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Originally published:

MAY 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Greening up

On red alert

Ag show pivots to in person

Four options floated for flood mitigation

Sidebar: Four options; a lot at stake

Editorial: An enviable position

Back 40: A quarter century of gratitude and appreciation

Op Ed: Will food security be rooted in soil or software?

Province doubles vet school seats with funding

Ag council caps a year of changes, challenges

Thank you

Ag Briefs: Court offers no relief for mink farmers

Ag Briefs: Grape crop short and sweet

Ag Briefs: Gala winners

Vegetable sales remain strong

Vertical farms face regulation

Dahr steps down as AgSafe BC chair

Packers protest apple marketing commission

Egg farmers urged to register for compensation

Third round of replant money for raspberries

Raspberry prices show promise

Apiarists fear heavy winter losses

Sidebar: Genome BC partners with IAF to deliver new program

Strawberry levy to increase

Welcome back!

Thinking twice about digital marketing

Sidebar: Digital tips for farm marketers

Ranchers facing rangeland losses

Strong demand but uncertain feed outlook for beef

Farm News: The kids are alright

Blueberries need more than honeybees

Forum highlights made-in-BC ag innovation

Double-checking

Big data poses challenges and opportunities

Tiptoeing through the tulips

Business planning turns risks into opportunities

Three-fold growth marks hazelnut sector’s recovery

OrganicBC undertakes structural review

Growth surges in specialty mushrooms

Sidebar: Mushroome xports take top spot

Chilliwack plowing match marks its centennial

Woodshed: Kenneth’s encounter with nature goes sideways

Research: Research shows lack of data on butter hardness

Jude’s: Brunch for special people

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4 days 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

1 month 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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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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Apiarists fear heavy winter losses

Beekeepers need more options for controlling mites

May 1, 2022 bySandra Tretick

BURNABY – Beekeepers across Canada were in for a shock when they opened their hives this spring to check on colony health. The Canadian Honey Council (CHC) confirms severe losses from Alberta to Quebec.

“Nationally, it seems to be very high. We may come close to 40%,” says CHC executive director Rod Scarlett. “But on the two coasts I have not heard of any disasters.”

The 15-year national average is below 26%.

BC beekeepers open their hives earlier than those east of the Rockies, but it is unclear as yet what the numbers will be here. The province’s annual survey on wintering losses won’t be complete until June, and the BC Honey Producers Association is reluctant to comment on overwintering numbers at this point because of concern that its observations might be skewed to a particular area or operation.

Last year, BC reported losses of around 32%.

Further east, these high losses have some beekeepers calling on the federal government to relax the ban on bee package imports from the US. Currently, packages and queens can only be imported from select countries and the US is not on that list. When a large commercial beekeeper has to build up colony numbers quickly after a heavy loss, they’d like more options.

Scarlett says package imports from Italy are expected to be approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) within the next month. CFIA, however, has no plans to perform a new risk assessment for import of honeybee packages from the US, as they say there has been no indication that the level of risk has changed significantly  since the last assessment in 2014.

Mites to blame

Ineffective control of the Varroa destructor mite within colonies is the main reason for overwintering losses. As mite numbers go up during the active season, the bees weaken and eventually the colony dies.

“We all agree that varroa is the No. 1 challenge of beekeepers, not only in BC but in Canada and worldwide,” says Nuria Morfin, technology transfer program lead for the BC Honey Producers Association (BCHPA). “It’s the No. 1 cause of overwinter colony mortality.”

Many would like to see more emphasis placed on monitoring for pests like varroa and better integrated pest management (IPM). Done properly, IPM can keep mite numbers in check. The target is two or fewer mites per 100 bees.

Effective IPM includes monitoring mite numbers, cultural techniques to prevent reproduction, and mechanical or chemical treatments to reduce mite levels. Apivar, one of the most reliable acaricides (miticides) for treating varroa in Canada, is now showing some evidence of resistance. Other chemicals can be more difficult to apply or require exacting timing or temperatures for effective treatment.

Beekeepers say new IPM tools could aid in the fight against varroa.

“The reason why we have such high overwintering loss numbers this year nationally seems to be varroa and the lack of tools for beekeepers to control varroa,” says Scarlett. “So the testing and approval of new products is paramount to the success and livelihood of the honey industry in Canada.”

A new acaricide developed at Simon Fraser University is showing promise.

SFU chemistry professor Erika Plettner discovered the compound in her lab a number of years ago when she was looking for feeding deterrents for cabbage looper. It’s a synthetic compound that closely resembles products typically produced by plants. When she turned her focus on bees, she found that this particular compound, nicknamed 3C, also slows down varroa mites and eventually kills them. Plettner says it doesn’t visibly harm the bees and has no adverse effects in vertebrates.

After a series of laboratory experiments, she did the first field trial in 2019. Another one planned for 2020 was cancelled due to the pandemic, but she was back in the field last year. More trials are planned for this year and next.

While it’s too soon to get really excited, initial results are promising.

“In the lab, it’s pretty good,” says Plettner. “The thing is, it has to work in a real colony. And that’s what we’re trying to establish in the field.”

Honey producers are hopeful, but acknowledge that commercializing a product created in the lab is complicated.

“I can clearly see from the field trials that there is good potential. It showed good mite drop in the trial,” says BCHPA president Heather Higo, who ran a field trial for Plettner in 2019. “The need is absolutely huge with the hiving losses that we’re having every year in BC and in other areas. We need another tool in the tool basket to fight varroa.”

The new trials will determine the best timing, the best method of application and the efficacy. The first step is mite collection and BCHPA members are supplying these. Mites are needed to seed the colonies so the numbers are high enough for testing. The compound will be applied this summer and they will measure what happens. Follow-up treatments will happen in the fall. Each of the BC trials are being mirrored at the Beaverlodge research station in Alberta, so they will end up with twice the data.

The actual field trials are only one aspect of the project going forward. Plettner is collaborating with Leonard Foster, a professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories at UBC.

“When we made progress with this acaricide, I really felt that we needed to figure out exactly what the acaricide is doing inside the mite and why it doesn’t really affect the bees too much at all,” she says. “That’s when I approached Dr. Foster.”

Foster will apply proteomics tools to identify the molecular target and determine when and where the compound can be applied. Information about the new compound’s target site in mites is vital for registration with health authorities, the biggest hurdle to commercialization. Understanding the target site and mechanism of interaction will help the team, and end users, make future improvements to the product, its formulation, and the schedule of application.

Genome BC is contributing $250,000 through the Pilot Innovation Fund.

Paul van Westendorp, provincial apiculturist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, believes the best approach is a cautious one until more is known about the compound’s effectiveness. Plettner agrees.

“It’s a slow process,” she says. “It takes a couple of years to get it approved, even just for emergency use.”

Until such time as this compound gains approval, beekeepers will need to keep monitoring their hives and rotating the existing treatment options. Beekeepers are also encouraged to report their mite numbers for the period April 30 to May 15 and August 13-28, as part of the biannual North American Mite-A-Thon [www.mitecheck.com].

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