N Bar Ranch
Grass Range, MTSteeped in the history of the American West lies the N Bar Ranch spanning more than 60,000± contiguous acres in the foothills of central Montana’s Snowy Mountains, 100 miles north of Billings, Montana.
The Two Furrow Ranch has not changed hands in over a half-century. That ownership continuum reflects well in the fine condition of the ranch and the improvements. The developed stock water, which consists of five wells, five miles of pipeline, and fifteen tanks, should be considered well-located, well-built, and well-cared for.
The ranch sits astride the boundary between the Langs Fork of Big Dry Creek and Duck Creek, which feeds into Little Dry Creek. Most of the ranch is considered a gently rolling country with sandier soils on the south end and more clay to the north. Much of the farmland has been seeded to permanent pasture, but there is farmland on the south end that is currently in a crop/fallow rotation.
There are flood-irrigated meadows in the northwest part of the ranch that have been seeded to annual forage crops and put up for hay. Consider average yields in the one-and-a-half to two tons per acre on these meadows, depending on water availability. Historically, dryland winter wheat yields an average of about 40 bushels per acre. The ranch is estimated to carry 2,400± AUMs of grazing plus what winter forage can be put up on the dryland and irrigated fields. If one were to feed for four months and graze for eight months, the ranch comes close to balancing at close to 300 Animal Units.
The Two Furrow Ranch is one of those ranches that may come on the market every couple of generations, a buy-and-hold ranch if there ever was one.