- Ag. Service Board
- A.S.B. Members
- About Us
- Annual Report
- A.S.B. Minutes
- Programs, Services
& Rental Equipment - Invasive Weeds
- Crop Diseases & Pests
- Tree Diseases & Pests
- Prairie Shelterbelt Program
- Vertebrate Pests
- Alberta Rat Control Program
- Municipal Tankloaders
- Agricultural Pesticide Empty
Container Collection Sites - Farm Family Awards
- Municipal Calendar Contest
- Newsletters
- Upcoming Events & Updates
- Photo Gallery
- Links
2011 Agricultural Service Board Report
Board Composition:
| Ted Wilkinson - Councillor (Chairman) | Grant Aykroyd - Farm Member |
| Myron Zajic - Councillor | James Schwindt - Agricultural Fieldman |
| Chris Oracheski - Farm Member | Aimee Wonsik - Asst. Agricultural Fieldman |
| Harold Gulbraa - Farm Member | Rod Gabrielson - Pest Control Officer |
A total of 4 Agricultural Service Board meetings were held in 2011.
Administration
The ASB received grants from Alberta Agriculture in the amount of $241,755.01 of which $150,000.00 was the Provincial ASB grant – Legislative Stream, $4,788.03 was a one‐time ASB grant surplus payment and $86,966.98 was a grant adjustment payment (changing from fiscal year to a calendar year payment structure). We also received $45,000.00 for the Provincial ASB grant – Environmental Stream and $57,700.00 for the Rat Control grant. The ASB continued to support the Town of Wainwright’s noxious weed control program in the amount of $4,000.00. In addition, the ASB supported Canadian Forces Base Wainwright with their noxious and restricted weed control program in the amount of approximately $5,810.00. The Municipal District of Wainwright handled the Emergency Registered Liquid Strychnine Concentrate (LSC) for the producers in 2011 and there will be a Permanent Registration for 2012. The M.D. hosted the seventh annual Rural Routes Supper and social, which again proved to be a very popular event with 385 ratepayers and their families attending. The 2012 Rural Routes Supper will be held on August 17, 2012. The M.D. also participated in the 2011 Wainwright Trade Show with Municipal District of Wainwright and Rat Control booths. The M.D. continues to operate 3 municipal water tankloader facilities for agriculture, shelterbelt and other approved uses.
Vegetation Management and Crop Pest Monitoring
The M.D. continued to maintain three weed inspectors and three GPS/injection equipped trucks. These trucks were stationed in Irma, Wainwright and Edgerton. In 2011, the first year of a three year rotational roadside spray program was completed. Tordon 101 and Clearview, both combined with Stayput, were the herbicides of choice for the general roadside program. We continue to address weeds such as toadflax, scentless chamomile, leafy spurge, tansy, white cockle and Canada thistle found within our boundaries. New to our area, a prohibited noxious weed was found north and east of Chauvin called Berteroa incana L. (Hoary Allysum) on 13 different quarters. This weed was a challenge as limited choices of registered herbicides are available to control this weed. All of the landowners with this weed fully cooperated with control recommendations by putting a lot of effort and financial investment into controlling Hoary Allysum. This area will continue to be monitored for new infestations. Also found south of Chauvin was a large patch of Clematis tangutica (Yellow Clematis vine), an escaped ornamental which is considered a noxious weed and is definitely a concern. We continued to monitor and spray the nodding thistle patches which are also a prohibited noxious weed that was originally found in locations south of Edgerton and north of Irma in 2010. We evaluated a herbicide trial in the Irma area targeting Gypsophila panaculata (Baby’s Breath). We found that the herbicide Clearview, added with sticking agent Stayput, provided the best control in year one after spraying. We completed our planned roadside spraying program and responded to all submitted weed calls. Our roadside spray program will start the second year of the three year rotational complete coverage program in 2012.
The M.D. participated in research projects with BASF involving the herbicide Overdrive, and Dow AgroSciences research plot with Clearview herbicide. These research and trial plots are in an effort to find effective alternative control options for the noxious weeds within the M.D.. Canadian Forces Base Wainwright continues to map and control Spotted Knapweed and conduct their weed control program in an effort to meet the requirements under the Provincial Weed Control Act. The M.D. of Wainwright ASB staff participated in an ARD Provincial Weed Survey.
In 2011 the M.D. had a contractor complete approximately 850 miles of roadside shoulder mowing. The amount of grass growth and moisture levels early in the year contributed to some challenges during the mowing season. However, this initiative resulted in many positive comments and there will be approximately 850 miles of roadside mowing completed again in 2012.
