Last summer’s lack of rain puts local farmers in need of more snow.

Winter snow serves several purposes for DeKalb and other farming communities statewide. Lyle Paul, an agronomist with the University of Illinois Agronomy Research, said snow cover counts toward soil moisture as well as insulating the fields from wind erosion.

After the lack of rain in August this past year, snow is the best thing that can happen to the fields, said Matt Montgomery, a crop systems educator from the Sangamon-Menard County Extension Unit.

“Snow melts slowly and percolates into the ground, which helps recharge the soil for the spring planting months,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery said he would like a middle ground for winter snow. A severely cold winter without snow for insulation can deaden the ground. Too much snow that stays too long can oversaturate the fields with moisture, which pushes back crop planting.

Paul also said that snow can be a nuisance because it takes 10 to 12 inches of snow to equal 1 inch of rainfall. However, Paul said, every bit of moisture is advantageous for the soil in the winter season.

David Changnon, professor of meteorology for the NIU department of geography, said the liquid precipitation – not the snowfall – is what makes a difference for crops.

Liquid precipitation is the amount of actual moisture that gets into the soil and provides a start for the seeds in the spring planting season, Changnon said.

More snowfall does not equal a better crop season, Changnon said. Instead, the amount of summer rain is what matters.

According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, Illinois has 76,000 farms that cover more than 28 million acres – nearly 80 percent of the total land area in the state.

DeKalb County accounts for 828 of the farms, totaling 368,076 acres, according to a 1997 census by the DeKalb County Farm Bureau.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture also reported Illinois farmers produced more than 1.8 billion bushels of corn in 2003, the highest total in state history, but produced only 374 million bushels of soybeans, the lowest total since the drought of 1988.

Paul said the record corn crop from last year came from the well-timed July rain, but the lack of rain in August and aphid problems accounted for the meager soybean crop.

Montgomery said the lack of natural predators as the cause for the rapid increase in the aphid population last summer, and the harsh cold is good for disposing of the crop pests.