Here is a good example of what I mean with wild trees and a pond. At first glance you would not catch my strategy but it's two fold which is I cut the grass in the hay field to not only harvest the hay but it allows the trees more water because the snow accumulates there. Additionally I put a pond in the same location to gather the water not used by the trees. We also terrace our fields to prevent erosion and channel water to ponds which act as holding areas for our moisture. A hill is added so the snow will accumulate on the backside of it and right where we need it in this case. This is only one example. I took this picture last year with intention on explaining the strategy sooner.

As soon as you said "I start out mowing the grass down" my mind went to snow drift and soil water. We don't get snow drift here but in Amarillo there was significant drift. My work location had 50 yr old rows of Rocky Mountain juniper. Sometimes those rows piled up mountains of snow.

Do you think snow fencing in your orchard would collect even more snow? Is your soil fully wet by spring most yrs or would extra snow melt help some yrs?

Fruitnut,
We have several complete thaws throughout the winter. In some locations in the world they have freeze ups where snow is on the ground September- April. It's not unusual for us to be in the 80's this time of year or the 30's. The area around Kansas City can have wide fluctuations in weather (eg. Dec may be as cold as -19 or as hot as 73). Use the "Weather" link below and select lows and highs and you will get an idea of our climate. Remember -19 is not really just -19 it's more like -45 f in Kansas or colder. So our coldest day in the last 25 or so years was -19 but I suspect the wind speed was at least 17 so that's -45 f. See the links below
http://www.usairnet.com/weather/maps/current/kansas/wind-speed/
http://www.douglastwitchell.com/wind_chill.php
Spring is typically very wet but moisture fluctuates a great deal. For example look at the difference between 1988 and 1993 in this link
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/localclimate/seasrank/annualpcpn.php
The ground is typically frozen and wet without vegetation alive and then it rains on top of that so it's a bad time for erosion. Typically the rain fills the ponds during early spring and they remain full until July when another drought begins and lasts through the 1st of September. Rains start again and there is rain in September, October, November , December. This is why the old timers always told me to plant grass is any month that ends in "R" because the grass needs that rain to get started as does other members of the grass family such as wheat. Kansas is the best wheat growing state for all those reasons because you plow in July and August during the drought and plant seed and then wait for September. The wheat grows because the rain starts it and then rain turns to snow and blankets the wheat. Snow fence would work as good and maybe better but grass is free and a great make shift snow fence because it accumulates a several foot high upside down v that melts and waters trees.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weather

Do the drifts around the trees cause any problems of rabbits nibbling higher branches? Northwoodswis

northwoodswis4,
The drifts could and have before caused problems if I was not paying attention and if the cold spell was long. Typically our snow melts within a week or two. Our accumulation is less than an inch of moisture in most cases which might be 3-4 inches of snow and then it melts and snows again. We get into trouble at times in January because it does not always melt or keep the snowfall amounts low. The advantage is hunters have an easy time finding the rabbits because they leave tracks to their current location.

Wrapping trees with screening/hardward cloth to prevent vole damage is my big task before the snow flies. This year I'm also putting out bait near my nursery aisles.

Jesse,
I'm not sure what voles are because like porcupines and other pests we do not have them. Our cottontails and rats are formidable adversaries.