CHIPPEWA FALLS — Doug Custer said the rain and snow this week is more valuable than a winter with plenty of large snowfalls. With the frost already out of the ground, it means the rain is soaking into the thawed soil.
“This moisture has basically replenished the subsoil,” Custer said Wednesday. “This isn’t running off into the ditches. This got us back to where we should be for this time of winter.”
Custer, who operates Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls, said he’s far more optimistic than he was just a week ago.
“I was getting to the point where I was really concerned,” Custer said. “If we had that dry stretch in the middle of summer, I’d really be concerned.”
Joe Strus, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, Minn., said that between Thursday night (March 21) and Tuesday night, the Eau Claire area received 2.92 inches of precipitation. If that had all been snow, it would have meant more than 29 inches of snow, as the ratio is typically one inch of rain is equivalent to 10 to 12 inches of snow, Strus said.
“(Tuesday) was a record-setting day with 1.33 inches of rain observed at the airport,” Strus said. The previous record for March 26 was 1.06 inches in 1906, Strus said.
The precipitation over the five days brought the total for March to 3.14 inches. For all of 2024, the Eau Claire area has now received 4.19 inches of precipitation, which is now a half-inch above normal for this point of the year, Strus said.
Jerry Clark, UW Extension agriculture agent for Chippewa, Dunn and Eau Claire counties, said the rainfall definitely helped.
“We were in a moisture deficit, especially the subsoil,” Clark said Wednesday. “This will help boost (farmers). And the ground has thawed; we won’t lose this to run-off, like we do most springs.”
Clark said the frost went out of most fields three to five weeks ago.
“We needed it, regardless of what form it came in,” he said. “Having it come over several days helped with infiltration. We’re anticipating most of this rain went into the subsoil.”
Clark said the dry February and March led to some farmers already planting some grains and oats. This rain will help those crops grow.
“There was nothing in that soil profile for it to expand and grow,” Clark said.
Clark has spoken with agriculture agents across the state and he said everyone has benefitted from precipitation over the past week.
“It’s pretty widespread across the state. Everyone got some moisture out of it,” Clark said.
Clark said he anticipates area farms will be on track to plant their corn and soybeans in early May.
“We could see a delayed cutting season on alfalfa,” he said. “We’ll see what April brings.”
Clark was pleased the weather has taken a turn toward colder temperatures. He noted that some of the fruit crops in the region, particularly apples, had started to bud. Luckily, those buds had not started to flower yet. The Chippewa Valley had a very warm spring in 2012, causing those fruits to flower early. A late April frost damaged that year’s crop.
“There was concern (for those crops) if it stayed warm much longer,” Clark said.
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