ARMSTRONG – To work in meat processing, one requires strength, passion and specialized skills. But for Amber Baryla, getting into poultry processing came out of necessity. She ended up falling in love with her new career choice anyway. “I didn’t come from a farm family. I worked in the auto industry in sales for a …
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Dairy wins a price increase
Dairy farmers have won a rare mid-year price hike to address rising costs of production, but it falls short of what’s needed to keep pace with inflation. The Canadian Dairy Commission approved a 2.5% increase in the farmgate milk price this week in response to a request the Dairy Farmers of Canada made at the …
Bee losses significant but not extreme
For the second year in a row, nearly a third of honey bee colonies in BC did not make it through the winter. Each spring, provincial apiculture specialist Paul van Westendorp surveys beekeepers to assess winter mortality and identify the causes. He was putting the finishing touches on the 2022 overwintering survey on June 10 …
Bird flu in FV
ABBOTSFORD – A control zone was imposed on more than 50 commercial poultry farms in West Abbotsford last month following the discovery of highly pathogenic avian influenza at a local turkey farm, complicating the outlook for producers already under pressure from multiple supply chain issues. “We’ve been meeting our chicken numbers so far as allocation …
Dairy tops economic impact
BC Dairy Association members were in Victoria this week for meetings with government representatives, with ice cream distributed to the public at the legislature on Tuesday. But dairy is also the most valuable agribusiness in Abbotsford, according to a report released last week by the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce. The report estimates the economic impact …
73,500 birds hit by AI
The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza to the Fraser Valley has pushed the total number of birds affected in BC to nearly 73,500 across 12 properties. The past week has seen four new outbreaks, including two commercial poultry operations in West Abbotsford and a small-lot operation near Osprey Lake, between Princeton and Summerland. Two …