Sweet Grass County in context

Adjacent counties in the Yellowstone–Boulder corridor. Sweet Grass County shares the Crazies–Absaroka snowpack systems with these neighbors.

Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.

Snowpack & Moisture Detail

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

Sweet Grass 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. Two SNOTEL stations monitor county snowpack. Sweet Grass County watershed snowpack well below normal (county avg 72% of median); highest at Placer Basin (79%), lowest at East Boulder Mine (64%).

Basin Index: Sweet Grass County watershed snowpack well below normal (county avg 72% of median); highest at Placer Basin (79%), lowest at East Boulder Mine (64%). Drought Monitor (valid 2026-09-08): Worst class D2 (severe) over 44% of the county. Coverage at or worse than each class: D0 100%, D1 100%, D2 44%, D3 0%, D4 0%. Station snapshot as of September 17, 2026 — live dashboard above is current.

Two-Week Rainfall

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

Observed detail: 0 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.00 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

Sweet Grass County water rights center on the Boulder River and its East and West forks, which join north of McLeod before joining the Yellowstone at Big Timber.

The Boulder system supports some of the most productive irrigated hay meadows in south-central Montana. Water rights are allocated through the Montana DNRC priority system; rights dating to the territorial-era agricultural settlements in the 1880s carry senior positions. The Boulder River is not chronically over-allocated in the manner of the Smith or Shields; in most years senior irrigators see reliable early-summer delivery. The lower Boulder sees the most competition; upper-drainage rights on the East and West forks are generally more secure. Ditch companies serving the Boulder Valley organize delivery from late April through mid-July depending on snowmelt timing.

Federal Grazing Leases

BLM and U.S. Forest Service permitted grazing on public-land allotments · Sweet Grass 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 Sweet Grass 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 1,187,543 acres · land in farms 921,433 acres (78% of the county).

🗺  Open the interactive land map for Sweet Grass 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 Sweet Grass 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 Sweet Grass County.

Cattle production

Sweet Grass County supports an estimated 40,000–55,000 cattle and calves, anchored by commercial cow-calf operations in the Boulder Valley and on surrounding benchlands. Mountain summer range on USFS Gallatin National Forest allotments extends the carrying capacity substantially; most operations run a valley winter base with a mountain summer rotation. The county is predominantly commercial Angus and crossbred stock, with a modest registered seedstock presence. Elk competition for winter forage is a recurring tension in the upper Boulder drainages.

Hay & winter feed

The Boulder Valley is renowned for high-quality grass and mixed hay. Irrigated meadows along the main-stem Boulder and its forks produce reliable first and often second cuttings. Alfalfa is grown but grass-dominant mixed hay is the local standard. First cut typically runs late June to mid-July at valley elevation; second cut mid-August where water allows. Current conditions (D1, soil moisture deficits) suggest first-cut yields may be 10–15% below the five-year average. Big Timber is a regional hay trading hub; hay moves in and out of the county depending on the year.

Logistics · sale barns & trucking

Big Timber sits directly on I-90, providing among the best market access of any Montana ranching county. The primary sale outlet is Billings Livestock Commission and the Public Auction Yards in Billings — approximately 90 minutes east. Livingston (Park County) and Bozeman (Gallatin County) offer alternatives to the west, 60–90 minutes. Trucking to Billings is straightforward on I-90 with no seasonal closure risk. Private treaty with cattle buyers is the dominant channel for spring and fall calves; the I-90 corridor makes ranch-gate pickup competitive. Spring breakup on secondary roads (Boulder River Road, McLeod corridors) can delay movement in March–April.

Licensed Processing Plants

1 federally inspected plant operating in Sweet Grass 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.