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Current Issue:

JANUARY 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 1

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10 hours 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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5 days 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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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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Catastrophic flooding hits Fraser Valley

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November 17, 2021 byKate Ayers And Peter Mitham

The flood waters are receding but the toll of what the province has dubbed “the worst weather storm in a century” is rising, with Abbotsford pointing to heavy losses of livestock on Sumas Prairie.

“I saw barns half-full of water,” Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said on Wednesday morning, following a flyover of the area on Tuesday. “I can’t imagine there are any birds left alive.”

However, he also cautioned, “We have no numbers.”

An atmospheric river dumped well over 200mm on the eastern Fraser Valley between Saturday and Monday, double what usually falls in November. It followed heavy rains in September and October which also delivered double what the region usually sees during those months.

The result was flooding, washouts and hardship for BC farmers and ranchers across the South Coast and into the Nicola Valley as rapidly rising waters inundated farms and cut critical infrastructure. Tuesday dawned with 24 highway closures in place. The BC Milk Marketing Board suspended milk pick-ups until further notice in large parts of the Fraser Valley east of Sumas Way in Abbotsford; Agassiz east of Mountain Water Harrison Way; as well as in the Interior, Prince George, Bulkley Valley and Smithers. Producers were asked to record and report volumes but then dump the milk into their manure pits. More than 80% of the province’s milk was not picked up.

On Tuesday night, Abbotsford issued an immediate evacuation order for Sumas Prairie due to waters from the Nooksack River threatening the Barrowtown pump station. The station’s four pumps were functioning at full tilt but the risk of a failure overnight demanded immediate action. Close to 200 properties are affected, many of them farms. The evacuation zone has about 300 residents.

“I know it’s hard for farmers to leave their livestock but people’s lives are more important right now than livestock or chickens,” Mayor Henry Braun said in a hastily called press conference at 9pm.

A rancher himself, Braun sympathized with farmers trying to save their livestock but said, “life is more important.” While the danger had receded by Wednesday morning, Braun made clear that it was not over as the Fraser River had to drop another metre before floodgates could be opened to relieve the pressure on Barrowtown.

At its peak on Tuesday, the Fraser River was at more than 6.3 metres.

The ongoing disruption to transportation networks has complicated matters, preventing farmers from leaving and making feed deliveries impossible. Some have left, saving their families but not their livestock.

BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries staff have been scrambling to secure information, working with producer groups to assess impacts and provide support. But many farmers have taken matters into their own hands, and the ministry says it hasn’t received any requests to relocate livestock.

According to the BC Egg Marketing Board, more than 60 farms are in the Sumas Prairie evacuation zone between Abbotsford and Yarrow. There are also 59 dairy farms under evacuation orders.

“We are also concerned about the fact that the Lower Mainland is cut off from the rest of the province by road,” added BC Egg’s director of marketing and communications Amanda Brittain. “The major concerns are getting feed to farms, transporting animals, and picking up finished products like eggs.”

The disruptions to the province as a whole underscore the warnings issued regarding the consequences of catastrophic spring flooding, a more familiar worry for producers.

According to the Fraser Basin Council, the direct impact to Fraser Valley agriculture of flooding similar to the 1894 freshet would approach $1 billion, with a total economic impact of more than $3 billion. While this flood is not on that scale, thanks to dyking and drainage infrastructure, the impact both within the Fraser Valley and across the province promises to be significant.

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