Saturday, March 31, 2012Lamar Democrat, Lamar, MO8 FARM & INDUSTRY

Weather in 2011 varied from torrid summer to February blizzard. What about 2012?BY RICHARD COOPERDemocrat staff writer

The year of 2011 was one of weather extremes across southwest Missouri. Although this summary will concentrate on Lamar and Barton County, it is impossible to fail men-tioning the killer tornado that devastated over one-third of Joplin on the late afternoon of May 22, taking 160-163 lives. (Estimates continue to vary on the number of lives lost.) While Joplin, Duquesne, and other areas suffered the onslaught, Barton County re-ceived only light rain.

In examining the year’s weather, we rely on statistics supplied by the Barton County Electric Co-op, which is the official weather observation station in this area.

The long term annual mean temperature for Lamar and Barton County is 55.61 degrees. In 2011, the mean temperature was 57.56, which is a deviation of nearly two degrees (specifically 1.95). It was indeed a warm year. How-ever, we will let others debate the validity of human-caused global warming.

The hottest month was July with 27 days of temperatures reaching 90 degrees or higher. However, August produced the highest reading of the year

with 106 degrees on the 3rd. It was the annual August cool-down, which began on the 9th, that gave it a mean tempera-ture well below July’s 83.63 degrees.

Just a reminder, mean tem-peratures are determined for each date by adding the high and low readings for each date and dividing by two. For the month, add all the daily mean temperatures together and di-vide by the number of days in the month.

A quick scan of other tem-peratures experienced during the year shows the first date the temperature climbed to 90 degrees was on June 4 when it reached 92. The last date to have a reading of 100 degrees was September 14. The first killing frost was on October 21.

The coldest temperature of the year occurred on Febru-ary 3 when it dropped to mi-nus 5 degrees, which was also the only subzero reading of the entire year. That occurred when Barton County and the surrounding area was buried in a snow cover varying from 18 to 24 inches. Lamar’s offi-cial amount was 18 inches, but that was measured at the Co-op, one mile west of the city. Inside Lamar, depths were ob-viously greater. It also marked the only official blizzard in

this area in recent memory. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), a blizzard must contain winds of at least 35 miles per hour for at least three hours and contain heavy snow reducing visibil-ity to one-fourth mile or less during the three hours.

The 21 inches of snow that fell during the entire month of February established a new record for the month, easily surpassing the previous record of 16 inches that fell in 1980. The total snowfall for the year was 25.5 inches, which was nowhere close to the record of 39.5 inches that fell in 2003. November, 2011 was totally lacking in snow, and only a few flurries were seen in De-cember. Not until February of 2012 was there enough snow to accumulate on the ground, and it was barely two inches and melted within three days. Most people feel that if the winter can enter March with no snow on the ground, the chances of a long lasting snow cover are virtually none. Ad-mittedly, March has produced some heavy snows over the years, but it is quick to melt under a warming sun.

Looking at monthly pre-cipitation figures on a month by month basis, six months were moisture deficient. They were January, May, June, Au-

gust, September, and October. The two driest months were January with only 0.27 of an inch and October with 0.77 of an inch. Surprisingly, No-vember was the wettest month with rainfall totalling 5.43 inches. Still, the University of Missouri says it will take con-siderably more rain or snow to

replenish our subsoil moisture needs.

That moisture was not forthcoming in January as the new year opened on an ex-tremely dry and unseasonably mild note. Only 0.04 of an inch was measured by the Co-op’s gauge, and temperatures averaged more than nine and

one-half degrees above nor-mal for the entire month.

February largely followed suit, and now we are into the first days of spring. What will the rest of the year serve us on the weather plate? Your haz-ard is likely as good as anyone else’s.

2011 fall weather perfect for Conservation WorkBy BEN REED

While the 2011 dry sum-mer was not especially agree-able for Barton County crop production, the continued dry fall weather offered perfect conditions for farmers to do long overdue conservation work. Approximately 175 in-dividual conservation prac-tices were applied by Barton County farmers. Many of the applications were focused on repairing sheet, rill and gully erosion on cropped acres.

In addition to engineering practices, district cooperators were eligible for special water quality practices. Landowners received a dollar per acre in-centive to complete practices which would improve sur-face and ground water quality. These practices include nutri-ent management plans, pest management plans, irrigation system conversion, abandoned well closures and establish-ment of field borders and filter strips.

Although landowners re-ceived partial cost share as-sistance in the implementation of these practices, a major-ity of farmers contribute their own time, labor and up to 25 to 50 percent of the practice cost. The district has ongoing contacts from customers re-questing technical service and

cost share assistance for the implementation of conserva-tion practices.

