Toole County in context

Adjacent counties in the the Hi-Line Marias River plains. Toole County shares the upstream Marias River snowpack system with these neighbors.

Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.

Snowpack & Moisture Detail

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

Toole County has no mountain snowpack of its own — water arrives via the Marias River, which drains the Rocky Mountain Front through Glacier and Pondera counties before crossing Toole on its way to Tiber Reservoir and the Missouri. Stock water on the open bench land depends almost entirely on stock dams filled by spring runoff and shallow wells, making Toole one of the more water-stressed cattle counties on the Hi-Line.

Basin Index: Marias River flows through southern Toole County; bench pastures rely on stock ponds charged by spring runoff from upstream Front Range snowpack. Drought Monitor (valid 2026-09-15): No drought (D1+) in the county. Coverage at or worse than each class: D0 96%, D1 0%, D2 0%, 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) · Toole County · as of 2026-09-17

Observed detail: 5 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.98 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

Toole County lies in the lower Marias River drainage, receiving water that originates in the Lewis Range snowpack and flows through Glacier and Pondera counties before reaching Tiber Reservoir.

The Marias River is the dominant surface water feature, but most of Toole County’s ranch land is distant from reliable stream access. Senior water rights in the Marias system are held primarily upstream in Pondera and Glacier counties, leaving Toole operators with junior priority dates in low-flow years. Tiber Reservoir (Lake Elwell), located in Liberty County just east of Toole, provides some regulatory buffer but its primary use is flood control and municipal water rather than agricultural irrigation. Dryland conditions mean the majority of stock water comes from earthen dams and stock ponds rather than licensed stream diversions. Shallow well development in the Marias alluvium provides backup supply near Shelby and Cut Bank Creek tributaries. Over-allocation on the mainstem Marias is a documented concern during extended drought sequences.

Federal Grazing Leases

BLM and U.S. Forest Service permitted grazing on public-land allotments · Toole 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 Toole 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 1,225,513 acres · land in farms 1,191,112 acres (97% of the county).

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

Cattle production

Toole County runs predominantly cow-calf and limited yearling stocker operations on native range. Average units are moderate-sized, 150–400 cows, with operations concentrated north and east of Shelby along US-2 and the I-15 corridor. Hay production is constrained by limited irrigated ground, so most operators buy supplemental hay or maintain small irrigated meadows along Marias River tributaries. The county has no major USFS allotment presence — most grazing is on deeded and state lease land.

Hay & winter feed

Native grass hay from river-bottom meadows near Shelby and Sunburst provides the primary winter feed. Irrigated hay acres are limited, making Toole operators more dependent on purchased hay in drought years. A single cutting of native meadow hay is typical, with quality varying by precipitation. Most operators target August delivery of purchased alfalfa from Pondera or Teton county irrigators. [draft — verify against current conditions]

Logistics · sale barns & trucking

Shelby sits at the I-15 and US-2 intersection, making it one of the better-positioned Hi-Line shipping points for interstate trucking. The Port of Sweet Grass (US-89 north) provides cross-border access to Canadian feeders. Nearest sale barn is Havre, about 80 miles east, or Great Falls, 75 miles south on I-15. Fall calf runs typically move in October before the first hard freeze locks up county roads.

Licensed Processing Plants

1 state-inspected plant operating in Toole 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.