ABBOTSFORD – A growing number of dairy farms in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. “The dairy [sector] is particularly challenged,” says Karen Taylor, director of corporate finance, agriculture and agribusiness with BMO Financial Group in Abbotsford, who addressed a workshop the Centre …
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Dairy producers raise alarm on costs
BURNABY – Producer income loomed large on the minds of dairy producers as the province’s three dairy organizations gathered online for their annual general meetings November 22. During the open discussion that followed the meetings, held online to facilitate attendance from across the province, the leading question asked was what was being done to improve …
BC Milk opens organic stream
The BC Milk Marketing Board’s is accepting applications until February 7 from potential new entrants in advance of a random draw that will select 10 candidates who will vie for the opportunity to be one of three new dairy producers beginning production by the end of 2024. But this year’s program will also include an …
Young butchers make their mark
PORT MOODY – Taryn Barker and Ronnie Keely were two BC representatives on Canada’s first-ever team in the World Butchers’ Challenge this year. Their experiences have inspired each of them to improve professional development opportunities in the province for those new to the sector. Barker of The Little Butcher in Port Moody had nothing but …
Ministers discuss avian influenza
The appointment last week of rookie Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as agriculture minister came amid a deepening outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in her home region of the Fraser Valley. The disease didn’t merit a reference in Alexis’ mandate letter from the premier but it was one of the first orders of business she …
AI outbreak rivals 2004
The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial farms have been infected over the past week, putting the number of commercial premises impacted since mid-November at 42, the same number as was infected …