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Originally published:

FEBRUARY 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 2

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Stories In This Edition

Perfect pruning

Open ears

Tough talk on animal activists

Peace, Cariboo top 2019 farm and ranch sales

Duckin’ a snow storm

Editorial: Change of heart

Back 40: Retirement is inevitable but less so for farmers

Viewpoint: Leading a decade of growth in organics

Banding together to attract domestic workers

Ag council helps avert seasonal worker delays

Dairy producers urged to polish public image

Snow day

New certification program launched for plant exporters

New executive director for COABC appointed

Ag Briefs: BC dairies push back on Class 7 proposal

Ag Briefs: Agri Innovation projects announced

Ag Briefs: Province selects Ruckle managers

Partnerships facilitate Langley learning farm

Feed BC program good in theory but has limitations

Opportunities and challenges

Halal demand rising in Western Canada

Trespass incident boosts public awareness

Sheep killings raise concerns in Lower Mainland

Pruning priorities different for FV grapegrowers

Farm plans offer new opportunities for rnachers

Number crunchers

Ranchers, foresters learn to share the road

Raise your claves so buyers play with a full deck

Boosting calf health starts before birth

Reseeding part of range restoration

Capacity crowd at Interior soils conference

Global blueberry growers look at substrate potential

Saving the peatlands

Blueberry breeding focuses on quality, exports

Research promises to help control SWD

Novel cherry trellising system saves money

Research: The effects of separating cows and calves

Farm News: Buckling down for winter conference season

Black walnuts are an option for water-logged land

Researcher provides deworming tips for sheep

Wasabi a hot option for wellness products

Technology key to tree fruit industry’s future

New broiler barn boosts comfort for birds

Woodshed Chronicles: Junkyard Frank’s plan is played to perfection

Give your marriage a relationship check-up

Bursary fund welcomes applications

Apple of your eye

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4 days ago

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details. ... See MoreSee Less

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details.
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2 weeks ago

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the province's deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed. ... See MoreSee Less

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the provinces deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed.
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Sounds like 2 weeks to flatten the curve turning into 2 years.

USDA doing avian vax research, May 11 bio-docs to UN incl section on H5N8 w/wild bird spread. Found link to apparent pre-release on May 11 Geller Report. Good luck farmers.

3 weeks ago

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.” ... See MoreSee Less

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.”
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Killing our food chain. How do we know they are actually carrying a virus, look what's taking place with covid, is it real.

Ik kan niet zo goed Engels maar als ik het goed begrijp is bij jullie ook vogelgriep maar nog niet bij jullie

Any idea when this episode or bird flu might be over?

3 weeks ago

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions. ... See MoreSee Less

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions.
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4 weeks ago

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises. ... See MoreSee Less

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises.
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Black walnuts are an option for water-logged land

Processing capacity critical to scaling up new venture

February 1, 2020 byMyrna Stark Leader

KELOWNA – After 10 years in the growing phase, a Kelowna agro-forestry producer is gathering the seeds of her labour and looking at increasing processing capability for herself and others.

Twenty years ago, Brenda Dureault, then a nurse, moved to a 26-acre property owned by her father to raise her children. Curly Frog Farm, as she named it, was a pasture with a natural pond. After purchasing the land in 2009, she increased her farming focus and searched for products she could self-manage and were tolerant of water because the creek flowing through her land regularly submerges a sizeable chunk of the farm.

“We’ve canoed over this land,” Dureault says, pointing to logs water-lifted from pond areas and deposited among her trees.

The creek is classified as environmentally sensitive, so there’s little opportunity to block or divert the water. Determined to find a workable crop, she planted black walnuts, a native North American species suggested by the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. After germinating the seed herself, she planted the first rows in 2009-10.

Black walnuts have long taproots. In addition to their ability to draw up water, the nuts have a unique flavour and nutritional qualities, as well as producing high-value hardwood lumber if the trees are straight and free of defects.

Dureault has continually collected seed from the best trees and conducted selective breeding in the small greenhouse attached to her home to improve the quality of her nuts and the potential for the trees to eventually be logged for timber. She also wants them to be resilient to climate change.

