This week’s Agricultural Services Board Summer Tour has proven Central Alberta is most definitely on the leading edge of Ag innovation and technology.

Mountain View and Red Deer County teamed up to host in the neighbourhood of 350 member delegates from across the province this week.

Alberta Ag and Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier joined those delegates at a pancake breakfast at Olds College this morning (July 14th), he says producers in the province are well equipped to meet future demands.

“Varied applications of fertilizers, chemicals, even seed, even water. Agriculture is advancing rapidly, like a lot of technologies are, it has to advance rapidly, if we’re going to be able to grow more food on the existing cultivated land to feed the population that continues to grow around the planet, we’re going to need that innovation”.

For Mountain View County 4th generation farmer Brian Rodger, who runs a cow/calf and sheep operation southeast of Olds, he's leaving it to his sons to keep up on the latest technologies, something which may soon including the use of drones.

“I know some people have drones that they can check their cows and I guess when they’re able to read RFID tags we’ll be able to fly over our cows and know that they are all there, but you still have to check the fence, but at least you’ll know if the fence is down”.

Drones are also being used to help keep track of cattle grazing patterns in addition to helping scout crops and create maps for variable rate technology, to determine fertilizer usage and herbicide or pesticide applications.