta — for regional screening and comparison, not a pasture-level forage inventory or stocking-rate recommendation.
How often this updates. The moisture and drought tiles (snowpack, streamflow, soil moisture, rain, water-year precip, drought class) refresh every morning. The Forage Condition score’s satellite vegetation read — and the separate Irrigated Hay/Pasture read — refresh weekly (Mondays), because the underlying satellite imagery only updates on a ~16-day cycle. So the water tiles move day to day; the vegetation reads step forward about once a week.
Judith Basin County in context
Adjacent counties in the the Little Belt mountain front. Judith Basin County shares the Little Belt and Big Snowy mountain snowpack with these neighbors.
Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.
Snowpack & Moisture Detail
SNOTEL station-by-station read for Judith Basin County. The dashboard above gives current aggregate; this section shows where the water actually is.
Judith Basin County snowpack is at or above median at all 1 reporting stations as of June 04, 2026. One SNOTEL station monitors county snowpack. Judith Basin County watershed snowpack near or above normal (Spur Park 96% of median).
| Station | Elev (ft) | SWE (in) | % of Median | Relevance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spur Park | 8,080 | 3.1 | 96% | Judith Basin County — elevation 8080 ft |
Basin Index: Judith Basin County watershed snowpack near or above normal (Spur Park 96% of median). Drought Monitor (valid 2026-06-02): D1 Moderate across 100% of county. Total area in drought: 100% (valid 2026-06-02). Station snapshot as of June 04, 2026 — live dashboard above is current.
Two-Week Rainfall
Observed (prior 14 days) and forecast (next 14 days) · Judith Basin County · as of 2026-06-16
| Period | Window | Rain (in) | Normal (in) | % of Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior 2 weeks (observed) | Jun 2 – Jun 15, 2026 | 0.37 | 1.95 | 19% |
| Next 2 weeks (forecast) | Jun 16 – Jun 29, 2026 | 0.25 | 1.25 | 20% |
Observed detail: 4 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.14 in.
Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership
The Judith River originates near Sapphire in the southern Little Belt Mountains and flows northeast through Stanford before entering Fergus County. Warm Spring Creek and Yogo Creek are key early tributaries feeding the upper basin.
The upper Judith system supports irrigated hay production in the Stanford valley and limited grain-land moisture supplementation. Senior rights on Warm Spring Creek and the mainstem date to the 1890s, with most valley floor rights established by 1910. Yogo Creek, draining the site of the historic Yogo sapphire mine, carries modest but reliable flows. The basin is not heavily over-appropriated at the headwaters, though late-season flows can drop sharply in dry years. Stock water developed springs from the Little Belt foothills provide secondary sources for upland range operations.
Production & Sales
Operation character, hay base, and how cattle reach market from Judith Basin County.
Cattle production
Judith Basin runs a mix of cow-calf and retained stocker operations on native bunchgrass range between the mountain ranges. The county’s sheltered position allows for earlier spring green-up than neighboring plains counties, and some operators background calves into November before selling at Lewistown or Great Falls. A handful of operations hold Lewis and Clark National Forest allotments in the Little Belt Mountains. Dryland wheat farms are interspersed with cattle ranches throughout the basin, and some diversified operations run both.
Hay & winter feed
Flood-irrigated alfalfa and grass hay is produced along Warm Spring Creek and the upper Judith River valley, with first cutting typically in early-to-mid July. Irrigators hold relatively senior Judith River rights and most valley operations can complete two cuttings in wet years. Dryland hay on the surrounding benchlands provides backup tonnage but yields are highly year-dependent. Spring moisture through June is the primary determinant of dryland hay quality.
Logistics · sale barns & trucking
Stanford is the county seat on US-87, which runs south to White Sulphur Springs and north to Great Falls — roughly 65 miles to Great Falls. Most cattle are sold at Lewistown Livestock Auction in adjacent Fergus County or trucked directly to Billings or Great Falls feeders. The county’s small size and low cattle density mean local trucking infrastructure is minimal; producers typically contract out-county haulers.
Judith Basin County — 2023 Cattle Movement
Source: Montana Department of Livestock, BE-10 brand inspections. Released to Honest Cattle under public-records request. BE-10 inspections are recorded at change of ownership or interstate movement, so totals reflect transactions, not the standing herd.
Top destinations outside Montana
| State | Head | Share of county total |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | 34,672 | 45.2% |
| Nebraska | 4,600 | 6% |
| Colorado | 3,115 | 4.1% |
| South Dakota | 2,054 | 2.7% |
| Iowa | 1,947 | 2.5% |
When Judith Basin County cattle moved in 2023
Notes: A single animal can be inspected more than once in a year if it changes hands or moves across state lines twice; destination is the buyer's state of record, which is usually but not always the final feedlot. Inspection county = where the inspection took place (often an auction yard or shipping point), not necessarily where the cattle were raised. Data covers cattle only (BE-10) and excludes horse and bison inspections.