Prairie County in context

Adjacent counties in the the Yellowstone–Powder confluence country. Prairie County shares the Yellowstone upper basin snowpack with these neighbors.

Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.

Snowpack & Moisture Detail

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

Prairie County’s water supply is anchored by the Yellowstone River flowing along its southern margin, with Powder River joining the Yellowstone at Terry before the county line. Irrigation rights in the Yellowstone and Powder bottoms support limited hay production, but the vast majority of the county is dryland range where winter snowfall is the only moisture input. Snowpack in the Beartooth and Absaroka ranges far upstream determines Yellowstone summer flows.

Basin Index: Yellowstone River at Terry reflects snowmelt from upstream mountain ranges; Powder River tributary flows are highly variable year to year. Drought Monitor (valid 2026-09-08): Worst class D2 (severe) over 53% of the county. Coverage at or worse than each class: D0 100%, D1 68%, D2 53%, D3 0%, D4 0%. Station snapshot as of September 16, 2026 — live dashboard above is current.

Two-Week Rainfall

Observed (prior 14 days) and forecast (next 14 days) · Prairie County · as of 2026-09-17

Observed detail: 2 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.34 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.

Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership

Prairie County is bisected by the Yellowstone River at Terry, where the Powder River adds its flow from the south before the combined waters continue east into Dawson County.

Yellowstone River rights in Prairie County are senior, with the oldest appropriations dating to the 1880s and 1890s for stock water and flood irrigation. The Powder River bottom carries additional rights, though the Powder is known for high silt loads and variable flow that limit reliable irrigation. Most irrigated ground supports alfalfa and grass hay in the river bottoms; upland range is entirely dryland. The Yellowstone Compact and Montana Water Court adjudication govern the river’s water use; senior rights holders rarely face curtailment in all but the driest years. Secondary water comes from stock dams in the rolling uplands north of the river. There is no major irrigation district operating in Prairie County.

Federal Grazing Leases

BLM and U.S. Forest Service permitted grazing on public-land allotments · Prairie 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 Prairie 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 1,111,426 acres · land in farms 590,631 acres (53% of the county).

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

Cattle production

Prairie County operations are primarily cow-calf with some yearling stocker activity on summer range. Outfits range from 150–500 head, with the larger ranches holding both river bottom hay ground and extensive upland range. The Yellowstone bottoms near Terry support smaller diversified operations. Calf sales move to Miles City Livestock Commission in fall.

Hay & winter feed

Alfalfa and grass hay from Yellowstone and Powder River bottoms forms the local hay base, with flood irrigation the dominant delivery system. First cutting typically begins in late June, second in August if water holds. Most larger range operations purchase additional hay to meet winter needs. Current year first cutting outlook is weather-dependent through late June. [draft — verify against current conditions]

Logistics · sale barns & trucking

Miles City Livestock Commission is the primary sale barn, about 80 miles west on I-94. Terry sits on I-94 at Exit 176, giving good east-west trucking access. Glendive is 80 miles east for additional services. Rail shipping has declined; most cattle move by truck.

Licensed Processing Plants

No federally inspected or state-inspected processing plant currently operates in Prairie County — the nearest licensed plants are listed below

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.