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Originally published:

OCTOBER 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 10

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Stories In This Edition

ALC cracks down

Pat Jasper …

Bill will rein in activists

BC considers making premises ID mandatory

Bin there, done that

Unsung heroes

The Back Forty: It’s time government changed its narrative

Viewpoint: Banning plastic bags ignores reality

New round of changes coming to land reserve

Hullcar farmers file first NMP plans under new code

Classy champion

Most farmers support Daylight Savings Time

South Vancouver food hub to connect farmers

Egg-splaining

Dunn leaps to dairy sector

UBCO study looks at context for climate change

City Beet harvests profits from urban gardens

Forage trial presents options for producers

Growers step up to continue corn silage trials

Density key to efficient, healthy silage storage

Weather affecting corn trials

Bumper crop pushes down blueberry prices

Valley has protential to be an agritech hub

Ministry working on land use inventory

Join initiatives a priority for feeders

Best of the best

Canadian beef herd sinks to 30-year low

Familiar challenges face fourth-generation rancher

No-till seeding showcased at field day

Market Musings: Grass-fed cattle come to market with big gains

Blight-resistant trees focus of hazelnut field day

Replant, pest support for hazelnut growers

Bright berries

New packing line can handle BC’s pear crop

Mission Hilll aims to be fully organic by 2021

Research: Clean cud promotes dental health in ruminants

Remote market supports growth of local growers

Farm groups exploring food hub opportunities

Zoom! Zoom!

Chilliwack farms hopping with insects

Livestock still a main attraction at annual fair

PNE agriculture auction keeps on giving

4-H skills still key despite changes in farming

Thousands converge on Westham Island

Woodshed: Vacation time invites all kinds of cover-ups

Kootenay grower shoots forward with microgreens

Jude’s Kitchen: Harvest local

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1 day ago

Fecal coliform levels in the streams and watercourses that flow through Langley has been an issue for decades. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has received $97,000 from the federal government to work with property owners to help them reduce their impact on water quality and the environment, and ensure their properties are in compliance with the Agriculture Environmental Management Code of Practice (AEMCoP). The story is in the February edition of Country Life in BC. Subscribe today bit.ly/3RIKms9/.

#BCAg #aemcop
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Fecal coliform levels in the streams and watercourses that flow through Langley has been an issue for decades. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has received $97,000 from the federal government to work with property owners to help them reduce their impact on water quality and the environment, and ensure their properties are in compliance with the Agriculture Environmental Management Code of Practice (AEMCoP). The story is in the February edition of Country Life in BC. Subscribe today https://bit.ly/3RIKms9/.

#BCAg #AEMCoP
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2 days ago

BC dairy farmers are feeling the pinch and some in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. It's our cover story in the February edition of Country Life in BC.

bit.ly/3JGgk6B

#bcagriculture #bcdairy
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BC dairy farmers are feeling the pinch and some in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. Its our cover story in the February edition of Country Life in BC.

https://bit.ly/3JGgk6B

#bcagriculture #bcdairy
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So much pressure being put on the dairy industry from the US. It’s hard to keep the lobbying at bay. Canadian dairy should supply Canadian tables and the farmers who provide it should be paid what they are worth. There is no such thing as cheap food

Farm Management is key. It can't all be blamed on the government.

Just been watching NZ TV news and the price of food. Most complaining about the price of dairy products due to the fact that domestic prices are high with most production being exported. No supply management.

I really don't understand the concern here. The article literally says 30-40 of 600 BC dairy farms (that's less than 1%) are experiencing financial pressure, likely due to being somewhat overleveraged. Sounds like just some mismanagement rather than a broad policy failure is the cause here.

Whole Food Plant Based eating ...oat milk coconut milk Almond milk soy milk etc

Noooooooo. That’s exactly what this LIB/NDP party wants. They want everyone to cave in to their knees. Don’t do it. It’ll be the end.

A lot of this is government squeeze. Be hungry and compliant!

The government is the eternal enemy of humanity.

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1 week 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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BC considers making premises ID mandatory

Provincial coordinator counters fears regarding privacy issues

Sarah Zuberbuhler photo

October 2, 2019 byMargaret Evans

VICTORIA—Since 2011, the BC Ministry of Agriculture has run a voluntary premises identification program for farm owners to voluntarily register their property and animals.

Registration helps to protect animal health and facilitates a rapid response in the event of emergencies. Anyone from hobby farmers with one or two animals to large commercial livestock operators can register.

“Premises ID deals exclusively with the premises and where they are – the farm, the feedlot, whatever the case may be,” explains Lisa Levesque, team lead, traceability and premises identification with the BC Ministry of Agriculture.

Approximately 57% of premises have been registered since the program started, but the ministry is considering a new premises ID regulation under the BC Animal Health Act. The regulation would make registration mandatory for all farms and livestock sites. Those sites include not only farms but stables, feedlots, apiaries, livestock markets, abattoirs, fairgrounds, or any facility where farm animals are present, raised, kept or disposed.

The purpose is to increase the precise tracking of any disease outbreak or any environmental emergency. During the 2017 wildfires, the premises ID program saw 130 emergency registrations for livestock owners affected by evacuation orders, improving their chances of being given re-entry permits in evacuation zones to care for their livestock.

This past summer, the ministry has been doing some outreach for feedback but there’s plenty of confusion regarding the intent of the regulation.

The plan is to identify premises only. It does not include the need to identify animals through the use of tags, tattoos or any other tracking device, explains Levesque, emphasizing that the program is exclusively for premises.

“We are just tackling the physical location which helps us to make maps of animal locations which we only use internally for emergency,” she says. “Animal identification such as tagging or tattooing is a federal responsibility, so it’s managed by the CFIA [Canadian Food Inspection Agency].”

Pushback

Levesque recognizes that there is some pushback from farm owners not wanting government involved in their businesses. Some landowners feel privacy is at stake, especially if they are small operators with just a few animals. They may not see the relevance or value of being in a government registry where data might float around and become available to others.

Levesque, however, emphasizes that no information is shared with other government agencies or researchers. The focus is on disease and environmental emergency response.

“If you have one animal or 50, if you get a communicable disease on your farm, it is still an issue and you can still transfer that,” she says, giving the example of African swine fever. “It has not made it to Canada. But from a risk perspective, if you have only one pig and it is exposed to a virulent disease, that one pig can be the trigger. Animal diseases have no boundaries and it’s not about us wanting to control the farming business, but we do want to be able to respond quickly to an emergency issue.”

An example would be the avian influenza outbreak that occurred in 2004 when there was a lack of accurate information on where chickens were actually being raised compared to the contact location. The outbreak was devastating. Many poultry farmers subsequently signed onto the premises ID concept, registering voluntarily. When the 2014-2015 outbreak happened, the program played a role in limiting the spread of the disease.

Levesque said that other examples include water contamination and flooding events, wildfires such as those in 2017 and 2018, and bovine tuberculosis.

“Those are all cases where premises ID was used. It’s not used a lot, but the information was very important for those situations,” she says.

The ministry is running a survey until October 11 regarding the proposed regulation. A discussion paper regarding the proposal and the survey can be found at [http://bit.do/Premises-ID].

 

 

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