Cattle and Grain, that's the undeniable backbone of Blaine County and the success of our local Farmers and Ranchers weighs heavily on all residents of Blaine County whether directly involved or not. To measure the economic impact of agriculture in Blaine County the Census of Agriculture report clearly reflects it. Blaine County includes 2,705,358 acres of land with 75.4% of that classified as farmland. 491 farms were listed in the 2017 Census and included a median farm size of 1,000 acres with an average size of 4,155. The number of farms in operation declined from the previous census in 2012 by 55. 249 farms or 55% were larger than 1,000 acres with 3% including 1-9 acres of land. The cattle industry represents a 48% share of the market value and grain comes in with a 36%. The remaining 16% comes from other livestock including lambs and hogs as well as other crops and hay.

The rising cost of fuel, fertilizer chemicals alongside severe drought conditions and the lack of necessary supplies had many thinking summer 2022 was going to be the end, "Beginning of May, I was thinking the previous year looked good," said little John Schoen. "I was so grateful for those May and June rains. Without them I didn't think there was going to be a blade of grass. You would go out in some of those fields and there was nothing and then those rains came and there was a glimmer of hope." Ed Zellmer had similar thoughts, "It was pretty bleak, didn't look very good and we really didn't think we were going to get anything, then we got some rain, enough to get it through and keep growing."

Zellmer and his family farm up north in the Big Flat operate Zellmer Seed & Grain in Hogeland. Looking back at this year's crop, it was a mixed bag, "It was spotty, the wind killed some fields by blowing the furrows over and the grain just couldn't get through and it died off." Primarily their operation grows Winter and Spring Wheat, Barley, and grow a lot of certified grains and seed. "Some did pretty good, some were ok. Winter wheat didn't do too bad, anything that was re-cropped didn't do too well. It got up and out of the ground but with the lack of moisture it didn't do very good and the grasshoppers were pretty much a problem everywhere. Sawfly took a lot of the hollow stocks down."

Most grain has been harvested locally with a few operations left with some plots to cut after having to reseed or getting off to a late start. Assessing his harvest Zellmer states, "We got 50 bushels on some fields, others ran 40, 42-45 was the average with winter wheat. Spring wheat on the summer follow came in around 30-35. Barley was down, it was all re-cropped that we had and was down around 20-25 bushel, it just ran out of moisture." With the harvest complete the next step is moving the grain, "Market was better than we expected but everything else went up in price, fuel, fertilizer, chemical, whatever so it was a wash in the end. I hate to see government payments but this year without them a lot of people would have been in trouble."

Heading into fall and winter no one is out of the woods yet, "Right now we are sitting pretty dry. We seeded winter wheat ourselves but there really haven't been much seeding going in yet.

Our winter wheat is coming out of the ground, and I don’t know how long it can hold without any moisture. Going into the fall and winter we are not looking to good as far as moisture goes. If we can get anywhere from 8-10 inches of snow cover on it, then they should come through pretty good. You have to be optimistic in Montana or you’ll never get through it.”

Schoen hays out in the south country and he enjoys helping with the cows for fun and states keeping the cattle healthy is the number one priority, “Dry weather is really hard on these cattle in getting the proper nutrition in them. Those cows are carrying calves while still taking care of the one that are on them. It’s vital to keep those cows healthy and being able to feed quality hay through winter and keep them on that pasture as long as possible is key.”

The outlook wasn’t looking to bright early on, “Once the rains came the grass really perked up quite a bit, especially in the low lying area. We had the second worst year ever, but it was definitely better than the year before, and I count my blessings. We still had to buy some hay like everybody, just had to get the right amount to get through to next year.”

Times have been tough for everyone, “Any Rancher will tell you that you can’t run an operation with a check book and a lot of operations were being forced to do that the past few years and those rains helped make it more manageable,” said Schoen. “This year was better than last year, so we are heading in the right direction. I don’t do any forecasting! Mother nature has proven me wrong on more than one occasion. We live in ‘next year country, ‘you know next year is going to be pretty good’. You have to be optimistic, if a guy doesn’t have hope for next year, you best be moving on or retiring.”