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Originally published:

January 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 1

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Stories In This Edition

Province signals ALR changes

Winter wonderland

Growers support piece rates

High-priced harvest heading for sweet success

Editorial: A new start

Back Forty: The service economy steps away from the land

Viewpoint: Subsistence farming is a thing of the past, isn’t it?

Cherry growers see record crop losses in 2019

Agricultural impacts from new rail trail sought

Small farmers raise concerns about CanadaGap

BC food costs set to rise

Farmers’ institutes gather for second annual meeting

Foodlands trust initiative inches forward

Sidebar: Two proponents short-listed for Sandown farm

Shifting climate brings changes to vineyard practices

Bright future

Processing plant will cut transportation costs

Date change bolsters turnout at dairy meetings

BC Holstein set pace for Canada in 2019

Trade deals remain top issue

Dairy honours Jim Thompson

BC’s largest farm show kicks off new year

Pacific Ag Show keeps up with changing times

Sidebar: Ag innovation day

Sidebar: CannaTech West back for second year

Popular dairy tour will feature lots of variety

Sidebar: Dairy Expo continues at ag show

Bison could be key to climate change resilence

Research: Clay improves degradability of dairy feed

Consumers, producers need mutual understanding

Deep learning helps root out weeds

Langley farmers see beauty in small lots

Commission offers new guide for hog production

Young farmers are making global waves

Fatal sheep diseases are largely preventable

Labour of love keeps historic farm in family

Glyphosate may be safe, but its days are numbered

Woodshed: Susan embarks on her secret rendevous

Farm Story: The farm roars headlong into winter

Jude’s Kitchen: Comforting crockpot meals keep it simple

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1 month ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

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ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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1 month ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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Bison could be key to climate change resilience

Research into heat-adapted cattle breeds leads back to bison

January 1, 2020 byTom Walker

MERRITT – How do you design a cow for the evolving Canadian climate?

That’s the question Thompson Rivers University associate professor John Church asked the BC Bison Association in late October, noting the estimated increase in global temperatures could see cattle regularly exposed to summer heat approaching 40°C.

Countering the effects of heat stress is a growing focus for North America’s cattle industry.

“We know that cattle will feed less and that will impact their average daily gain in high heat conditions, and it will also impact conception rates,” Church says. “What they are finding in Texas is that when cattle go through a big heat wave, it damages their gut linings permanently and they have to be on feed longer to get to finished size in the feedlot.”

Church says it takes a lot for cattle to die from heat, but 5,000 cattle perished from extreme heat in California in 2017. Research is on-going into heat-tolerant traits and breeds, as well as mitigation strategies such as shading and water cooling.

“But we still have the cold,” says Church, noting that winter temperatures can hit -40°C, the exact opposite of summer’s highs.

Cattle that perform well in hot climates, such as Brahmas, have light-coloured, thin coats that wouldn’t help them in the cold. Black Angus tolerate the cold, but their coat colour absorbs the heat in summer.

“We started to look at Canadian Speckle Park cattle,” says Church. “It’s a registered Canadian-developed breed that is known for producing well-marbled meat on a variety of forage. They are naturally polled, good calvers and are considered docile.”

But most important for Church, their coats range from black with light speckling, to nearly all white. Church wondered if the white coats would make them better-adapted to heat than Black Angus.

Church’s heat stress studies used a drone-mounted infrared thermal camera to fly over cattle and measure their surface temperature. The drone flew around the animals and sampled a variety of locations on the body.

The results, he says, were “shocking.”

On a 24°C day, Church says the Speckle Park were averaging 31.2°C while the Black Angus were 36.4°C.

“When we did all the stats, it was about a seven-degree Celsius difference between the two breeds of animals,” he says.

That’s due to the albedo effect, Church explains – the phenomenon on light-coloured surface reflecting more solar radiation than a dark surface.

In addition to studying Speckle Park, Church says he is working on his own breed, which he’s dubbed “Church’s Climate Master.” He is experimenting with Senepol, a very heat-tolerant breed from the Bahamas, and crossing them with Red Angus. He’s also looking at back-crossing Japanese Akaushi cattle with the Senepol.

But what does all this mean for bison producers?

Church notes that bison are naturally adapted to North America’s climate and its changes over the millennia.

“Bison have been in North America at least six million years and they have already survived a six-degree Celsius temperature warming according to archeological records,” he says.

Church wonders if the time is right to revive beefalo breeding, the bison-cattle crosses produced in the 1960s.

“I’ve read all the studies,” says Church. “The idea was you could take cattle and bison and cross them, and the hope was you would get something that was more adapted to the climate and a little easier to handle.”

It was a good idea that flopped, Church says.

“In fact, they got the worst of both,” he says. “They got cattle that were wild as shit to handle, just as bad as bison, and they weren’t very cold-tolerant.”

His recommendation is to boost bison numbers, and see them as a genuine alternative to cattle.

“We could just eat bison and give up cattle if it gets hot,” Church says. “I am convinced they can adapt better than our cows can.”

Some will argue that beef cattle have displaced bison from their rightful place in North America, but he notes that they’ve done more than that. While some estimates put the number of bison at 60-70 million “before we shot them all,” he says there are now about 120 million cows on the continent. It would be very hard to replace that large of a meat source with bison.

“And have you ever tried to milk one?” he asks with a chuckle. “I don’t think so, and that might be a problem.”

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