Each year the district is given an initial funding allo-cation of cost share assistance for a variety of conservation practices. During the fiscal year the district may receive an additional funding alloca-tion depending on how cost share dollars are being uti-lized statewide. The district board and staff make every effort to prioritize and utilize the district’s annual cost share allocation fund to assist as many landowners as possible. The district also receives cost share funding through a spe-cial watershed grant.

The 49,467 acre AgNPS SALT (Special Area Land Treatment) project is located primarily in the southwest area of Barton County and a small portion of northwest Jasper County. The overall goal of the project is to protect and improve the water quality of the Little North Fork Spring River Watershed. The seven year project will be coming to an end on June of 2012.

An elected board of super-visors provides the conserva-tion leadership and direction for the district. The elected board of supervisors follows an annual plan of action to ad-

dress conservation issues of the county. The current board consists of Leon Phipps, chairman; Darrell Kentner, vice chairman; Elmer Fast, treasurer; Jay Chism, sec-retary; and Mark Peterson, board member. Collectively, this board has volunteered many years of service in pre-serving and improving the re-sources of Barton County. At the end of 2011, board mem-ber Elmer Fast completed 36 years of service to the Barton County Soil and Water Con-servation District. Each year supervisors attend a variety of conservation workshops and training sessions to keep updated on new conservation technology and management methods. The Barton County SWCD will be conducting a supervisor election on May 17 during the USDA Customer Appreciation Day.

The Barton County SWCD currently employs three full-time positions, Ben Reed, district manager, Ed Weaver, district technician and Sandy Todd, district clerk. In addi-tion to the district staff, the Natural Resources Conserva-tion Service provides District Conservationist Robert Paul, resource conservationist, Mark Clements, resource con-servationist, and Brian Wil-

liams, soil conservation tech-nician, to assist landowners with conservation planning and technical assistance.

Even through recent dif-ficult economic times, Barton County farmers have shown a great deal of responsibility in protecting and improving the thin layer of topsoil for pres-ent and future generations. The Barton County SWCD encourages all Barton County

residents to control erosion, improve soil productivity, pre-vent pollution of resources and apply conservation methods which will benefit agriculture. The Barton County SWCD and NRCS staff is available to provide day to day conserva-tion service in conservation planning, information/educa-tion programs and technical assistance. This assistance is available to all residents re-

gardless of race, color, sex, age, handicap or national ori-gin at no cost.

The Barton County Soil and Water Conservation Dis-trict and Natural Resources Conservation Services wishes to invite all residents interest-ed in conservation, to stop by the USDA building in Lamar to discuss any specific conser-vation need.

The Barton County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors and Staff meet monthly to approve cost share applications and payments, assess district workload and review state-wide policy changes.

ful Doug and Cathy both are for the return of good health.

So that brings me back to why I truly enjoy getting out to meet my Barton County neighbors. It is uplifting to meet neighbors that live and prosper on the farms of our community. It is heartening to meet neighbors that choose to raise their families in a ru-ral setting that teaches their kids the value of a good work ethic and the importance of self worth. It renews faith to

see how neighbors can reach down and help lift each other up during difficult days. It is actually fun to meet neigh-bors that have taken the time to install a barn swing for the neighborhood kids.

If you haven’t met Doug and Cathy McKibben, what in the world are you waiting for? They are a really friendly young farm family and the type of neighbors that continue to make Barton County such a good place to live. They enjoy

their life on the farm. They appreciate their neighbors and their neighbors appreci-ate them. And who knows? If you’re lucky, Cathy just might share some of her delicious chocolate chip cookies with you and Doug may even give you a ride on the infamous Barn Swing. Of course since Doug isn’t charging for rides, it might be good to make sure your own accident insurance is paid up just in case.

McKibben, continued from page 3

sel, Peggy Blanchard, Kathy Griffitt, David Gordon, Billie Reno and Julie Vincent will celebrate 25 years of service. Jeff Gardner, Danny Hininger, Dennis Hill, Larry Hagins and Debra Cackley will celebrate 30 years, and Carl Byram and

Milton Hagins will celebrate 35 years. Lonnnie Hagins, Joe Ramseyer and Michael Bo-man will celebrate 40 years.

In 2011, Thorco also wel-comed a new plant manager, Jim Wright.

Although Thorco is seeing

change for the future, the key to its success is still the same, a good product in good time.

As Probert says, “The future of Thorco is looking good.”

Thorco, continued from page 1

Thanks for reading the Democrat.