Montana Department of Livestock

There are about 48,000 livestock brands actively registered in Montana. That makes it hard to come up with new designs.

The offer comes after the state asked the park service to throw out all of the potential options it previously put forward.

Yellowstone is proposing increasing its bison population to as many as 8,000 animals. But Montana is asking that the park withdraw – or at least reconsider – the options it's put forward and come up with new ones.

Montana’s shrinking dairy industry may see a cut to milk quotas due to low production.

For the first time in around 50 years, bovine tuberculosis has been detected in a cattle herd in Montana. The state livestock department says meat inspectors at a plant in Minnesota detected the infected cow and traced it back to a herd in Blaine County. That herd is now under quarantine.

Low rainfall and high temperatures during this year’s drought damaged hay crops and grazing pastures. Because of this, some ranchers in Montana are facing difficult decisions.

Some pets in Yellowstone County are being put on a 60 day quarantine after the state of Montana Tuesday confirmed a skunk tested positive for rabies.

Wildlife officials are finding more evidence of a deadly rabbit virus spreading in Yellowstone County. The first wild cottontail death from hemorrhagic rabbit disease was confirmed Friday, several weeks after 40 feral rabbits died from the virus.

Montana’s legislature is considering four bison-related bills this session. The two bills that would have helped tribal nations expand bison herds were voted down, while tribal leaders say the surviving bills could harm long-standing bison management on reservations.

A virus threatening to wipe out entire populations of rabbits across multiple states was found for the first time in Montana recently.