The Importance of Snow
In true Alberta fashion, winter weather has made its dramatic return bringing cold, and lots of fresh snow. While the cold keeps us on our toes, (furnaces and equipment love to break down on the coldest days), we’re genuinely grateful for the snowfall. That blanket of white is more than just a beautiful backdrop, it’s a vital source of moisture that will nourish our fields as it melts, helping recharge the soil and prepare it for the growing season ahead.
As farmers we see firsthand how closely each season is connected. The snow we receive now insulates our pastures, and during the spring melt will fill our dugouts, the local sloughs, creeks and wetlands and add vital moisture to the soil. We have spent years using regenerative agriculture to build our once poor soil into healthy resilient soil with high organic matter. This organic matter acts as a living sponge to absorb and store moisture to help sustain us through short term drought. The amount of precipitation we receive over the winter plays an important role in filling the soils moisture reserves, building the resilience of the soil so it can better handle a variety of summer weather.
After several years with drought and a very dry fall, we’re especially hopeful for more snowfall this winter. We lost a lot of the snow we received in December due to the warm temperatures at the start of the year, and we were getting concerned, as the majority of the local sloughs were dry and the soil’s water reserves were very low going into winter. We are grateful for every snowflake we receive this winter as it will help replenish soil moisture, refill dugouts, sloughs and wetlands, and support the natural ecosystems our farm depends on.
- Sunworks Farm