Optimum land use

Making the best use of the land, she interspersed the walnut trees with Christmas trees, which will be ready for cutting in 2020. She also grows berries, herbs, willows for crafts (which she sells at markets and online), as well as pawpaw trees. She’s planted 400 pawpaws, many on chinampas, an ancient Aztec way of growing on land with high water tables.

“Mine were built a few years ago in a wetlands

co-operative project with the BC Wildlife Federation. We excavated soils two feet to create long narrow canals with mounds adjacent. The canals fill with water creating wetlands and the strips of higher ground brought more land for productive agriculture,” says Dureault, who’s still waiting for the pawpaws to bear fruit.

Waiting is not the case, however, with the nuts. Her maturing trees yielded about 600 pounds of hulled black walnuts last year; full production can be up to 1,500 pounds per acre.

Unlike the English walnuts most people are familiar with, black walnuts are encased in a hull and have an extremely hard shell. With smaller quantities, Dureault used a hand-cracker as well as an electric nutcracker made by a local friend to break the nuts apart and harvest the meat. It works well with softer shelled nuts but the black walnuts had to go through the electric cracker four to five times to sufficiently break them, a time-consuming process producing about 8 to 12 ounces of nuts an hour.

“I separate the nutmeat by dumping cracked nuts onto a box outfitted with two different-sized removable screens to sift out the small nut pieces. Then I have to put the leftovers back into the cracker for re-cracking,” explains Dureault. “It’s not economically feasible to process black walnuts by hand as the foundation for a profitable business. I’d like to set up a professional, small-scale commercial nut processing facility to add value to my own crop as well as provide a service to other local nut growers. There are about a dozen growers in the Okanagan Valley who have shown interest in my ability to help them with processing nuts.”

Processing challenges

While the 40 hazelnut growers in BC send their nuts to Fraser Valley Hazelnuts for processing, part of the supply chain for Oregon processors, no similar facility exists for black walnut growers. Dureault reached out to Fraser Valley Hazelnuts, which told her it only processes hazelnuts.

Most equipment is designed for large-scale operations or other walnuts, and is too costly for operations the size of Curly Frog, so Dureault approached UBC Okanagan.

UBCO consistently looks for real-life projects for senior engineering students to tackle, solving a challenge from concept and design to finished product. Dureault hoped students could develop equipment that could process 75 to 100 pounds (or more) of black walnuts an hour. This included a machine to hull and clean the nuts, a cracking machine capable of cracking 600 to 900 lbs of black walnuts an hour and a sorting machine to separate shell from nutmeat once they are cracked.

Student Alex Russell stepped up and worked on the project with a team of students.

“I picked this project from 40 options because with farming, you actually needed to create a tangible thing. And we were also helping someone in the community,” says Russell.

“It’s definitely an improvement and cracks English walnuts beautifully. Some fine-tuning is needed to size the machine to crack smaller nuts like hazelnuts and more engineering is required to determine motor size and RPM to achieve the force of 500 foot-pounds required to crack black walnuts,” says Dureault showing off her new equipment.

Unfortunately, time constraints only let the students build the cracker the first year so she’s gone back.

“The second project is a machine that separates nutmeat from shell as well as to fine-tune/modify the cracker. I’m told they have a prototype already built and tested on English walnuts,” Dureault says.

Dureault encourages other producers to look at students who can offer a fresh perspective, especially when a project’s scope is beyond their capabilities or annual farm income is below the $30,000 required to obtain matching funds from the province.

“I’d like to set up a professional, small-scale commercial nut processing facility to add value to my own crop as well as provide a service to other local nut growers. There are about a dozen growers in the Okanagan Valley who have shown interest in my ability to help them with processing nuts,” she says.

Working with the students taught her more critical thinking and problem solving, how to communicate her ideas and patience. She says it’s a slower process, but economical. As the client, she also owns the design rights and blueprints for her new machine and she made new friends and connections.

“It gives me hope that there are young people interested in agriculture,” she says. “One of the students told me that this project was one of the hardest to do but had the most learning opportunity as it was all hands-on and relevant.’”

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