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Originally published:

January 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 1

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Stories In This Edition

Province signals ALR changes

Winter wonderland

Growers support piece rates

High-priced harvest heading for sweet success

Editorial: A new start

Back Forty: The service economy steps away from the land

Viewpoint: Subsistence farming is a thing of the past, isn’t it?

Cherry growers see record crop losses in 2019

Agricultural impacts from new rail trail sought

Small farmers raise concerns about CanadaGap

BC food costs set to rise

Farmers’ institutes gather for second annual meeting

Foodlands trust initiative inches forward

Sidebar: Two proponents short-listed for Sandown farm

Shifting climate brings changes to vineyard practices

Bright future

Processing plant will cut transportation costs

Date change bolsters turnout at dairy meetings

BC Holstein set pace for Canada in 2019

Trade deals remain top issue

Dairy honours Jim Thompson

BC’s largest farm show kicks off new year

Pacific Ag Show keeps up with changing times

Sidebar: Ag innovation day

Sidebar: CannaTech West back for second year

Popular dairy tour will feature lots of variety

Sidebar: Dairy Expo continues at ag show

Bison could be key to climate change resilence

Research: Clay improves degradability of dairy feed

Consumers, producers need mutual understanding

Deep learning helps root out weeds

Langley farmers see beauty in small lots

Commission offers new guide for hog production

Young farmers are making global waves

Fatal sheep diseases are largely preventable

Labour of love keeps historic farm in family

Glyphosate may be safe, but its days are numbered

Woodshed: Susan embarks on her secret rendevous

Farm Story: The farm roars headlong into winter

Jude’s Kitchen: Comforting crockpot meals keep it simple

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1 day ago

Fecal coliform levels in the streams and watercourses that flow through Langley has been an issue for decades. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has received $97,000 from the federal government to work with property owners to help them reduce their impact on water quality and the environment, and ensure their properties are in compliance with the Agriculture Environmental Management Code of Practice (AEMCoP). The story is in the February edition of Country Life in BC. Subscribe today bit.ly/3RIKms9/.

#BCAg #aemcop
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Fecal coliform levels in the streams and watercourses that flow through Langley has been an issue for decades. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has received $97,000 from the federal government to work with property owners to help them reduce their impact on water quality and the environment, and ensure their properties are in compliance with the Agriculture Environmental Management Code of Practice (AEMCoP). The story is in the February edition of Country Life in BC. Subscribe today https://bit.ly/3RIKms9/.

#BCAg #AEMCoP
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2 days ago

BC dairy farmers are feeling the pinch and some in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. It's our cover story in the February edition of Country Life in BC.

bit.ly/3JGgk6B

#bcagriculture #bcdairy
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BC dairy farmers are feeling the pinch and some in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. Its our cover story in the February edition of Country Life in BC.

https://bit.ly/3JGgk6B

#bcagriculture #bcdairy
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So much pressure being put on the dairy industry from the US. It’s hard to keep the lobbying at bay. Canadian dairy should supply Canadian tables and the farmers who provide it should be paid what they are worth. There is no such thing as cheap food

Farm Management is key. It can't all be blamed on the government.

Just been watching NZ TV news and the price of food. Most complaining about the price of dairy products due to the fact that domestic prices are high with most production being exported. No supply management.

I really don't understand the concern here. The article literally says 30-40 of 600 BC dairy farms (that's less than 1%) are experiencing financial pressure, likely due to being somewhat overleveraged. Sounds like just some mismanagement rather than a broad policy failure is the cause here.

Whole Food Plant Based eating ...oat milk coconut milk Almond milk soy milk etc

Noooooooo. That’s exactly what this LIB/NDP party wants. They want everyone to cave in to their knees. Don’t do it. It’ll be the end.

A lot of this is government squeeze. Be hungry and compliant!

The government is the eternal enemy of humanity.

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1 week ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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2 weeks ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

2 months ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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Cherry growers see record crop losses in 2019

Plantings continue to expand with market demand

January 1, 2020 byTom Walker

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 value of nearly $4.5 million.

