Deep and crisp and even

"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted"       Mae West

It is still in the early innings of the 2013 ballgame, but this winter is shaping up to be a good old-fashioned one, meaning lots of snow to go with those colder temperatures.

Those of us who live in, drive in and shovel our snow may curse it at certain moments, however, it provides several important advantages for northern farmers:

 Increasing soil moisture:

Our annual precipitation in the form of rainfall here in Gormley averages about 28 inches (71.8 cm.)
In addition to that, we also average 56 inches (142 cm.) of snowfall.

If that seems like a lot of snow, bear in mind that it takes roughly 10 inches of snow to provide 1 inch of water, thereby adding 5.6 inches to our rainfall total. Therefore, 17% of our annual precipitation comes in the form of snow!

If that doesn't seem like much, imagine your life with 17% more holidays, 17% more golf or 17% more whatever-floats-your-boat and you begin to understand how vitally important that additional moisture can be.

Many variables affect the quantity of snowfall melt water that is actually taken into the soil to recharge it with water in the spring. Simply put, a slow,steady thaw in the spring that allows the melting soil to percolate down through the soil profile is best. A mid-winter thaw with most of the melt water rushing away over frozen soil is not on our farmer wish list.

We seem to have had very few winters of late with snow that lasted throughout the winter. January thaws seem to have become the rule.

 Insulating the soil:

That cozy duvet that keeps you warm in your bed works because of the air trapped in the down insulation.
Similarly, air trapped between snow provides a blanket to help protect the soil ecosytem. Our winter wheat requires at least 3 inches of snow cover to help prevent it from winterkilling. Garlic needs this protection as well. More is certainly better in this case.

 Preventing wind erosion:

Once you have a thick layer of unbroken snow on the ground, the wind is unable to blow soil around. That fact alone helps me to sleep much more soundly this time of year.

 Increasing soil fertilty:

Snow has been called "poor man's fertilizer" for a reason. As reported by the Michigan State University Extension service, snowflakes trap dissolved organic nitrogen, nitrate and ammonium in the atmosphere, delivering it free of charge to cold and quiet fields.

Rain and snow together will provide between 2 and 22 pounds of nitrogen per acre per year. Given that sweet corn (our largest feeder of nitrogen) requires about 100 pounds per acre, all that free fertilizer is a lot better deal than a bunch of pennies from heaven that you'd have to clean up.

 Floating your boat:

 Thinking globally rather than locally for a moment, consider the plight of the Mississippi river. The U.S. had their worst drought since 1956 last year. That has created historically low river water levels, so low in fact, that all shipping on the Mississippi could grind to a halt by mid January as of this writing.

 Although dredging of the river bottom is currently taking place, a heavy winter snowfall upstream along with the subsequent melt waters and some timely rains would certainly help our neighbours.

So, all together now; "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...."


Enjoying powdery snow rather than powdery mildew,

Guy