Sweet Grass County

Sweet Grass County is located in south central Montana. Sweet Grass County became a county in 1895, formed from parts of Park, Meagher, and Yellowstone Counties. The county is 1,855 square miles of various topography. The current population is 3,824. Ranching and mining are the primary economic drivers of Sweet Grass County. Sweet Grass County was known for its raw wool in the early part of the 1900’s and was the largest inland shipping point in the United States for raw wool. Today, platinum and palladium are mined in the Absaroka Beartooth Mountain range south of Big Timber. The mine is home to one of the purest forms of these valuable minerals and employs many the residents in Sweet Grass County. The Crazy Mountains also reside in Sweet Grass County. There are several theories on how this range was named. The Native Americans called them the Mad Mountains for their rugged beauty and haunting winds that blow down the canyons. Geology plays a part in another theory. The lava upthrusts are young in the perspective of geological time and do not fit in with neighboring rock formations, hence the name “crazy”, or because of being wholly disconnected from any other range and being a sort of “crazy” formation.

4-H in Sweet Grass County

Thirty-three registered volunteer leaders mentored one hundred and fifty-two youth enrolled in 4-H in Sweet Grass County during the 2023-2024 4-H year. Youth participated in a wide variety of projects learning valuable life skills through the program. One of the highlights of the year was the participation of four members in the International Livestock Judging contest in Scotland and Ireland. The youth earned the trip by placing as the Reserve National Champions at the National FFA Contest in November of 2023. Livestock judging has taught the youth skills such as decision making, time management and public speaking. These four young ladies have participated in livestock judging through the past ten years as 4-H members. The team traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland in June and competed in the Royal Highlands Livestock Judging Contest. Two of these students placed third overall in sheep judging at this contest. The team attended tours of ag facilities and historical attractions in Scotland before traveling to Ireland to compete in the Charleville Agricultural Show in Charleville, Ireland. There the team finished second overall in cattle judging. While there the students and five adult chaperones were able to tour a livestock auction facility, a water buffalo dairy and various livestock operations. Three members from this team were able to receive full ride scholarships to colleges to further their education and participate in livestock judging. In terms of financial impact these scholarships represent over $13,000 per student in financial savings to these students and their families. Sweet Grass County 4-H partnered with Saluting Branches and the Big Timber Tree Board to remove several dead trees at the Sweet Grass County Fairgrounds in early June. In early September these groups met and planted twenty new trees at the Sweet Grass County Fairgrounds. 4-H Clubs donated over $2000 to purchase trees for this project and Sweet Grass County Extension assisted in planting the trees.

Caption: Tree Planting

Credit: Marc King

Agricultural Issues

MSU Extension tested over 100 samples of annual forages for nitrate levels. Nitrate at high levels in forages can cause bred cows to abort calves and at high levels can kill cattle. By testing over 100 annual forage samples for local livestock producers they were able to make informed decisions on how to utilize the forges that were raised and or purchased for the ranch. Extension further did programs on risk management for livestock and pasture management that helped producers understand how to protect prices for the livestock enterprises and options for building soil health and veterinary technologies that have advanced over the past several years. Many producers faced challenging calving and lambing season conditions that led to higher-than-normal birthing difficulties and as such Extension partnered with the Crazy Mountain Stockgrowers and presented a class on scours treatment for ranchers. Reports from this program were positive with numerous ranches reporting that because of this class they were better prepared to deal with calving problems and were able to treat scours issues on their own which resulted in reduced veterinary costs to the livestock enterprise. Sweet Grass County Extension along with Crazy Mountain Veterinary Services and several others applied for and have received a SARE Grant to study antibiotic use in the livestock industry. A piece of this grant will be to develop a treatment protocol for the five most reported issues from the producer surveys that are currently being collected. Bridging the knowledge gap between the agriculture community and local Chamber of Commerce businesses led Sweet Grass County Extension to partner with the Crazy Mountain Stockgrowers to take businesspeople on a day long tour of ranches in Northern Sweet Grass County. The tour hosted thirty-four local business owners who traveled by bus to four different ranches to learn first-hand how each ranch operated and hear presentations by each ranch family about how and why they operate their ranch businesses. The members of the Chamber of Commerce reported that this was one of the best tours that they had ever participated in asked to make this tour an annual event.

Caption: Chamber of Commerce Ag Tour

Credit: Marc King

Livestock Issues

The farm to fork movement continues to grow as a way for producers to try and capture more of the consumer dollar. It also allows producers and consumers to develop a relationship over a daily need, food. To assist producers in knowing what they are producing Sweet Grass County Extension collected carcass data on over 434 carcasses at packing plants in Central Montana. This data is then shared with the producers allowing them to make more informed marketing, genetic and feeding decisions. The current global economy has continued to have a negative effect on the sheep industry. In an effort to assist producers in sorting and marketing their annual wool clip on a more uniform and consistent basis MSU Extension assisted producers in grading and sorting their wool clips during the shearing season. Sweet Grass County Extension cored the baled wool and provided the management for the Co-op owned wool warehouse. The management of this facility included re-baling smaller lots of wool, stacking wool, marketing wool and coordinating and loading trucks to ship the marketed wool.

Caption: Wool Grading

Credit: Marc King

Contact

P.O. Box 640
Big Timber, MT 59011
406-932-5146
https://www.montana.edu/extension/sweetgrass