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Originally published:

October 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 10

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Stories In This Edition

Sheep thrills

Farm employers on edge

Right-to-farm case upheld

Snow puts the brakes on Peace grain harvest

Editorial: The hands that feed us

Back Forty: Saving farmland fruitless without water

Op Ed: US could learn a thing (or two) from Canada

Piece-rate study sets stage for payday changes

Photo: Day at the Farm

Berry growers report decent growing season

FIRB posed to set live BC chicken prices – again

BCYAF grants support key 4-H initiatives

Cherry growers hit hardest by wildfire smoke

Ag Briefs: Winner

Ag Briefs: Right to Farm Act review cancelled

Local governments can’t undermine ALR rules

Winfield grower has ambitious cannabis plans

Province funds land-matching program

BC Fresh expands to meet national demand

Challenging year fails to daunt new producer

Corn trials focus on lower heat units for BC

When the right thing turns out to be wrong

Wildfires prompt local response planning

Mixer-feeder offers all-in-one feeding option

Non-traditional forage mixtures promising

Small farmers network targets knowledge gap

Hazelnut renewal enters second phase

Research: Scratch that itch

Partners announced for farmers’ market trail

FV land limitations means higher density

Fair lives up to its farm roots

Pumpkin growers use crop to reach out to public

Wannabe Farmer: The usual gives plenty of cause for thanks

Woodshed: Wishful thinking as Caribbean holiday nears

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall heralds heartier meals, yummy appies

 

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1 month ago

The province has extended the Canada-BC Flood Recovery for Food Security Program deadline from June 1 to Aug. 31. The program helps farmers cover uninsured expenses caused by damages in the November 2021 floods, including cleanup, repair and restoration of land, barns and animal shelters, and water and waste systems; returning flood-affected land and buildings to a safe state for agricultural production; repairing uninsurable essential farm infrastructure; repairing structures such as livestock-containment fences; renting temporary production facilities; installing drainage ditches and land-stabilization materials; animal welfare activities such as replacing feed, transporting livestock, veterinary care and mortality disposal; and
replacing perennial plants not grown for sale. Program criteria and application forms are available online: buff.ly/3sVRF4G
... See MoreSee Less

The province has extended the Canada-BC Flood Recovery for Food Security Program deadline from June 1 to Aug. 31. The program helps farmers cover uninsured expenses caused by damages in the November 2021 floods, including cleanup, repair and restoration of land, barns and animal shelters, and water and waste systems; returning flood-affected land and buildings to a safe state for agricultural production;  repairing uninsurable essential farm infrastructure; repairing structures such as livestock-containment fences; renting temporary production facilities; installing drainage ditches and land-stabilization materials; animal welfare activities such as replacing feed, transporting livestock, veterinary care and mortality disposal; and
replacing perennial plants not grown for sale. Program criteria and application forms are available online: https://buff.ly/3sVRF4G
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1 month ago

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details. ... See MoreSee Less

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details.
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2 months ago

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the province's deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed. ... See MoreSee Less

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the provinces deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed.
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Sounds like 2 weeks to flatten the curve turning into 2 years.

USDA doing avian vax research, May 11 bio-docs to UN incl section on H5N8 w/wild bird spread. Found link to apparent pre-release on May 11 Geller Report. Good luck farmers.

2 months ago

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.” ... See MoreSee Less

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.”
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Killing our food chain. How do we know they are actually carrying a virus, look what's taking place with covid, is it real.

Ik kan niet zo goed Engels maar als ik het goed begrijp is bij jullie ook vogelgriep maar nog niet bij jullie

Any idea when this episode or bird flu might be over?

2 months ago

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions. ... See MoreSee Less

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions.
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Cherry growers hit hardest by wildfire smoke

Apple growers benefit, while grape growers optimistic

October 2, 2018 byTom Walker

KELOWNA – Cooler, clearer weather has finally beaten back smoke from the province’s worst wildfire season on record that delivered air quality worse than Beijing, but producer groups are reporting mixed effects.

Hank Markgraf, field services manager at BC Tree Fruits, says the smoky skies were the worst he’s ever seen, and that created problems for cherry growers.

“The smoke caused higher than normal humidity levels and that led to increased mildew pressure in cherry orchards,” he says. “If growers didn’t get on top of it with their sprays, it led to damaged fruit. It’s tough to have to tell a grower that their delivery to the packing house can’t be accepted because the fruit is damaged.”

While the smoke was an unprecedented phenomenon for Okanagan growers, it may have helped apple growers.

“The smoke cover gave us cooler temperatures and that slowed down the growth of the fruit to a more normal pace,” Markgraf says.

Apple trees don’t like constant 35-degree days, he explains.

“The trees will actually shut down and stop growing on hot afternoons. The fruit doesn’t get to size up and we get a lot of small apples like we saw last year, which is a nightmare for the marketing folks.”

The smoke also helped prevent sunburn in the apple crop.

“If we had had the bright intense sun that we know was there above the smoke day after day, we would not be in as good a shape as we are,” Markgraf says.

While residents across the province felt like they were living next to a campfire for days, Markgraf says the taste of apples won’t be affected.

“We do taste tests all the time and it is just not showing up,” he says.

Whether or not the smoke reduced photosynthesis and affected crops is not known at this time.

Touchy subject

The topic of smoke taint in the grape crop is a sensitive issue and one hard to predict.

“Nobody wants to suggest that their wine might be off,” Glenn McGourty from the University of California

Cooperative Extension told the BC Grape Growers’ Association at its annual general meeting this past April.

“We don’t like to use the word ‘taint’ but rather ‘smoky flavours,’” McGourty told growers.

Smoke flavours concentrate in the grape skin, so red wine – where juice usually sits on the skins during fermentation to yield colour – is more at risk than white wine.

Researchers at UBC Okanagan are researching ways to test grapes and predict the effect of smoke exposure on the finished wines, however.

UBCO assistant professor of chemistry Wes Zandberg, together with doctoral student Matt Noestheden, is working to develop a testing protocol.

“Although we have a sensitive and accurate smoke taint test for the grapes, ultimately we have to recognize that trying to predict how wine is going to taste from the chemical analysis of fresh fruit is challenging,” says Zandberg. “We can run our tests and we can give vineyards and winemakers a heads-up that they should be planning for the possibility, but really absolute certainty requires fermentation.”

Noestheden, who also works with the Kelowna company Supra Research & Development, confirms that they have been looking at quite a few samples from across the valley this year.

“I know that a number of wineries have gone to the length of doing a small batch fermentation to sample their fruit and we are involved with testing those,” he says.

Zandberg says wineries aren’t powerless in the face of smoke taint, noting several tools are available to address the issue.

“There is reverse osmosis, and you can think about blending wines,” he says. “We are really in the plan-ahead business so that growers can be thinking about their options.”

While smoke lay thick across the Okanagan in 2017 as well, Noestheden says he hasn’t heard of any issues with last year’s vintage. He’s optimistic that 2018 will have the same outcome even though conditions seemed worse.

“There are more people worried this year, but we still don’t have any evidence that there will be a problem with this year’s vintage,” he says.

Forage setbacks

Serena Black, general manager of the BC Forage Council, says there are some anecdotal reports from forage producers in the Cariboo that the quality of forage may be lower.

“I know a couple of people who have borrowed our testing equipment, so I will get some information back from those samples,” she says. “I certainly think it affected my home garden here in Prince George, but we don’t really know at this time.”

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