Agriculture

Members of the East, Central and West 4-H Clubs presented a cheque to Marjorie Krossa for $4,427 to the Ponoka Stampede Rodeo Challenge on June 28. The money was raised during the 4-H Show and Sale and half of the proceeds from the groups charity steer.

The Society to Prevent Dutch Elm Disease (STOPDED) is asking for the general public’s assistance to save the nation’s beautiful elm trees from the deadly Dutch elm disease (DED).

The East Ponoka 4-H Beef Club’s 4-H year has slowly come to an end. On April 12, our club held our mini show at the Stretch farm. We had a trimming demonstration from Brittany Dowling and Marissa Weleschuk. A product demonstration was done by Marissa Weleschuk, a hoofing trimming demonstration done by Harley Henkelman and ultrasounds done by Jeff Colyn.

The three beef clubs that make up the Ponoka District Beef came together on June 8 for their year end awards night. The Central club hosted the event and the general purpose room at Ponoka Composite High School was filled with buyers, sponsors, parents, grandparents, and siblings, all there to witness the East, West and Central leaders present the 4H members with their year end awards.

The government of Canada is introducing a change to the Canadian Wheat Board Act to ensure that members of the board are elected solely by Western Canadian farmers who are commercially producing grain. Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agricultural and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, introduced Bill C-57 in the House of Commons on May 27.

For two years straight, a record number of hail storms have battered crops across Alberta. With this summer’s hail season just around the corner and crops beginning to grow, farmers are crossing their fingers, hoping bad hail years don’t come in threes. Two Record Years Back-to-Back

The Ponoka Rising Sun Clubhouse Society is volunteering to beautify the flowerbed in front of the Ponoka General Hospital during the summer. Carol Burnet, left and Lorna-Jean Lockerby watered the flowers on May 28.

With the coming of spring comes a great need for organization and efforts to make this season’s crop successful. The Agricultural Service Board (ASB) is looking forward to working towards a good year for Ponoka County.

unior high school cowboys and cowgirls have been working hard all season long to qualify for the fourth annual Wrangler Junior High Finals Rodeo in Gallup, New Mexico. Jessa Galloway, Jordan Smith and Logan Bonnett will represent Ponoka on Team Alberta.

The Alberta High School Rodeo Association finals will take place in Ponoka on June 14 and 15 and leading up to the finals the rising stars of rodeo have been very busy. On April 19, they competed in the rodeo in Delburne. Many cowboys and cowgirls from Ponoka and area competed and here are their results.