What this week's winter wallop means for farmers across the U.S.
This week’s winter wallop across the U.S. means different things to farmers in different places. In Kansas, the biggest blizzard in more than a century had livestock producers scrambling to safeguard their herds. In Iowa and parts of Minnesota, farmers were relieved for a real cold snap that goes deeper in the soil to help kill future pests. Further north in the Midwest, though, growers of winter crops like alfalfa worry that a lack of adequate snow cover leaves their plants vulnerable to cold and ice.