Snow is still on the ground from the blizzard that hit the quad cities. While the moisture from it helps, farmers say they’re going to need a lot more.
"I would say we still need 8 to 10 inches of moisture to alleviate the dry soil we have going into next year,” say Phil Fuhr, a farmer.
After three disappointing corn crops in a row, 2013 will be essential to rebuilding crop inventories.
"Last year was pretty severe drought. It was very, it varied from region to region some areas caught a little bit of rain. Some caught very little,” says Phil.
The Illinois State Water Survey says 2012 was the second warmest and 10th driest year on record for Illinois.
For some farmers they barely survived, “We caught just enough to get us through the growing season and the temperatures did break later in the summer and we did get a little more moisture,” says Phil.
He’s hoping they make up for that dry weather, “What we're looking at now, what we're faced with is a really large deficit with the amount of water in our soil profile.”
Although Phil would prefer rain, he’ll take whatever he can get, “Snow is a good source of moisture and as long as the ground is able to suck up all that moisture in the spring when it melts."
He says some farmers are going to have to do things differently, like growing less crops and buying more crop insurance.
"They don't want to go into a dry year knowing that we could have a back to back drought year,” says Phil.
He just hopes Mother Nature gives them what they want, "We need this moisture now more than ever."