Holmes County farmers tackle heavy snowfall

Agriculture is a building block of nations, and it is a major factor in the Holmes County economic landscape.

Today’s farmers face a convergence of environmental, social and economic pressures every day. Each of these pressures has the potential to threaten the stability of the global food supply.

Included in that list are five factors: extreme weather, financial squeeze, labor shortages, sustainability transitions and digital divide.

The recent deluge of snow has definitely helped area farmers experience the first of those five challenges.

With anywhere from 13-15 inches of snow smothering local farmland acreage, farmers haven’t experienced this type of snowfall for many years.

The biggest positive around Holmes County is that, above all, farmers tend to be very resourceful when it comes to dealing with any issue that crops up. This particular challenge just happened to be a snow dump like few others.

However, Trevor Berger, program director at Holmes County Soil & Water Conservation District, said the big snowfall isn’t all bad for farmers.

“As far as farmers raising crops, it really doesn’t have a great effect,” Berger said. “I don’t think any of them are arguing about the snow cover because it won’t have much of an effect because the ground is already frozen.”

He said because crops are already harvested, those who planted cover crops will have their cover crops nestled quietly under the blanket of snow, soaking up water as the snow melts. He said those crops should be unaffected.

Berger said the biggest challenge remains for farmers raising livestock.

“There is the challenge of maintaining temperature and feed for the animals,” Berger said. “But that is a typical winter issue, and most of our farmers are used to going through cold snaps. However, this is a really long one and could create some tougher issues, especially for those with newborns and younger animals. But for the most part, our area farmers understand how to prepare for this.”

Berger said the biggest issue now isn’t the snow cover itself, but rather what will happen as warmer weather moves in and begins to melt what was a monumental amount of snowfall.

He said the precipitation amount from the storm is actually fine considering the area water tables remain down from what they should be. He said if weather cooperates and melts the snow at an acceptable rate, it will drain off and be advantageous to the local water tables.

However, if warm weather and sunshine should develop quickly, the county could see some dangerous run-off situations.

“If we see very warm weather start melting this snow in a hurry, we could see some damaging floods where water is running off and washing off soil where it shouldn’t be,” Berger said. “That is the dangerous part about all of this snow.”

While the cold weather is a welcome site to help fend off the devastating tick population the county experienced last year because a warm winter grew that population quickly, Berger said the large amount of snow will work as a layer of insulation to possibly protect hibernating ticks during the cold streak Holmes County is currently experiencing.

“Oddly enough, while we want the cold to help kill off the tick population, the blanket of snow works as an insulator that can protect the tick population,” Berger said. “That is something that we will simply have to wait and see how it gets affected.”

As for the snow changing anything his staff does, he said the Holmes SWCD crew’s roles shift from fieldwork to education during the winter months anyway, and his staff hasn’t experienced any change in what they had planned for this winter, aside from the challenges of battling through snow-covered byways on their way to educational opportunities.

While the arctic blast of snow and cold may provide its own challenges for area farmers, Berger said so many of the county’s farmers are so well-versed in how to handle adversity when it comes to inclement weather that the record-setting snowfall didn’t create any scenarios that aren’t being dealt with, because farmers here are dedicated and intelligent and willing to do whatever is necessary to work through the challenges.