"With A Little Help From My Friends"
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Handi-Van Fund Raiser Held in Provost
This rock band called Rubber Soul demonstrated a hard day’s night featuring Beatles’ music Friday evening in the Provost hall during a community fund raising event when 300 people showed up. Enough cash was raised to purchase a new handi-van for the Provost Handi-Van Society that will be used by elderly and others in the community. The new van is valued at approximately $90,000. Goods, services and other items were donated and then auctioned off to the highest bidder at both silent and live auctions after a supper was enjoyed. The event was staged by the Provost and District Chamber of Commerce. ©Provost News Photo. More pictures in May 12 edition of The Provost News. Want to Subscribe to The Provost News? Click here.
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’Hoppers Can be Beat, But Science Needed—Expert
Hatching Expected Here Next Month
Grasshoppers can be beaten, according to an expert—but he says science and a strong will would both have to be used.
Dan Johnson, who is a scientist who works for the University of Lethbridge however says he doubts there will be a breakthrough in controlling the crop-destroying pests that will appear as intense in the Provost region as it was last year.
“We have the ability to meet the problem head-on, but it would take strategic management and it has to be science-based.” He says there is “not enough of a will to put the science into grasshopper management” so it’s just left to individuals spraying them when they see them. Sometimes grasshoppers are missed during spraying and they are not sprayed at the right time.
Natural controls using diseases and natural parasites could be unleashed on the grasshoppers “but none of that is free” so the result becomes farmer-by-farmer spraying and then “it’s all tactical and not strategic.”
Though some grasshoppers may have already appeared (some were seen on May 1 east of Provost) the ones that appear in April or early May should not be a concern.
But field-by-field scouting should take place in the first week on June: “Farmers are pretty educated about grasshoppers” but there are always changes appearing in species including numbers and timing.
In 2002 the grasshoppers were late, while in 2003 they appeared normal and this year they’re expected a bit early.
Provost News: What should be done to combat the pests?
Dan Johnson: We need a strategic management that is organized and based on science and more research is needed. We really have to think about them. A lot more has to be done.
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PN: What sort of damage to the economy do the grasshoppers do in Alberta?
DJ: We always wanted economists to work that out, but we don’t have that data. The Alberta Government estimates $100 million in losses but I don’t know how that number was based. It’s a lot of guesswork . . . it’s never really been done but it should be. Just think if we saved 10 percent of the crop. Farmers and ranchers are doing a good job individually but overall a strategic plan is required. One map a year isn’t a plan, and people are trying, people are interested. We need not necessarily big dollars for research, but even little dollars would be useful.
PN: Other comments on control?
DJ: Controlling grasshoppers should be based on “know your enemy.” If spraying is done in a highly-tuned manner and some sort of ideas for a border patrol, there’s all kinds of possibilities. These things take time.
PN:How will this year’s crop in the Provost area compare with last year?
DJ: So far all indications are it will be similar to the end of last summer. There is no egg survey conducted so I’m guessing they will be in the same place and the same numbers. There was not a huge amount of migration last year. And there was no big reason for them to die off. When I went to Provost last year I saw a lot of them. Mostly they were the clear winged variety and some two-striped. In pastures there were about 10 percent that were non-pest. That means trouble because 90 percent are pests.
Johnson suggests landowner should watch for the pests along roadsides and in the small tame grass pastures.
Johnson was a research scientist at the Lethbridge Research Centre, a federal government Agriculture and Agri-Food research facility, 1983 until January 2004 when he became the U of L’s fourth Canada Research Chair.
Rest of story and photo in May 12 edition of The Provost News.
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