Valley County, Montana
Northeastern Montana Hi-Line · Glasgow · Milk River valley and Fort Peck Reservoir · US-2 at Montana’s northeast corner
- Check current snowpack, drought, streamflow, and soil moisture before stocking, hay buying, or destocking.
- See where Valley 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 6 brand inspector and verify cattle-buyer bonds before consigning.
Snowpack · SWE
No SNOTEL stations in this county. Basin-index snowpack not tracked.
Water-Year Precip
Water-year precip index not tracked for this county.
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
NOAA NCEI precip anomaly data unavailable.
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 Score. 0–100 composite that blends snowpack, soil moisture, and drought into one rancher-facing number. Categories: 0–25 Poor, 26–50 Fair, 51–75 Good, 76–100 Excellent.
Valley County in context
Adjacent counties in the the lower Milk River and Fort Peck Reservoir corridor. Valley County shares the Milk River watershed and Fort Peck system with these neighbors.
Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.
Snowpack & Moisture Detail
SNOTEL station-by-station read for Valley County. The dashboard above gives current aggregate; this section shows where the water actually is.
Valley County sits at the confluence of Montana’s Milk River and the upper end of Fort Peck Reservoir, giving it two reliable surface water sources that most Hi-Line counties lack. The Milk River enters Fort Peck near Glasgow after traversing 600 miles from the Rocky Mountain Front, delivering snowmelt-driven spring flows that charge the reservoir. Valley County operators along the Milk River corridor and the reservoir’s northern arms have better stock water security than nearly any other northeastern Montana county. [needs editorial] — update with current SNOTEL data each season.
Basin Index: Milk River enters Fort Peck Reservoir near Glasgow; valley irrigators and reservoir-edge operators have comparatively stable water access through most drought years. [needs editorial — update seasonally] Drought Monitor: [needs editorial — update weekly from droughtmonitor.unl.edu] Station snapshot as of June 2026 — live dashboard above is current.
Water Rights & Land Ownership
Valley County occupies the lower Milk River valley where the river enters Fort Peck Reservoir near Glasgow, making it the endpoint for the entire Milk River watershed’s flows from Canada and the Rocky Mountain Front.
Water rights on the lower Milk River near Glasgow include some of the more senior state appropriations in the drainage, dating to the 1890s–1910s homestead era, though all remain junior to the Fort Belknap Reservation’s Winters rights to the west. Fort Peck Reservoir, impounded by the Bureau of Reclamation dam completed in 1940, provides regulated storage that benefits downstream Valley County by extending flows past natural low-water periods. However, the Corps of Engineers controls reservoir releases primarily for navigation and flood control rather than agricultural irrigation. The Milk River Irrigation Project delivers water to Glasgow-area farms through federal infrastructure. Northern and eastern county pastures away from the river have no surface water rights and depend on stock dams. Valley County’s overall water position is among the strongest in northeastern Montana due to the Milk River corridor concentration of senior rights and reservoir access.
Production & Sales
Operation character, hay base, and how cattle reach market from Valley County.
Cattle production
Valley County runs a mix of cow-calf and yearling stocker operations, with Glasgow serving as the commercial hub. Milk River valley floor operations tend to be smaller and more intensive, combining irrigated hay production with cow-calf programs. The county’s dryland bench country supports larger range units with 300–700 cows on native grass. Fort Peck Reservoir shoreline grazing adds a unique forage resource in wet years when the draw-down zone greens up. No significant USFS allotment presence; most grazing is on BLM, state lease, and deeded land.
Hay & winter feed
Glasgow-area Milk River valley produces irrigated alfalfa and grass hay on some of the better ground in northeastern Montana. First cutting typically starts in late June, with second cutting possible in good moisture years. Valley operators are net sellers of hay to drier Phillips and Daniels county neighbors in drought years. Dryland hay production on upland acres is variable and weather-dependent. [draft — verify against current conditions]
Logistics · sale barns & trucking
Glasgow (US-2 / MT-24) is the regional hub with the Glasgow Livestock Auction as the primary fall shipping venue. Havre (160 miles west on US-2) and Sidney (90 miles east via MT-16) provide alternative markets. Fort Peck town and Nashua are secondary shipping points. Trucking to Billings runs 5–6 hours via US-2 to US-191 south, adding cost relative to south-central Montana operations. The Glasgow airport handles occasional air-freight veterinary supplies and production records for larger operations.
Valley 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas | 4,320 | 14.2% |
| Nebraska | 4,022 | 13.2% |
| Minnesota | 2,950 | 9.7% |
| Colorado | 1,489 | 4.9% |
| South Dakota | 1,156 | 3.8% |
When Valley 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.
Montana Brand Inspector
District 7 — covers Daniels, Roosevelt, Sheridan, Valley. The MT Department of Livestock has not published a named District Investigator phone for this district. Use the general line below or the Find-a-Brand-Inspector page for the most current contact.
MT DOL Brand Enforcement (general): (406) 444-2045 · brands@mt.gov
Most current and complete roster (incl. local brand inspectors and shipping-point coordinators): MT DOL — Find a Brand Inspector
Cattle Buyers — Montana Licensed
Cattle buyers and dealers operating in Valley County are licensed at the federal and state level, not by individual county. Use the authoritative current rosters below to find an active, bonded buyer for your sale class. Both lists update continuously as bonds and licenses change — they are always more current than any printed roster.
- USDA Packers & Stockyards Bonded Registrant Search — federally bonded MT dealers, market agencies, and packer-buyers. Filter by state “Montana”: USDA P&S Bonded Registrant Search
- Montana Department of Livestock — Licensed Livestock Dealers — state-licensed dealers operating in Montana: MT DOL — Livestock Dealer License
Before consigning cattle to any buyer, verify the buyer’s bond status on the USDA P&S registrant search above. A current bond is your protection against non-payment.