By Amy Bickel
The Hutchinson News
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The conditions aren’t fit for man or beast, Jeff Smith laments after a day of trudging through shin-deep snow to care for his pregnant cows and newborn calves.

It’s calving season on his McPherson County operation, and the foot and a half of snow dumped here has made his job even tougher.

Yet despite the cold weather and the damp wind that soaks through to the bones, along with the long, hard day of moving cattle out of the weather and the little sleep from checking on them, Smith admits it’s hard to curse something so blessed.

“We needed this,” he said of the snow that is helping chip away at the multiyear drought plaguing Kansas. “The wheat farmer in me is excited and very happy. The wheat was in desperate need of moisture.

“I just hope this will open things up so we start getting rain in March and April and put water in the ponds.”

Yet, it’s not near enough across a landscape that has been sucked dry for nearly three years.

The heavy snow that fell across Kansas in two sweeps over the past five days was a welcome sight for Kansas farmers – many of whom for three years have watched their crops and pastures bake and their water supplies dry up as little relief came from the sky.

Nevertheless, while the foot to two feet of white blanket will provide some relief, Smith and others across the state admit the obvious.

This is no drought buster.

“It’s a good start,” said Barber County Extension Agent Tim Marshall, who battled the storm Monday to feed his calves. “But we’re still trying to just put a Band-Aid on something that needs stitches.”

Lingering conditions

Across much of the Midwest, drought has persisted since summer 2010. At present, the worst conditions are in a swath from the Dakotas to Oklahoma. All of Kansas remains in a severe to exceptional drought, with more than 75 percent of the state rated as extreme to exceptional, the highest ratings by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of the 2012 drought at more than $3 billion in crop losses - the loss of production and the price farmers would have received.

The 2011 drought cost Kansas production agriculture roughly $1.8 billion, the department estimated last year, along with about $366 million in herd liquidation that year as cattle flooded livestock auction houses by midsummer.

Meanwhile, the government paid out more than $1.3 billion in crop insurance indemnity payments for failed commodities last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency. The agency already has covered more than $200,000 for crop losses this year, largely for wheat.

Forecasters aren’t predicting an end of the drought anytime soon. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center expects the drought to persist through April.

Typically, experts estimate the water equivalent of snow at a 10 to 1 ratio – every 10 inches of snow brings an inch of moisture. The water equivalent from the past two storms, however, varied depending on the temperature, Kansas State Climatologist Mary Knapp said.

There probably will be some runoff with the snow, which could help pond and river conditions, she said. However, even if the snow would not have blown around from Monday’s gusty day, and even if it were to melt directly into the ground, the moisture wouldn’t be nearly enough.

“If you look at it as a 13-inch deficit, which is common in your area and other areas, you would need 130 inches of snow to end the drought,” Knapp said. “That’s an awful lot of snow.”

Some improvement

Still, Kansas should see some improvement in the drought, Knapp said. For instance, areas that might have been in an exceptional drought could move to the extreme category.

The storm did improve the condition of the Kansas wheat crop, which was suffering from drought stress, Kansas State University Agronomist John Holman said.

At present, roughly 36 percent of the Kansas wheat crop is rated as poor or very poor, according to the Kansas Agriculture Statistics Service.

Some winter wheat planted last fall has yet to germinate, Barber County Agent Marshall said.

“We had a lot of wheat that never came out of the ground last fall,” he said. “Maybe (the snow) will help it emerge.”

“It seems like, maybe, we’re switching patterns,” Marshall said.

Snow also will provide insulation for the winter wheat, Holman said.

Knapp said the state needs the wet weather pattern to continue into the late spring and early summer to help alleviate the drought.

“At this time, however, the outlook isn’t very encouraging,” she said.

She did say forecasters expect the second week of March to be cooler and wetter than average, compared to last year’s hotter, drier temperatures.

Ingalls farmer Mike O’Brate said he was becoming worried as he headed into spring. His wheat crop was suffering from the lack of moisture.

The present drought has been the worst he has experienced. He didn’t harvest a wheat crop in 2011 and cut all his corn for silage that same year. Last year was better, but still the drought cut into yields.

The last decent rainfall came during wheat planting last fall. On Monday, he estimated 10 inches of snow had fallen since Thursday.

“This snow is a blessing, and a big share of it stayed on the fields,” O’Brate said, noting it will help the struggling wheat and keep irrigation systems off a little longer. “But we need a lot more rain before spring. This isn’t over, but it will get us a long ways into spring.”

That is what Holman is hoping, noting current precipitation won’t take the wheat crop through harvest.

“I hope this is a sign of things to come,” he said. “We need this and need more of it. … We’re not out of a drought, yet. But every little bit we get well take it.”