Wheatland Co. agriculture (Billings, Bozeman, Roundup: homes, fencing, to move)

[jamesia]

Anyone on the forum know if Wheatland County (specifically Shawmut area) supports any agriculture other than ranching? Does the area have enough rainfall to support small scale farming without major irrigation? I guess that's pretty vague

Does anyone grow fruit trees in the area?

Thanks for helping

[MTSilvertip]

There are some very old apple trees on some of the old homesteads in that area, but don't look for large scale production of a heavy fruit like apples in an area with that much wind. Many of the homesteaders that grew apples had crabapples.

Shawmut is a pretty dry area, irrigation is a must if you wish to grow crops besides a dryland hay or grain.

Not as dry as some areas, but it does get a lot of wind and cold. The frosts leave late and come early in most of Montana east of the divide, so produce that takes a long time to ripen or mature is not a good idea.

Down along the river there are good areas for growing crops, but ranching is the mainstay of that area.

There are a couple areas there that could lend themselves to growing quick growing produce, but there are an amazing number of deer in the area so special fencing would be necessary to protect any crops.

You could grow quick producing fruits like strawberrys there along the river, but on the flats to the north or the Big Ravine to the south is pretty exposed to the wind and weather. Very good ground if you can get any water on it.

You will have to move your produce a long way to market too as the nearest towns, Harlowton, Rygate, Roundup are not that big, and Billings is about 120 miles away to the south east, Bozeman is about the same to the southwest.

Very small community, very insular, few people, but the ones that are there are old Montana and really nice folks. There is one subdevelopment there just to the Northeast of town that butts up against Deadmans Basin, and I can't vouch for those folks as they move in and out too fast to get to know them.

Good Luck.