ERICKSON – Hazelnut production was the focus of a field day Kootenay and Boundary Farm Advisors organized September 30 at two Creston Valley farms. Led by BC Hazelnut Growers Association president Zachary Fleming, approximately 15 participants from around the Kootenays saw both a fledgling planting barely two years old and an established farm in production …
BC FIRB gets a good egg
BC Egg Marketing Board chair Gunta Vitins has been appointed vice-chair of the BC Farm Industry Review Board, succeeding Al Sakalauskas, who succeeds her at the egg board. The two traded places November 1, with the appointments lasting for a term of two years. BC FIRB chair Peter Donkers welcomed Vitins to the board, noting …
Berrisford leads landscapers
A familiar face has taken the helm of the BC Landscape and Nursery Association, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary with a tribute to long-time COO Hedy Dyck. Dyck died earlier this year and was succeeded by Virpi Kangas, who kept the administration side of the association humming along. Now, Coreen Rodger Berrisford, who stepped …
Mink farmers sue government
The mink are gone, but not the legal challenges. The first livestock sector shut down by the province is continuing its fight against a November 2021 order that immediately ended breeding activities and require the removal of all live mink from the province’s nine farms by this past April. The industry, which produced 318,000 mink …
Dairy producers not making money from milk sales
ABBOTSFORD – The final results of a cost of production survey BC’s dairy sector undertook last year has confirmed the sector’s dire straits. Producers in BC are losing an average of 48 cents per kilogram of butterfat, a loss that rose to $4.19 per kg when off-farm revenue, cattle sales and other income is factored …
Farmers institutes to meet
The first gathering of farmers institutes in four years is set to take place November 30. The online gathering has been organized in response to requests at a workshop the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District systems change project hosted in Abbotsford in January. Reinvigorating the province’s network of farmers institutes was one of the ways the project …