While last week's dump of snow was a pleasant sight for most producers, it also seemed whet their appetite for more of the same.

"It was sure nice to see that we could get moisture again. We've never lost a crop in March, but we've had quite a drought through the winter spell so the amount of snow received had some variability through the southeast corner. The nice thing about this snow is that it was pretty moist, there was a lot more moisture there compared to the snow that we would have gotten at the beginning of January. Moisture-wise, two thumbs up," stated Alameda area farmer Edgar Hammermeister.

"It's just a starting point, though. Making assumptions that this moisture will have opportunity to move into the soil, it'll give a little bit of a start. But our soils are so dry, broadbrush speaking, that we're still going to need timely rains through the growing season to maintain yield potential."

He pointed out that a rough rule of thumb equates a foot of snow to an inch of precipitation, and the chances of two or three more feet of snow between now and spring isn't highly likely.

"The timeliness of moisture is going to be really important at the start of the growing season, in particular. We just don't have the reserves that we had last year."

"It's inconvenient for grain hauling, but we'll take all the moisture we can right now and deal with it with snowblowers. We'll just need to take a look at those extended outlooks and then start making fertility plans accordingly with the amount of perceived moisture," Hammermeister concluded.