Proposals are being accepted beginning December 1 for a new round of funding through the Shuswap Watershed Council’s Water Quality Grant Program. “One of our objectives as a watershed council is to protect and maintain the water quality in Shuswap and Mara Lakes,” explains Erin Vieira, program manager for the SWC. “In particular, we’re focussed …
Automation boosts market garden’s efficiency
COBBLE HILL – Tracey Wilkin and Don Nelson entered the agricultural industry later in life but apply previous job skills, including marketing and mechanical engineering, to bolster their market garden’s productivity and business strategy. The middle-aged couple from Cobble Hill started their Sayward Haven Farm last year and just wrapped up their second growing season. …
BC Tree challenge falls short
BC Tree Fruits Cooperative members narrowly defeated a motion to turf the co-op’s current board and management at a special general meeting in Peachland, November 22. The special meeting, held just two weeks before the co-op’s regular annual general meeting on December 12, was triggered by members opposed the co-op’s decision to consolidate its packing …
AI cases keep rising
The number of commercial poultry farms in the Fraser Valley testing positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza has exploded over the past week. Thirteen commercial farms in Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Agassiz have tested positive over the past week, nearly double the number reported this year prior to November 16. The surge is shocking in its …
Province funds fruit growers
Training, extension services, pest management and marketing received funding as the province allocated a further $2.5 million in support of the tree fruit sector, November 17. With the hard work of stabilizing the province’s tree fruit sector beginning in earnest, the province hopes a new certificate program at Okanagan College will give growers the training …
Garlic grower cuts the mustard – and pests
CRESTON – British Columbia is one of Canada’s largest producers of garlic, a crop that is well suited to smaller farms since it does not require a great deal of land to support a profitable business. Thistle Farm in Creston is an example of what can be achieved on just four acres with this much-in …