ABBOTSFORD – Blueberry growers have turned to mechanical harvesting in unprecedented numbers this year due to a shortage of labour and impacts of COVID-19. While growers usually employ thousands of hand harvesters, this year saw hundreds of machines harvesting berries across the Fraser Valley. Although farmers have been using machines for several years, many did …
NEWS
BC Tree Fruits prepares to sell assets, apples
KELOWNA – As the apples turn red across the Okanagan, Similkameen and Creston valleys and trucks start to move them to packinghouses, BC apple growers face their busiest time of year. But the management team at BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, which sells more than $100 million worth of apples annually, is also busy. This year …
Meat producers frustrated by consultations
MERRITT – BC meat producers are frustrated that the province is spending more time studying how to help them than getting on with acting on its findings. The BC Ministry of Agriculture released an intentions paper September 14 aimed at modernizing rural slaughter practices, but Julia Smith of the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association says the …
A new generation keeps the family greenhouse growing
SURREY – With locations in Surrey and Delta, Sunnyside Produce Ltd. has steadily grown its greenhouse pepper operation to more than 70 acres in the past 25 years. With annual production of more than 10,000 tonnes, it’s among the largest pepper producers in BC. It’s a notable achievement for what began as a five-acre operation …
BC Beef set to launch
WESTWOLD – A made-in-BC beef brand is finally within sight after five years of work on the part of ranchers. “We will be signing a lease for October 1 with the KML federal processing plant just west of Falkland, and at that point we will have control of the plant to go in and start …
Agrilyze Builds Software for Precision Agriculture
Abbotsford-based i-Open Group of Companies has launched Agrilyze, BC’s first data analytics portal for precision agriculture. Agrilyze is an innovative platform that functions as a singular hub, accessible from any mobile device, that helps farmers with land use management, compliance, traceability, and sustainability, while providing high-quality data to local farmers, researchers and governments across Canada …