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Originally published:

DECEMBER 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 12

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Stories In This Edition

Abattoirs eye pandemic funding

Water fight

Turkey sales strengthen

Orchardists forge ahead following late-season freeze

Editorial: Back to the future

Back 40: Pandemic gives leaders a bosst, but what about farmers

Viewpoint: BC agriculture set to ead food conversations

Kamloops farmers push back on irrigation plan

Sidebar: A new tool for municipalities

ILT puts broiler farms on the defensive

Snowed under

Antimicrobial phase-out delayed

BC Tree Fruits makeover gets green light

Keremeos supply store closes

Province rethinks land matching pitch

Ag Briefs: Land commission appts announced

Ag Briefs: Blueberry council set for elections

Ag Briefs: Award honours young agrologist

Ag Briefs: Horticultural loss

Ag in the Classroom prepares for change

Beekeepers go virtual for 100th anniversary

Sidebar: Pandemic puts pause on bee research

Island farmers frustrated by ferry waits

Slaughter limitations forcing producers out

Livestock specialist has close ties to ranching

Cattle take lead in fire prevention efforts

New food hub planned for Salmon Arm

Passion and schooling pay off for young grower

Cleanfarms looks into ag plastic recycling program

Robotic strawberry picker on the horizon

Agritech venture aims to unite data management

Sidebar: Microsoft moves in

Up in smoke

New tool helps farmers avoid nutrient runoff

Peace region weather network expanded

Sidebar: Adaption network hosts webinar series

Tarps provide targeted alternative to cover crops

Orchardists making greater use of decisionaid system

Asian parasitoids come to the rescue of berry growers

Research: Keeping cows’ reproductive cycle on track

Agroforestry project makes farm viable

Young farmers encouraged to cultivate resilience

Farm Story: A change of season brings a change of mind

Universal broadband fund cheers farmers

Woodshed: New beginnings for Deborah and Susan

4-H members finish season at virtual Ag Expo

Jude’s Kitchen: Classic festive appies for the holidays

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7 days ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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2 weeks ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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4-H members finish season at virtual Ag Expo

BC 4-H planning for next season

Picture perfect! And fancy enough to catch the judge’s eye. Noah Sherwood from the Tod Mountain 4-H Club raised the BC Ag Expo champion market lamb this year. Members submitted photos and videos of their livestock projects so they could be judged and entered in the three-day online sale. Noah’s lamb sold for $650 to A&T Developments. PHOTO / BC AG EXPO

December 1, 2020 byJackie Pearase

BARRIERE – The 4-H community continued to demonstrate its resiliency with a much different show and sale at the BC Ag Expo in Barriere, September 25-28.

With pandemic restrictions still in place, organizers put together a virtual show and sale for 4-H and open youth.

“When we made our decision to go virtually, we really wanted to deliver an

in-person fair but with the numbers that we have, it just wasn’t feasible. We couldn’t wrap our heads around the size restrictions,” says BC Ag Expo Society president Evelyn Pilatzke.

Organizers quickly adapted a recently purchased software package from an in-person fair to a virtual format, with the volunteer members learning the ropes as plans progressed.

Over 125 youth from the Cariboo, Shuswap, Okanagan, Boundary and Thompson Nicola Regional District participated in the 4-H and open categories. The fair typically has about 300 youth entrants plus adults.

The youth competed in classes for beef, cavy, goat, lamb, photography, rabbits, carcass and educational display, plus the Fred Nicol, Twemlow and Boundary Dash events.

Participants provided front, side and rear photos of their entries plus a 30-second video of their animal walking.

The online auction showcased the various classes, champions and auction items including beef, lamb, photographs, a chevon goat and a rabbit.

Fewer youth took part in the three-day auction but active bidding at the end resulted in decent prices for all participants.

“It was a different concept than an in-person auction for us,” says Pilatzke. “It was a nail-biter right up to the end.”

Over 70 bidders signed in over 52 hours. The average price for market steers was $3.09 a pound, $5.98 a pound for carcass steers, $583 a head for market lambs, $512 a head for carcass lambs and $176 each for photographs.

South Thompson 4-H Club member Conor Brown entered in the beef and sheep classes this year to raise money for university.

He is grateful for the community support that enabled the show and sale to take place despite the pandemic but missed the in-person aspect of a traditional fair.

“It was a heartbreaker not to be able to show. That’s our grand finale,” he says. “The show means so much; it’s the time we get to show all our work. We work our beef for almost a year and the sheep for about six months. Plus the social part of the fair is gone, where you see old friends, kids you grew up with in 4-H.”

Tod Mountain 4-H Club member Hailee Lamb was disappointed that COVID-19 limited opportunities to show her steer and heifer projects this year. But the 16-year-old was impressed by her sale prices at the online auction and vows to continue with 4-H next year.

Stepping up

BC 4-H manager Aleda Welch says clubs have stepped up this year to provide their members with some regular events during such an unusual year.

“It’s fabulous that a lot of these fairs and third-party organizers were able to arrange for virtual auctions, shows and sales so that our members could complete their project year,” she says. “At the end of the year, a lot of clubs and districts were actually able to have their in-person achievements in a modified version. It wasn’t what they were used to in the past but the feedback was that they were very appreciative that the leaders rallied behind them and were able to have a little bit of normalcy for the end of the year.”

BC 4-H also adapted, changing its annual five-day Food for Thought event involving 45 youth to six

one-day events in different locations across BC where group restrictions could be met.

“It all worked out extremely well. We got some great feedback from the kids; they were very happy to have gotten out at least for that one day and participate in the 4-H program,” Welch says about the event.

BC 4-H and 4-H groups across BC are now looking forward to an uncertain future with great hopes that things return to normal.

“As for next year, we’re hoping for the best. We’re currently planning for

in-person programming with the hope that we’ll be able to do the programs as we have been able to in the past where the members can get together and do the programs as a group,” notes Welch.

But with virtual 4-H events behind most large agricultural fairs in BC, everyone also feels prepared for a repeat of this year.

“If worst comes to worst, we’re certainly ready to put on another virtual fair. We’re hoping, though, it’s going to be an in-person fair. The kids really miss seeing all their friends and doing it as an in-person fair,” says Pilatzke.

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