Unseasonal weather may lead to dry soil conditions

MINNESOTA — The unseasonal weather of the last year could bring both positive and negative impacts onto farmers this upcoming growing season.

In a typical year, Minnesota sees lighter, fluffier snow from December to February, and heavy, wet snow between March and May. So far this season, snowfall totals are below the 30-year average, but total precipitation is near average because the last major snowfall we saw had more moisture in the snowflakes than usual.

“There’s moisture in the soil,” said Jeffrey Strock, Ph. D, a professor and soil scientist at the University of Minnesota Southwest Research & Outreach Center It never gets to be like you took some out and dried it in your oven, there’s no moisture. There’s always some there. It’s just that it might not be available to the plant. So when we actually have no snow cover to insulate the ground, and then you get those really cold arctic blasts that kind of come down through and you might have sub zero temperatures, windy conditions, that actually tends to dry the soil out, especially at the surface.”

Lower snowfall totals will usually allow frost to go deeper into the ground, which could be troublesome for farmers. While Minnesota’s main crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat are resilient to dry soil conditions, a fast warm up for temperatures could make it harder for plants to get the necessary water needed for the seeds to start growing.

“The frost depths are quite deep this year, especially where there’s no snow cover, as compared to years where we have snow cover and the frost is shallow,” said Stock. “So some of it also really depends on, like, when does the frost come out of the ground before farmers can actually get in and do things?”

With this year’s weather unseasonal, it’s unknown whether soil conditions will be dry when the growing season starts in May.