The County of Barrhead has a lot to be proud of, especially in the field of agriculture. Unfortunately, many people, including those who live in the area, are not aware of what good and innovative things county residents are doing.
That is why the county decided to start hosting an annual agricultural tour.
However, assistant agricultural fieldman Jay Byer said although that is what the tour started out as it has grown to encompass much more than that.
“Basically the tour has become an avenue to showcase what people are doing in the county,” he said, adding this year’s tour includes everything from recreation, ranching, examples of traditional and non-traditional farming, to history and tourism.
The July 30 tour begins at the Summerdale Community Hall with buses leaving promptly at 9 a.m.
Tickets are $30 and are available through the County of Barrhead office and include the bus tour as well as a catered lunch and supper.
One of the first portions of the tour will showcase the recreational component, stopping at the Misty Ridge Ski Hill, a not-for-profit facility created in 1971, in an effort to provide County of Barrhead families with an affordable skiing option close to home.
The tour will also drive by the proposed site of Neerlandia’s community hall and sports complex.
The project spearheaded by the Neerlandia Sports Committee when completed will see the construction of a multi-use facility that encompasses a community hall, as well as an indoor ice arena. Currently, the project is in Stage 1, the building of an outdoor ice rink and multi-sport outdoor concrete pad.
The tour will then visit the Strongheart Historic Site.
“[Strongheart] it was part of the original Klondike Trail that goes back two centuries,” Byer said.
The Klondike Trail is a route used by Indengionous Peoples as well as European settlers that connected what is now Edmonton to Fort Assiniboine.
Every 15 miles the Hudson Bay Company built cabins that were stocked with feed and water for weary travellers. The Strongheart [built by Louis Strongheart in 1863] site was the fifth cabin.
“Unfortunately, the cabin is no longer standing, but its location has been well protected,” he said, adding they will also be stopping at another historical site, the Klondyke Ferry — a cable guided barge capable of transporting 50 passengers or about 13 mid-sized cars across the Athabasca River on Highway 661 about 13 kilometres northwest of Vega that has been in operation since 1932.
Of course, Byer noted an agricultural tour would not be complete without visits to agricultural operations, adding they would be stopping at Rick Visser’s new poultry facility as well as the Birch Creek Bison Ranch.
For those interested in non-traditional agricultural operations the tour will also stop at the Schuurman Rhodiola Rosea Plantation, Miedema Honey Farm as well as Alberta Agriculture local test plots.
Rhodiola rosea is a perennial flowering plant (aslo known as rose root), that is used as a traditional medicine for treating stress-related ailments.
Byer said every year county farmers are at the forefront of innovation in farming and that would not be possible without test crops, adding a number of trials are taking place throughout in the county from soy and faba beans to corn.
The tour also includes a visit to Canadian Foodgrains Bank’s Neerlandia-Vega growing project, a beautification stop as well as to a county resident who uses a type of worm to help control pests.
“It’s a full day and a lot of value for the money,” he said.
