About half of the fields in Red Deer County have been checked for clubroot ñ and so far nothing has been discovered, said Art Preachuk, agricultural services manager for the county.ìWhat we're doing is a spot check at the entrances to the fields, where the disease usually shows up ñ by blinds, lease roads, field roads,î Preachuk said.ìIt's soil borne, so it usually has to come in on equipment or something.îBy performing checks safely, Preachuk said they can prevent the spread of the disease, should any be discovered.ìWe don't drive our trucks into the entrances, and we wear disposable boots so we don't transfer anything around.îAlthough inspections have not been finished in Mountain View County, nothing has been found yet, said agriculture services manager Jane Fulton.ìWe have randomly selected fields from high-risk areas instead of doing every field within the county, for efficiency,î said Fulton.ìHowever, if we do find a confirmed clubroot site we will expand our surveying.îRD County cleans up flowering rush near InnisfailFlowering rush, newly added to the Weed Act last year, has been found thriving along Buffalo Creek, south of Innisfail, said Preachuk.The weeds were placed in eco-friendly paper bags, which will be burned at a later date.Preachuk said he and his crew will likely have gathered three or four half-ton loads of flowering rush by the time they are done at Buffalo Creek.Weather complicating farming efforts in RD CountyFarmers are constantly battling the rain as they attempt to cut and dry their crops, said Preachuk.ìThey're trying to get silaging done and haying done, which has been (nothing) short of a real struggle,î he said.ìWhen you get a drizzle every other day, you can't get in there and do that haying.îPreachuk said Red Deer County residents may notice certain fields having bales around their outside perimeters, while further in some is cut, and closer to the centre, there is still a crop standing.ìThey don't want to knock it all down and have it all rot,î said Preachuk. ìThey're sort of hedging their bets, and maybe they'll get a portion of it off good.îAlthough areas of both counties have experienced minor cases of frost already, Preachuk said he doesn't think it was enough to hurt the crops.ìIt's just a wake-up call that fall is coming,î said Preachuk.ìCrops overall are looking vey good. We need heat. We can go without rain until October. But Mother Nature makes up its own mind, I guess.î
