Wibaux County, Montana
Montana–North Dakota border plains · Wibaux · Beaver Creek and Yellowstone headwaters margin · 35 mi W of Dickinson ND
- Check current snowpack, drought, streamflow, and soil moisture before stocking, hay buying, or destocking.
- See where Wibaux 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 5 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
No real-time USGS gauge in this county.
Soil Moisture
No Montana Mesonet soil-moisture station in this county.
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.
Wibaux County in context
Adjacent counties in the the Montana–North Dakota border plains. Wibaux County shares the eastern plains dryland system with these neighbors.
Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.
Snowpack & Moisture Detail
SNOTEL station-by-station read for Wibaux County. The dashboard above gives current aggregate; this section shows where the water actually is.
Wibaux County has no mountain snowpack influence — it sits at Montana’s eastern edge where Beaver Creek and a network of small stock dams are the sole livestock water infrastructure. Annual precipitation averages around 13 inches, making it one of Montana’s driest agricultural counties. Winter snow depth is directly watched as a predictor of stock dam fill in spring. [needs editorial] — update with current SNOTEL data each season.
Basin Index: Beaver Creek flows intermittently toward the Yellowstone; stock dam levels are the operative water metric for ranchers. [needs editorial — update seasonally] Drought Monitor (valid 2026-06-02): D3 Extreme across 12% of county; D2 Severe across 26% of county; D1 Moderate across 40% of county; D0 Abnormally Dry across 22% of county. Total area in drought: 100% (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) · Wibaux County · as of 2026-06-16
| Period | Window | Rain (in) | Normal (in) | % of Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior 2 weeks (observed) | Jun 2 – Jun 15, 2026 | 0.38 | 0.00 | 0% |
| Next 2 weeks (forecast) | Jun 16 – Jun 29, 2026 | 0.43 | 0.00 | 0% |
Observed detail: 3 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.21 in.
Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership
Wibaux County drains via Beaver Creek and minor tributaries toward the Yellowstone River to the south, with no perennial mainstem river running through the county.
Water rights in Wibaux County are almost exclusively stock water and domestic appropriations given the absence of significant perennial flows. The oldest rights date to the 1910s homestead era and carry modest volumes. Beaver Creek runs intermittently and cannot support meaningful irrigation during dry periods. There is no irrigation district, and alfalfa production is extremely limited. Most operators depend on earthen stock dams and, in prolonged drought, hauled water. The proximity to North Dakota means some operators have familiarity with Dickinson-area hay markets as a backup supply. Water court adjudication under the Montana system covers the few active surface rights.
Production & Sales
Operation character, hay base, and how cattle reach market from Wibaux County.
Cattle production
Wibaux runs primarily cow-calf operations in the 100–300 head range, constrained by the county’s small land area (Montana’s smallest county). Most outfits graze state and private lease ground. Calf sales move east to Dickinson, ND or west to Miles City or Glendive. Very limited USFS or BLM lease ground given the plains location.
Hay & winter feed
Native grass hay from limited creek-bottom ground and dryland hay on better soils is the primary local production. Most operators supplement heavily with purchased hay from Dawson or Fallon counties or North Dakota. Cutting runs mid-July to early August. Dryland hay yield is highly variable with annual precipitation. [draft — verify against current conditions]
Logistics · sale barns & trucking
Dickinson Livestock Auction in North Dakota is the closest major sale barn, about 35 miles east on I-94. Miles City and Glendive are 1.5–2 hours west. Wibaux sits on I-94, providing reliable trucking access year-round. Town of Wibaux is the sole supply hub with limited services.
Wibaux 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 |
|---|---|---|
| North Dakota | 4,925 | 41.3% |
| Nebraska | 1,530 | 12.8% |
| South Dakota | 1,136 | 9.5% |
| Minnesota | 451 | 3.8% |
| Texas | 105 | 0.9% |
When Wibaux 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.