While some see the ground covered in snow and think, 'this is good for the farmers', area grain farmer Norm McFadden said he doesn't tend to see the benefits from the winter snow as much as he does from that which comes down in late spring.
"I don't get too worried about the snowfall until we get into like late April, March," he noted. "We know how quickly the weather can change in this country, so I don't usually to get too worried until we start getting into March, and then if we still don't, however, get any snow, then I'll start worrying a little bit."
He said the most important need for snow is to fill up the dugouts for the cattle ranchers.
"Last year, for example, we had some pretty good snow through the winter, but it was really that late snow in mid-April that really gave us any sort of runoff, and that late snow basically saved us, really. That filled up some dugouts and gave us some good ground moisture. It was a little later than most of us would have liked it, but nonetheless we still were glad we got it."
"Typically, if you can get a good heavy, wet snow late March, even mid-March, and give it some time to dry up enough quick enough to get out in the field early, but we can't control the weather, regardless how much we pay in the carbon tax."
McFadden said this will be his family farm's 125th year of growing crops, and there have never been two years that were the same.
"That's the part I like about farming, is you don't know what you're in for, you do what you can control, and then you just kind of stand back and let Mother Nature take its course," he shared. "Yeah, we've had some rough times, but we keep going. We don't know any better. We just keep going."
He added, "Snow this time of year covers up the dead grass and covers up the dog crap and all that kind of stuff, but really, for the most part, it just costs people money in moving it, shoveling it, and hauling it away. So when we get snow in March, it can stay where it fell and melt right away and everybody's happy."
