Snow a boon for local wheat and cotton

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Local farmers should see the snow West Texas has seen recently as a good thing. 
That’s the news from Scurry County AgriLife Extension Agent Greg Gruben.
“It’s going to be positive for everybody involved,” Gruben said. “It doesn’t matter. There wouldn’t be one negative. The only negative thing that would’ve come from the snow is nobody could get to work and you were stuck at home, and if somebody had a wreck.”
On the positive side, Gruben said the moisture provided by the snow will be a big boon to local crops.
“It will fix a percentage of nitrogen in the soil, and you’re getting your underground moisture that you have got to have,” Gruben said. “If we don’t get a rain by July 4 and we’ve got zero underground moisture, cotton’s done. Does this mean we’re going to make a bumper crop? Absolutely not. But it’s really nice that we’re wet at this point.” 
Some more rain going forward would be nice as well, he said. 
“If we just keep getting some moisture along, that will set us up unbelievably,” Gruben said. 
“We’ll grow grass in the pastures for the cows, too. There is not a negative effect.”
The cold temperatures may have temporarily slowed the wheat crop, but the benefits will outweigh that setback, he said. 
“It may have slowed the wheat down in growing, but with that extra shot of nitrogen on it, as soon as we have some warm days, that wheat’s going to jump up,” he said. “We know what happens when we don’t have enough. Now, we don’t need five or six inches sitting in there covering up the wheat where it’s drowned out. We don’t need that. But your cotton ground, it can stand all the water it wants, because it’s going to get soaked up before we go to planting in May.”
More rain today, and even more rain or snow forecast for Wednesday, should also be good for crops, Gruben said.