Agriculture Service Board, included The Agricultural Service Board’s (ASB) 2017 annual report was presented to Rocky View County (RVC) council at a regular meeting April 10.
According to Jeff Fleischer, with RVC’s Agricultural and Environmental Services, the County’s five weed inspectors completed 2,476 formal inspections and 1,127 re-inspections in 2017 – resulting in 666 weed cases.
“Of those, we had to do 98 weed notices, where we had to ask or enforce the residents or individuals to control those,” Fleischer said. “Twenty-six of those cases were prohibited noxious weeds where we are mandated by the province that it has to be a weed notice.”
Fleisher reported that in 2017, 165 hectares of road edge was treated to control grass shoulders and 1,150 hectares of roadside was spot-treated for noxious weeds. He said since 2008, the total amount of herbicides used decreased by 88 per cent. In addition, he said the active killing ingredient in RVC’s herbicide decreased by 78 per cent.
“The total product that we’re using is going down, which is saving us on storage space,” Fleisher said. “Overall, (there is) less product going out there, which we’re pretty happy with.”
Fleisher said RVC uses an integrated approach to weed control that includes mowing and using environmentally-sensitive products. In 2017, 4,942 kilometres (km) of first pass mowing was completed, with a second pass required for 3,020 km.
“If you totaled those kilometres up, it would be equivalent to the distance from Edmonton to Nova Scotia, so (we’re) quite busy mowing roads in the summer months,” he said.
Fleischer also reported that RVC has 14 appointed pest inspectors. In 2017, 133 fields were inspected for clubroot, a disease that attacks canola – 21 more than in the previous year.
“We have no positive clubroot fields in the county,” he said. “It’s something that we’re quite proud of, because it creeps in about 30 km a year, and Mountain View (County) has a confirmed case now.”
Additionally, he said, 13 fields were inspected for fusarium graminearum – a disease of cereals. RVC remains rat free with no confirmed sightings, according to Fleisher, but the county did conduct six rat inspections in 2017.
Reeve Greg Boehlke thanked Fleisher for presenting the report on behalf of the ASB.
“Just proof that you don’t just spray weeds, you’re a very busy department and it shows here by the numbers,” Boehlke said, “and a very successful department, I might add.”
