The 75 to 100 crop sprayers in the province are experiencing an average season, so far.

Paul O'Carroll is the President of the Saskatchewan Aerial Applicators Association.

He says this spring started off really wet and damp and with heavy morning dew, that's a good indicator aerial crop sprayers will be busy spraying fungicides. O'Carroll says sprayers have been busy working in canola and peas. He doesn't know the volume of work from year to year, but says everyone is pretty busy now.

He says he keeps in contact with most of the aerial crop sprayers and usually what's happening in southern Saskatchewan is a heads up for what's to come in the rest of the grain belt here and everyone is pretty busy these days.

He the crop sprayers season starts early with weed control and then moves into spraying fungicides which is starting to wrap up now and then the sprayers will move into spraying insecticides. O'Carroll says there's plenty of work there too with aphids in the peas at the moment, wheat midge in the wheat and in the next week or two there will be Diamondbacks and Bertha in the canola. He says those insects are showing up in fairly high numbers in the south.

He says even with a heavy canopy the aerial spray can be as effective as ground spraying.

O'Carroll says there are plenty of advantages using an air sprayer in crops, especially in a wet year like this. O'Carroll says you don't see the losses in the crop from dragging equipment in and out. He says wheel tracks can tramp 3 per cent of the crop, which works out to 5 acres on a quarter section. He says with a high cost crop that damage can add up.

He says a crop sprayer can be in your field within a day or two of a phone call.

Paul O'Carroll is the President of the Saskatchewan Aerial Applicators Association.