Since winter weather came early last fall Rocky View County is trying to help ag producers out by allowing them to drive on roads that are banned this time of year. 

County council has voted for a one-time road ban exemption for ag producers.

The early snowfall resulted in about seven per cent of fields unharvested in Rocky View County. 

The bulk of the unharvested area is in the west side of the county. 

Steve Hulsman, Manager of Transportation Services for Rocky View County says they just want to help farmers and ag producers out as best as they can.

"Trying to be proactive to help those agricultural producers. It's mainly grain, oil seeds, straw, any of those fields that were unharvested. Any road to get them off the field."

Every year the county implements road bans during the spring when roads are most susceptible to damage from thawing and from water runoff. 

Hulsman says "Whether that be a short distance to their own property or to get it to grain bins somewhere. Wherever they need to move that product. What we wanted to try is a one-year initiative to see what would occur by allowing them to haul."

He says they just want producers to let the county know which roads they've used.

"We're going to set up a small, simple, short process where we just request that they let us know their location so that we can track that and we can address if a gravel road maybe needs a grader to go out and fix it a little bit when they're done. Then we can track and measure that and report back to council on how it went."

The exemption means ag producers will be allowed to use all of the Alberta allowable seasonal axle weights on roads in RVC. 

This exemption does not apply to highways or secondary highways which are controlled by the province of Alberta.