The M.D. continued with a number of pest monitoring initiatives which included bertha army worm and diamondback moth traps, and found count numbers to be lower than average. The annual grasshopper survey was completed with one site per township being inspected; counts were average to lower than usual. The M.D. of Wainwright also completed the third year of random clubroot inspections on 46 canola fields. There were no fields found to show visual symptoms of clubroot. However in 2011, a canola field in the County of Vermilion River was found to be positive with clubroot, which proves that the soil borne disease is getting closer to municipal boundaries. The M.D. also had a third party take samples from 18 area wheat fields as part of a provincial fusarium graminearum survey in which 1 field was confirmed with a PCR test to be positive. The kernel incidence was low with one out of one hundred seeds tested being positive. This is the second consecutive year fusarium graminearum positive field has been discovered. The implementation of an M.D. fusarium graminearum policy is currently on hold, until testing accreditation and enforcement measures are addressed and clarified by Alberta Agriculture. After the harvest, 9 wheat fields were plotted for soil sample submissions across the M.D. for the provincial wheat midge survey with numbers in the east end of the municipality found to be moderate. Bertha army worm, diamondback moth, grasshoppers, wheat midge and clubroot will all be surveyed again in 2012.
Municipal Projects, Demonstrations and Extension Activities
This year we received $45,000.00 from the Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture Program. The focus for this grant money is to provide information and programs within three priority management areas: Water for Life, Climate Change, and support for the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) process. Producers continue to inquire on waterwell drilling program assistance and also decommissioning water well information. There has also been an increase in questions from acreage owners on how to properly shock‐chlorinate private water wells. EFP workbooks are still being accessed from the M.D. office and assistance is provided to producers that are interested in applying for Growing Forward funding in the Grazing and Winter Feeding, Integrated Crop Management and also the Manure Management Stream.
Radio ads, called “Municipal Agri‐minute”, were voiced every week starting in March and ending in December and were aired on both the Key 83 AM channel and the Wayne FM 97.3 channel. These airings are 2 minutes in length and reach a broad listening audience to promote sustainable agriculture messages and upcoming events to rural farmers, ranchers and acreage owners.
There were also 6 newsletters published and mailed out to an average of 1,400 rural households per edition. In the November 2011 edition a shelterbelt tree application form was enclosed to assist rural people with entering into the Prairie Shelterbelt Program offered by Agriculture and Agri‐Food Canada. We hope to increase the amount of participants and tree inventories that are accessed by our ratepayers, as landowners of 5 acres or more qualify for free tree seedlings.
We partnered with the Wainwright Seed Cleaning Plant on the Round‐Up Ready Canola Hybrids Plot which showcased a Nexerra variety in the midst of other RR varieties. On September 27, the plots were combined and weighed at the seed plant. Aimee worked with Ty Murray combining, and Ken Murray hauling the harvest. When complete, the weight conversion of the bushels per variety per acre were 45H29 at 53bu/ac, 7345RR at 53bu/ac, 9553RR at 48bu/ac, 7355RR at 43bu/ac, 7265RR at 43bu/ac, 45S52RR at 38bu/ac and Nex1014RR at 38bu/ac. A PFRA shelterbelt tree meeting was held and the municipal photo contest was another popular event, with over 200 photograph entries. The decision to choose the top 13 photos to showcase in the municipal calendar was extremely difficult as always, but the finished project turned out to be the best ever with updated formatting to include local noxious weed and pest information correlating to specific months. Local ratepayers quickly picked up all 750 copies.
If you are interested in becoming involved in any of our workshops or if you have ideas for an event or newsletter article, please contact the Assistant Agricultural Fieldman, Aimee Wonsik at 780‐842‐4454.
Pest Control
In 2011 there were no rat infestations in the Rural Municipality of Manitou Lake in
Saskatchewan or the Municipal District of Wainwright. There have been a few infestations in
Special Areas, the Municipal District of Provost and Cypress County. The Municipal Rat Control
team has helped the Municipal District of Provost and Cypress County with their rat control
issues in the form of infestation identification, clean‐up assistance and supplementary training
(Cypress). We need to continue to be vigilant through monitoring and inspections to ensure
that Alberta remains a rat free province. Due to some regulatory and toxicant registration
changes that have been made by the Federal Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency, we will
be seeing some changes to baiting protocols and the types of bait and the situations they are
used in during 2013. The beaver control issues that we dealt with in 2011 were moderate.
There were about 12 coyote predation calls in 2011, 8 were issued toxicants and the remaining 4
received management mitigation measures. The coyote population is up and we are expecting
more calls for assistance in 2012.
If you have any questions or concerns about pest control, please call Rod Gabrielson at 780‐842‐
7285 or the M.D. office at 780‐842‐4454.
The above is a brief report on the activities of the Agricultural Service Board in 2011.
We extend our thanks to the Municipal Council, Administration, staff and the members of the
Agricultural Service Board for their cooperation, guidance and assistance in 2011.
Respectfully Submitted,
James Schwindt, Agricultural Fieldman