PONDERA COUNTY - Recent rains across parts of Montana have done little to ease a drought that a Pondera County farmer says may now be in its eighth consecutive year.
Swift Dam, nestled in Pondera County, sits at the center of a complex numbers game — one that Heather Rice monitors every day.
"Our mission is to deliver water with excellence to over 380 shareholders that we have throughout Pondera County," Rice said.
As general manager of the Pondera County Canal and Reservoir Company, Rice tracks water flowing from Swift Dam to Birch Creek and into a canal system that distributes it equally to farmers, ranchers and the communities of Conrad and Brady.
"Each one of our shares is worth up to 18 inches per acre," Rice said.
In a typical year, the allocation runs eight to nine inches per acre. This year it started at 3.5 inches but was recently raised to 4.5 inches — a development Rice welcomed.
"We like that when that happens," Rice said.
A warm winter complicated the situation, even though snowpack levels were initially encouraging.
"We've had a really warm winter. We had a nice amount of snow, but, unfortunately, with the warm temperatures, we've kind of just been left with our high elevation snow. We were able to capture it in our other reservoir down in Lake Frances. But we really need it to stay up here so that we can allocate it to the users up above as well," Rice said.
Among those users is Maurice Tack, a third-generation farmer northwest of Valier who is beginning to wonder when conditions will improve.
"This is either the seventh or eighth year we've been in this drought. You can make it out through a bad year or two, but going through seven, you know, the pastures are really starting to suffer now," Tack said.
Three inches of recent rain offered some relief, but Tack said it did little more than buy time.
"I've had to skip all my irrigated pasture. We couldn't irrigate it," Tack said.
This year has forced Tack to move twice the usual number of cows and get creative with feed, turning to cattle cake, specialty blocks and other supplements.
"I usually don't ever buy hay. Well, I'm buying probably 200 to 300 tons this year," Tack said.
Despite the hardship, Tack said the support of his community has helped him push through.
"I've got good friends, good neighbors. If I got a piece of equipment they need that I'm not using, and it helps them, I'll lend it. It doesn't bother me. They'd let me use their equipment if I needed it," Tack said.
Rice said farmers like Tack have remained understanding, even as the toll of the drought grows harder to ignore.
"It's tough. One of them mentioned to me he loves farming, but the last couple of years is just not, you know, that passion's gone because they're more in survival mode than anything else," Rice said.
