The Mountain View County's agricultural service board has instructed administration to step up efforts to ensure that the soil-borne plant disease clubroot doesn't find a home in the county.
At it regularly scheduled meeting on July 14, the board passed a motion calling for the public and industry to be informed of the need to ensure that agriculture and other industry vehicles entering the county are thoroughly clean for mud and other debris that could carry the disease.
Clubroot is a soil-borne disease affecting cruciferous crops like canola, mustard, and some vegetables. Examples have been found in Red Deer and Lacombe counties, but not in Mountain View County.
The county's equipment cleaning policy states, in part, that “Mountain View County requires that any equipment brought in from outside the county will be cleaned and free of soil and debris prior to entry. Pressure washing equipment will be adequate to achieve this in most circumstances.
“If the equipment is coming from a municipality known to be infected by clubroot, the equipment should be further disinfected to minimize any potential liability concerns. Equipment moving between projects within the county should be free of soil and debris.”
Jane Fulton, manager of agricultural services, says the agriculture services department is working to raise awareness of the need for everyone to keep farm and other equipment coming into the free of soil and debris.
“We will be looking at a strategy to promote equipment cleaning and best management practices,” said Fulton. “We will be using our ads in the paper and also sitting down and seeing if there are other way of raising awareness. I will talk to some of our industry partners and maybe they will have some ideas.
“Clubroot has been found in the adjacent municipality (Red Deer County) and we take that with a certain level of concern.”
During the July 14 meeting, board members reviewed the county's current clubroot management policy and procedure and did not recommend any changes.
Under the existing county policy, clubroot was declared a pest under the Agricultural Pests Act in 2007
Under the existing procedure, random field inspections are to be conducted throughout the county by agricultural staff or designated pest inspectors appointed by the county.
“When an infection is found, the current crop may be harvested, but all residues from the crop shall not be retained for further use or moved off of the property,” the procedure states.
“If a host crop is sown on land that has clubroot and a notice has been issued to this property restricting the growth of host crops, the host crop shall be destroyed by the landowner or occupant. If required, agricultural staff will hire a third party to destroy the crop and the landowner will not be compensated for loss of crop.”
The procedure also calls for agricultural staff to “provide public information and education to all individuals that access agricultural land regarding the prevention and potential spread of the disease.”
Fulton says a number of inspections have been conducted this year and no clubroot has been found anywhere in the county.
Mountain View County remains in contact with Lacombe and Red Deer counties to get updates on how those municipalities are dealing with the clubroot issue.
