The County of Stettler’s Agricultural Services is finishing up roadside spraying in the middle third of the county, according to Quinton Beaumont, director of Agricultural Services.
The middle third of the county is described as Township 37-0 and Highway 601 from the west border to the east border of the county.
“The majority has been done, we are just traveling around now picking up spots that may have been missed or skipped because of sensitive crops that were seeded at the time,” said Beaumont. “We are still targeting Yellow Toadflax and have a window on spraying for this invasive species.”
Bounty of bushel crops expected if rains hold off
With the incessant rains this year, the moisture in the county is very good according to Beaumont.
“If the rain holds off, there will be some high bushel crops that will come off in good shape,” said Beaumont. “Since there is a lot of moisture in the air, it will make for short harvest days.”
Beaumont also added that yields looked very good, as long as the hail and storms stay away, and no lodging occurs, i.e., when the crop is laying down flat but not cut or swathed).
“We should have above average yields,” added Beaumont.
The Agricultural Services Board also noted that grasshopper survey has been completed with extremely low numbers across the county, which was predicted.
“Fusarium head blight survey samples have been taken and we are waiting on results but that will be a couple of weeks,” said Beaumont. “We will be starting our clubroot survey in the next ten days and are aiming to test in about 375 fields, which is what we have averaged over the last two years.”