Teton County, Montana
Rocky Mountain Front · Choteau · Teton River corridor · US-89 gateway to Glacier
- Check current snowpack, drought, streamflow, and soil moisture before stocking, hay buying, or destocking.
- See where Teton 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 9 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.
Teton County in context
Adjacent counties in the the Rocky Mountain Front corridor. Teton County shares the Teton River–Bob Marshall snowpack with these neighbors.
Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.
Snowpack & Moisture Detail
SNOTEL station-by-station read for Teton County. The dashboard above gives current aggregate; this section shows where the water actually is.
Teton County snowpack is sharply split — high-elevation stations holding, lower drainages below median as of June 04, 2026. Three SNOTEL stations monitor county snowpack. Teton County watershed snowpack well below normal (county avg 67% of median); highest at Mount Lockhart (102%), lowest at Dupuyer Creek (31%).
| Station | Elev (ft) | SWE (in) | % of Median | Relevance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waldron | 5,640 | 0.0 | 67% | Teton County — elevation 5640 ft |
| Dupuyer Creek | 5,740 | 0.0 | 31% | Teton County — elevation 5740 ft |
| Mount Lockhart | 6,430 | 0.0 | 102% | Teton County — elevation 6430 ft |
Basin Index: Teton County watershed snowpack well below normal (county avg 67% of median); highest at Mount Lockhart (102%), lowest at Dupuyer Creek (31%). Drought Monitor (valid 2026-06-02): D2 Severe across 29% of county; D1 Moderate across 51% of county; D0 Abnormally Dry across 7% of county. Total area in drought: 86% (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) · Teton County · as of 2026-06-16
| Period | Window | Rain (in) | Normal (in) | % of Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior 2 weeks (observed) | Jun 2 – Jun 15, 2026 | 0.41 | 0.00 | 0% |
| Next 2 weeks (forecast) | Jun 16 – Jun 29, 2026 | 0.13 | 0.00 | 0% |
Observed detail: 3 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.34 in.
Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership
The Teton River rises in the Bob Marshall Wilderness on the Continental Divide and flows east through Choteau to join the Marias River east of the county. Muddy Creek and Deep Creek are the primary north-bank tributaries supporting additional irrigation rights on the northern benchlands.
Teton County holds some of the most senior irrigation rights in north-central Montana — Teton River appropriations date to the 1870s–1890s for ranches around Choteau and Farmington. The Teton River Water Users Association coordinates delivery among senior holders, but the river is over-appropriated in late summer during low-snowpack years, triggering senior-call curtailments on junior rights. Muddy Creek and Deep Creek rights are more junior (1900s–1920s) and are the first affected when Teton River flows drop. Groundwater is used for stock water on benchlands well away from the Teton corridor. The Bob Marshall Wilderness headwaters are unappropriated federal water, providing a natural buffer but no formal storage mechanism to smooth late-season flows.
Production & Sales
Operation character, hay base, and how cattle reach market from Teton County.
Cattle production
Teton County is classic Rocky Mountain Front cow-calf country — operations range from small family units in the Choteau–Farmington corridor to larger outfits running 500–1,000 head on a combination of deeded ground, state lease, and USFS Bob Marshall Wilderness allotments. The presence of the Front range means many producers practice a seasonal two-pasture system: winter and spring on lower benchland, summer on mountain allotments above 6,000 feet. Outfitter and dude ranch activity overlaps with some grazing operations in the Ear Mountain and Deep Creek areas.
Hay & winter feed
Teton River-irrigated alfalfa and alfalfa-grass between Choteau and Dutton is the county’s premium hay ground; first cutting runs mid-June to early July, second cutting late August. Dryland native grass hay on benchlands east of Choteau is cut once in July. Teton County typically produces a modest hay surplus in normal years, with some bales moving east to Chouteau and Hill county operators. In drought years the surplus disappears quickly and local prices spike by September.
Logistics · sale barns & trucking
Choteau (US-89) is the commercial center; the closest major sale barn is at Cascade/Great Falls, 60 miles south on US-89. Some operators use the Cut Bank sale in Glacier County to the north. US-89 is the primary north–south truck route; Highway 221 east connects to the Chouteau County benchlands. Rocky Mountain Front roads to USFS trailheads are unimproved and impassable when wet — plan trailing movements to allotments for dry-ground windows in June.
Teton 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Idaho | 4,405 | 7.7% |
| Kansas | 3,593 | 6.3% |
| Wyoming | 3,501 | 6.2% |
| Nebraska | 3,380 | 5.9% |
| Washington | 3,363 | 5.9% |
When Teton 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.