BC farmland values rose 5.4% in 2019, according to Farm Credit Canada’s annual survey released this week. This compared to a 6.1% increase in 2018, and was slightly ahead of the national average of 5.2%. The highest average per-acre value in the province last year was recorded in the Okanagan, at $103,288 as buyers purchased …
Consumers embrace niche products
Producers have long been told that niche products are one way to avoid being reduced to commodity producers and price-takers. Now, the BC Milk Marketing Board’s scramble to align conventional milk production with consumer demand is highlighting the challenges of serving the mass market and the benefits of targeting smaller categories. The board initially announced …
Online bidding brisk
The 45th annual Vanderhoof All-breeds Bull Sale takes place at the BC Livestock yard in Vanderhoof on April 11, but in keeping with protocols implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19, buyers are being encouraged to place bids online via Direct Livestock Marketing Services [www.DLMS.com]. The Best Bet Bull Sale in Williams Lake on April …
Government needs to step up farm support
As a former dairy farmer and livestock auctioneer who still lives on the family farm where I was born and raised, I thought I understood farming in British Columbia. However, touring all corners of this amazing province over the last three years has taught me that there is so much more to agriculture than what …
COVID-19 hits farm workers
Bylands Nurseries Ltd. in West Kelowna is the epicentre of the first large community outbreak of COVID-19 in BC. The outbreak is linked to a group of seasonal workers who arrived in BC on March 12, according to the Interior Health Authority. The workers arrived prior to the March 16 announcement closing Canada’s borders to …
Bee replacements grounded
BC beekeepers may not be able to import enough bees to replenish hives lost through the winter thanks to flight restrictions intended to halt the spread of COVID-19. “We were able to get some pallets of bees in from New Zealand at the beginning of March,” says Stan Reist of Flying Dutchman Apiary in Nanaimo …