It was an evening of information for landowners on Feb. 13 at the Ponoka Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion as guest speakers enlightened their audience about clubroot of canola. Approximately 90 concerned people of different ages gathered to gain more knowledge of the soil-borne disease.
Curtis Henkelmann with the Leduc County Agriculture Services was the first speaker and gave a slide show presentation showing what clubroot looks like if it is found in the field. Henkelmann briefed the audience on what Leduc County has been facing since being hit by the disease and the measures they are taking to deal with it. He also gave information on how people can take precautions and minimize the spreading of it by washing their machinery between fields and do crop rotations.
Henkelmann also stressed that the public should be aware about clubroot as well because they also could play a part in helping spread the clubroot to neighboring fields with activities such as 4-wheeling and driving.
Dr. Kelly Turkington a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was introduced after Henkelmann and focused more on the scientific aspect of clubroot. Turkington defined clubroot, showed how it spread, gave an overview on its cycle, presented calculations of how much farmers could lose if affected and gave a geographic report of where clubroot was the strongest in Canada.
After the speakers were done the floor was open for questions.
Harald Oppel, a farmer in Ponoka County found the meeting very beneficial.
“It was really informative,” he said. “I think the meeting took the farmers by the ear and gave them information on how it begins and how to prevent it which is good because prevention is a lot better than trying to fix it later.”
Shayne Steffen manager of agricultural services for Ponoka County was happy with the turnout and the guest speakers.
“People were glad we brought the information out and were very concerned of it spreading,” he said. “The speakers thought the meeting went really well, there were some really good questions about things they had not thought about.”
Steffen is also encouraged by the other clubroot meetings that went on throughout Central Alberta.
“Between Red Deer, Tees, and Ponoka approximately 250 people came to the meetings,” he said. “We had a good mix of farmers and people involved with the oil industry. Everyone wants to know how to keep clubroot from hitting their fields and the oil industry has been very interested in what they can do to keep from spreading the dirt. There’s been a really positive response.”
