The top farm property sale in BC last year was Lilac Ridge, a dairy farm at 940 Cole Road in Abbotsford. The transaction was valued at $9 million, according to BC Assessment Authority, which released the 2020 assessment roll this month. The top five farm property transactions in BC last year all took place in …
NEWS
Bursary fund welcomes applications
Post-secondary education is expensive and a financial gift can be a huge help. Whether it’s to help cover tuition fees, books or rent, the costs add up. To help offset such costs and honour the memory and achievements of agricultural journalist J.R. (Tim) Armstrong (1911-1979), the Tim Armstrong Educational Foundation awards a $1,000 bursary to …
Province signals ALR changes
RICHMOND – Changes are coming to what’s allowed within the Agricultural Land Reserve, but ongoing fallout from regulations introduced last winter following the passage of Bill 52 are prompting the province to give landowners a heads-up. “There’s a sense of urgency on some of these issues that would make us want to move quickly,” assistant …
Bison could be key to climate change resilience
MERRITT – How do you design a cow for the evolving Canadian climate? That’s the question Thompson Rivers University associate professor John Church asked the BC Bison Association in late October, noting the estimated increase in global temperatures could see cattle regularly exposed to summer heat approaching 40°C. Countering the effects of heat stress is …
Cherry growers see record crop losses in 2019
LAKE COUNTRY – BC’s cherry industry often refers to 2016 as the Vietnam year because of the sheer number of helicopters used to dry the crop. That harvest, at 17,495 tons, was more than 1,200 tons short of the record 2015 harvest, even though plantings had increased by 150 acres. The loss had a farmgate …
Small farmers raise concerns about CanadaGAP
VERNON – Government efforts to provide greater assurances of food safety are creating apprehension among smaller farmers regarding the additional work they will face in order to satisfy customer requirements. Randy Irwin, corporate retail operations manager with Vernon-based Nature’s Fare Market, sums up the situation well. “The problem with CanadaGAP is that it is government-supported …