It's been one of the better summers for agricultural producers in Vulcan County.

The Director of Agricultural Services, Kelly Malmberg says things were looking very dire in the spring, but then the moisture arrived.

"We got quite a bit of rain in June and July and now the heat wave's kind of kicked in but as a whole the county's looking really good right now, that rain really helped and we should have some pretty decent crops this year," he says,

The first cut of hay's come off and with the price of hay right now, Malmberg says, about half the producers will go for a second cut.

"A lot of silage is coming off right now by the feedlot, most of it's off, the peas are starting to turn so we're probably a couple of weeks away for harvest on the peas, canola is just coming out of bloom so it's in pod production, it'll be a good part or better part of August for it to cure off and the cereal crops, probably are two or three weeks away so we're on the homestretch but harvest in general probably won't start until the last week of August."

He's hoping producers can avoid the kind of weather that those in central Alberta have seen in the last while with hail storms and even tornados.

Malmberg says barley, wheat and peas are looking really good and it would be a real shame with grain prices where they are if they got hit by a storm.

"You know what I've really noticed this year is when those rains came here in late May, and most of June and July were phenomenal for good weather, was the winds stayed away and we haven't had much wind, although it's been hot we don't have a 40 mile an hour or 50 mile an hour blow dryer going and think that's really helped these crops."

He says the area really doesn't need any more rain and all the grazing lease land and native grasslands to the east bounced back from two years of drought with that rain.

Malmberg says between high grain prices and great weather there's a lot of optimism in the county.