But this year’s losses are set to be more than double that. At more than $10 million, it is the industry’s biggest single-year loss ever.

Production Insurance staff have received 436 claims from cherry growers for losses in 2019. As of December 3, the province has paid out $8.6 million.

While new acreage boosted the BC cherry crop to nearly 27,000 tons last year, more than 50% larger than in 2016, the record-setting loss underscores the fact that cherry production is not for the faint of heart.

“The risk in cherries is in the production,” says David Geen, president and owner of Coral Beach Farms Ltd. in Lake Country. “With apples, the risk might be in whether you will get paid.”

Geen says the season was one of the most challenging he’s seen in the last 20 years.

“We had layer after layer of issues that began with winter kill of some fruit buds during the extreme cold in February,” he explains. “Following that, we had some spring frost at flowering and those two events contributed to a 20% reduction in fruit set.”

Growers expect rain in June, but it usually tapers off for a dry July and August. That wasn’t the case this year, with multiple rain events across the Okanagan from the start of harvest on June 20 through to the end of July.

“It was constant,” says Geen. “We would have one or two days of dry and then we’d get another downpour.”

Coral Beach counts on its multiple orchard sites throughout the central Okanagan to mitigate weather-related risks. It farms 750 acres from southeast Kelowna through Lake Country to Cholla Hills above Westside Road and Coldstream, east of Vernon.

“Normally, summer rains in the Okanagan are sporadic thunderstorms that are confined to a relatively small area,” Geen notes. “But this year we had a number of cold lows that settled in right across the whole valley.”

Even a high-elevation site at 2,400 feet in the hills above Lake Country chosen for later ripening was affected.

“It was in really good shape in early August,” says Geen “But starting the ninth and tenth of August we had a long period of wet and that orchard took it on the chin.”

Coral Beach has an aggressive helicopter drying program in addition to using tractors and wind machines. Geen says he hasn’t added up the days or the cost, but he says it was “way higher than average.”

Drying saved plenty of fruit, however.

“We only lost two blocks that were too impacted to pick,” says Geen. “One Skeena and one Rainier, for a total of 14 acres out of the 750 that we have in production.”

The rest of the crop was carefully sorted but Geen estimates that only 70% of that was top-grade fruit. The result was a net loss of about 45%.

BC Tree Fruits, for its part, saw its cherry crop down by more than 20%.

Besides having multiple sites, Coral Beach spreads its risk by planting a range of varieties, many of which come from the federal breeding program in Summerland.

“Besides Skeena, which we know doesn’t like the rain, we have Staccato, Sovereign and Sentennial,” says Geen. “And Sweetheart does particularly well in the North Okanagan.”

Coral Beach does have a 10-acre block rigged for the installation of Voen rain covers to protect the fruit as it ripens to maturity.

“That block got really hammered with spring frost and we decided that the crop load was not big enough to justify the expense of installing the covers,” Geen says.

On the bright side, a smaller crop meant some price compensation for what was left. China, despite shutting out shipments of canola, meat and other products from Canada, was a strong market for cherries thanks to its ongoing trade war with the US.

“The market in China, particularly in August, was very strong,” says Geen.

China continues to be one of the major export markets for BC cherries, and Japan opened its doors to BC fruit this year, too. Exports to the US also remain significant, especially for BC’s late-ripening fruit.

Growers in the Okanagan and Creston valleys continue to increase planting with the help of the province’s long-running replant program. There are bare land plantings going in as well.

Coral Beach planted 58 acres this April at a new site in Pritchard on the north bank of the South Thompson River. An additional 120 acres will follow this spring. The blocks will be in production by 2023.

The growing volume of BC cherries is helping to establish a presence in the world marketplace.

“It is putting us a bit more in the spotlight. Canadian cherries are now a thing,” says Geen. “I think it is helping to establish an offshore brand.”

With files from Peter Mitham

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