(ABC 6 News) – Wednesday’s blizzard conditions left a layer of wet, white powder across southeast Minnesota and some farmers expect it will have alleviate drought conditions at least somewhat.

“Every year is different,” said Jeff Gillespie, a farmer out of Fountain in Fillmore County. “We’re kind of eternal optimists.”

Several inches of wet snow still cover the Gillespie family farm.

A 50-year veteran of the industry, Gillespie knows it’s the kind of snow that can make a difference in these drier times.

“When that melts, it’s going to go right down into the ground, not much of it’s going to run off,” he said.

He’s also the kind of farmer, though, that knows how to take advantage of whatever weather comes his way.

In fact, just before the snow hit, he did some frost-seeding.

“The heaving, freezing and thawing of the ground, even though we just blow that seed on top, kind of works it into the soil and it starts growing just fine.”

Techniques like that can be super beneficial for farmers who have to work around wild weather patterns, like the frequent dry spells we’ve seen these last few years.

Even with last summer’s heavy rains, a lack of rain and snow over the winter has left the area in moderate drought conditions, according to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor report.

“It was a pretty dry fall,” said UMN Extension Educator for Olmsted County, Mary Nesberg. “So that mostly impacted folks who had planted cover crops and they didn’t see quite the germination that they wanted.”

Those cover crops provide another technique for managing different weather patterns, particularly mitigating the effects of drought.

By reintroducing the crops into the soil, the organic matter left behind helps retain more moisture in the ground instead of running off.

All we need now is some consistent rain.

“We’re hoping with some of these spring storms, maybe it can wake up some of those cover crops a little bit,” Nesberg said.

Luckily, the Climate Prediction Center shows April being a little wetter than normal around here, something that would suit Gillespie just fine.

“I always say since I’m a farmer,” he said. Weekends don’t matter that much to me. If it could rain every Saturday night an inch, that would be perfect.”