Good conditions throughout the region have led to a great start to the 2017 growing season, says Grant Lastiwka, with Alberta Agriculture in Olds.
Warm, dry temperatures, coupled with good levels of moisture are proving very welcome in Mountain View County and nearby areas, he said.
"Oh my goodness yes, people are busy," Lastiwka told the Gazette. "Everything is flying full tilt with the warm weather and the ability of farmers to get out there and get things done.
"By the early part of last week everything was in full go and certainly as time goes on we will have a better feel for how everything is unfolding. It looks really good right now."
The moisture situation in particular is good in the district, he said.
"What we have right now is varying degrees of moisture in different areas, depending on the lay of the land," he said. "It is fair to say that there are some people going around (wet) areas and those areas were bad last year as well. But for the most part the really warm weather last week seemed to give everybody a real ability to get across the land."
The good conditions have also allowed local farmers to get in most of the crops left over from last year's wet fall, he noted.
"Some of those (crops) are in such wet areas that they aren't going to be (harvested)," he said. "We are very fortunate that we didn't have much out like other counties did. So some of those small areas are going to be left, but I think the ability to get through some of those (wet) spots is something they have accomplished to degrees."
Other parts of the province, including in the Edmonton area, have not had such good spring conditions, in some cases hampering the harvesting of crops left over from last fall.
"When we look across the rest of the province we feel very blessed because there are portions that had so much moisture (last fall) and then got more moisture in the fall, while this area got very little," he said.
"We were improving by great leaps and bounds to the ability to get across the landscape where other areas are still placed in jeopardy."
Lastiwka was scheduled to make his monthly report to the Mountain View County agricultural services board on May 15.
"Everything is flying full tilt with the warm weather and the ability of farmers to get out there and get things done."- Grant LastiwkaAlberta Agriculture in Olds
