FRANKLIN — It's been a snowy start to 2025. In the first half of January, Indianapolis saw nearly a foot of snow.
Between the cold, the wind, and the snow, many people are feeling annoyed with the winter weather. However, for farmers, the amount of snow we receive in winter can dictate how crops grow.
Luke Dougherty has farms across Johnson and Shelby Counties. You might be surprised to find that underneath a blanket of snow on his farm, there is wheat in the ground.
The wheat, planted in fall 2024, lives dormant through the winter. The snow protects this winter crop.
"The snow has made kind of an insulated blanket over the top of the soil, and kind of helped it warm up some," explained Tyler Gabehart.
Gabehart, an agronomist who works for Greene Crop Consulting, helps farmers make decisions about their crops throughout the year.
"It's protecting it from freezing and thawing constantly back and forth," Gabehart said.
We took to the field to measure the temperature of the soil.
In an area where the snow had been covering the field, the soil was damp and easy to dig into. Temperatures were right at or just above the freezing mark.
In an area nearby, which had not been covered in snow, the ground was frozen solid. It was difficult to get our thermometer into the ground, but it did read colder than the ground which had been covered by snow.
Farmers are concerned with wheat's roots being uprooted during winter. This can happen as the ground freezes and thaws, going through a series of expansions. This forces the roots up and out of the ground, killing the plants. This process is called heaving.
In 2024, there was not a lot of snow in winter. Farmers are thankful for the snow we've seen so far in 2025, but they are hoping for more.
"Right now, we're out of the drought," Gabehart said. "This snow's going to help us go into the spring real strong."
The latest drought monitor report, released on January 16, shows abnormally dry conditions (the lowest stage of drought) for about 37% of the state. Drought conditions are contained in the northern portions of Indiana.
This is an improvement from the start of 2025 when around 50% of the state was in drought.
Drought is a big concern for farmers, as it means more time and money to use irrigation. We have seen a pattern of mini-droughts in recent years.
"Our weather pattern is certainly becoming more extreme," Dougherty said. "Seems like when we go dry, we go very dry."
Dougherty has 3,600 acres. Outside of the wheat he's growing this winter, you can also see all types of corn and soybeans on his farm throughout the year. He also grows cucumbers for Vlasic.
"As farmers, we want our crops year in and out to be perfect," Dougherty said. "We operate in an imperfect environment, and so what we can do is mitigate risks and mitigate stress with tools we have at our disposal."
The imperfect environment is the unpredictable weather.
"Whatever the environment does, there's not a lot we can do about it," Gabehart said. "Farmers have a lot of money out here in the fields, and we're kind of at the mercy of whether we get rains or not."
The good news about this January's snow is that lots of water will enter the ground as it melts.
"It's comforting to know we have some soil moisture that's replenishing our soil reserves," Dougherty said. "That's a variable that we're excited to see hopefully going into spring with good soil conditions."
These conditions leave Dougherty feeling optimistic about the crops he will plant in spring.
"You kind of have to be in this profession," he said. "There is so much out of your control that you have to be optimistic about what you're doing."
