Producers are being advised to keep a lookout for any problems with Alfalfa Weevils.

Lorne Klein is a Regional Forage Specialist and says he’s been hearing reports of significant weevil populations starting to show up especially in the pure alfalfa stands.

"Right now the feeding activity is quite obvious if you start walking a field and taking a close look, I use a sweep net to just check what the population is," he said. "We're getting very high numbers in the sweep net, even though you might be driving by a field today and it doesn't appear to be bad, within another seven to ten days it's going to look a whole lot worse.

"There are some fields if they aren't harvested or sprayed with insecticide within 10-14 days, the yield is going to be significantly lowered."

Alfalfa Weevils can reduce the quality and hay yield by 50%, the main method of control is to hay the crop early or if numbers warrant to use an insecticide.

He notes the last time we saw a real problem with the insect was in 2012.