From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 7, 1973:

Several area farmers were calling the winter just ending as the “worst on record.” November snows had prevented farmers from getting their crops harvested and had also caused extensive damage, while continued cold, wet weather since then, culminating in this week’s continual rain, had made the fields a sea of mud. According to Earl Van Meter, Douglas County extension agent, things had been “getting worse and worse and worse, and the slow rain has taken the bottom out of the feedlots. The cattle are just left in the mud.” Al Pendleton, Rt. 2, said that cattle do not gain weight under muddy conditions and that their average weight had dropped from 1,000 to 900 pounds, causing financial losses to farmers. Pendleton added that it was not just a Douglas County problem, but one which extended “across the whole Midwest, from Texas to Minnesota.” Raymond Ice, Rt. 1, agreed that the weather “could not be worse” and that it was worst winter he had seen in his lifetime, adding that his biggest problems had been getting feed from the silo out into the fields, with equipment breaking down and getting stuck in the mud.