Inspections are now underway in selected townships (10 kilometres by 10 kilometres) in Red Deer County to identify any clubroot outbreaks and bring them to the attention of the municipality, says Philip Massier.
A county councillor and the chairman of the county's agricultural services board, Massier says the board expects to have an update on the inspection program at its Aug. 21 meeting.
Alberta Agriculture officials recently put out a notice to municipalities to ensure that farmers, municipalities, industry and others are practising preventive measures to prevent the spread of clubroot.
Those measures include crop rotation, biosecurity and proper vehicle cleaning when moving across municipal boundaries.
Clubroot is a soil-borne disease affecting cruciferous crops like canola, mustard and some vegetables.
The disease was found in several fields in Red Deer County in 2012 and 2013. There have been no reports of the disease brought to the attention of the agricultural services board so far this year, said Massier.
“We've got our canola inventory done, where the fields are, and now they (county staff) are starting the inspections and sampling in all the fields in the selected townships, and then random sampling after that,” he said.
“We want to see if there are clubroot infestations, whether it is getting worse or better. The first year we checked every field and we did find it, so the following year decided to sample all the fields in the townships where clubroot was found and then do random sampling.”
County staff members are also on the lookout for “farmers not following best management practices, i.e. they are growing canola back to back (seasons). We are sampling those fields as well because they have the higher risk potential,” he said.
“We'd like a three- or four-year rotation, but we are not going to tell farmers how to do their jobs. Certainly if they are growing it back to back, we will sample.”
The Mountain View County agricultural services board recently instructed administration to step up efforts to ensure equipment operators are keeping their vehicles clean of mud, dirt and other debris when entering the county.
MVC manager of agricultural services Jane Fulton says random inspections this spring and summer have uncovered no instances of clubroot in the municipality.
The inspections focus on field entrances, low areas, and any other risk areas identified within the field. Priority of inspections will be given to fields where inspectors notice canola which appears to be showing symptoms of clubroot such as wilting, stunting, yellowing and early maturity, and where recent earth moving, pipelines, drilling or service rigs have entered onto the land.
Alberta Agriculture recently announced that a new strain of clubroot had been identified near Edmonton, prompting department officials to call for preventive measures.
In other agriculture news, Massier says crops are generally looking good across Red Deer County.
“We've had a little hail out in the Raven county and a little damage around Bowden, but our storms have been really localized this year. I think we've had really timely rain. There's a lot of optimism out there and the crops are doing well. Overall I'd say the attitude of the farmers is good,” he said.
