Members of the Mountain View County agricultural service board received an update on the planned 2017 Alberta agricultural services board summer tour planned for the region.
The update came during the recently regularly scheduled MVC board meeting in council chambers.
The tour will take place July 10-13 in Mountain View and Red Deer counties. Both municipalities have approved funding of up to $50,000 each for the tour.
The tour itself will see representatives from agricultural service boards and other stakeholders from across the province visit agriculture facilities in both counties.
About 400 delegates are expected to attend the tour's activities.
Agricultural service boards are formed by rural municipalities to provide input and information to councils on agricultural related issues and concerns.
Donna Trottier, who is helping coordinate the tour, made a presentation at the recent agriculture service board meeting.
“What she presented was a little more narrowed down list of where we are going to be going with our tour in Mountain View County,” said Duncan Milne, a member of the MVC board and a county councillor.
“Our delegate tour and our spousal tour in both counties are almost settled. The youth activities are also almost settled.”
A complete list of the tour stops is nearing completion, he said.
“There will be walking tours of Olds College during the event,” he said.
The tours will take place on July 11 and 12, with a wrap-up on July 13.
“That falls right in the middle of the Calgary Stampede,” said Milne. “That could work so that people coming to the Stampede could also come on the tour. That would work it together.”
The official launch of the summer tour plans will be made in January at the provincial agricultural service board convention.
“We will have the big push then,” he said.
In other news, members of the MVC agriculture service board will be touring various riparian and ecological enhancement sites in the county.
Board members had expressed an interest in touring the local sites sometime this fall.
In a briefing note presented to the board on Oct. 16, administration said the tour could include “an ALUS project with Greenedge Precision fencing along a wetland, seasonal creek fencing with multiple watering locations to support rotational grazing, fenced dugouts with various types of watering systems, an Eagle Creek fencing project with crossings, and a 3-D fencing site.”
Although an exact date for the tour has not been set, it will occur within the next month depending on weather, said Milne.
