Ranching in Montana’s upper Grasshopper Valley at just under 7,000 feet of elevation is not for the faint of heart. Weather extremes and predator encroachment are just the tip of the iceberg, but for the past several years, the area has fought a somewhat unprecedented challenge – prolonged drought.
“This drought has just been year after year after year. Rain is just a Band-Aid in our country. In southwest Montana, we depend on snowpack and we just haven’t gotten snow like we used to,” explained Tyler Tash, who ranches alongside his father on their generational family operation outside of Polaris, Mont.
After battling drier-than-normal conditions for the past handful of years, 2026 seemed to really bear drought’s ugly teeth. By late spring, conditions looked tough across the land, so Tyler and his father made a difficult decision to liquidate the majority of their yearlings and cull some cows – all in preparation for what was gearing up to be a destitute summer for grass production. The decision proved to be a lifesaver, but not in the way originally intended.
Like many ranchers in the area, the Tash family moves part of their cattle up even higher into the mountains during the summer months – utilizing Forest Service grazing allotments at the headwaters of Grasshopper Creek to fatten their calves and shine up their cow herd. As a predominately horseback operation, it takes the Tash family five days to trail their cattle from the home ranch in the valley all the way up onto the spine of the Pioneer Mountains. Thanks to some late rainstorms, conditions up on the Forest Service allotment looked spectacular when Tyler and his family turned cows out on their permit July 1. Despite early trepidations, the summer of 2026 was plodding along like normal.
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