After one of the driest years on record, there's a lot of
anticipation for what spring will bring. National Weather
Service Meteorologist, Shawn Rossi says,"It's kind of good to
remind people droughts come in cycles. They aren't one year
events. It gives them an idea for planting in the future." But
future rainfall in the coming months is uncertain. "The long-
range outlooks aren't giving us much of clue at this point...
giving us equal chances of near normal precipitation, near below
or near above. So it's still kind of a guess at this point",
said Rossi. That's why Little Blue NRD hosted a Water and Soil
Conference in Hastings... giving suggestions and sharing helpful
tools that agricultural producers may find useful with the
recent drought. Water Resources Specialist, Daryl Andersen, says
the topics discussed look at current problems, like Hastings
dealing with high nitrates in the drinking water. "We need to
curb the nitrogen use in these areas so we can get the standard
down below ten parts per million,"