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Originally published:

APRIL 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 4

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Stories In This Edition

Taking root

No room

Farmland values soar

Orchardist grows international, domestic sales

Editorial: The choices we make

Back 40: Freedom has its boundaries in a civilized world

Viewpoint: Underinsured in a potential disaster zone

BCFGA sheds responsibilities, looks ahead

Province hikes minimum wage, piece rates

Climate Action Initiative disbanded by province

Dusty brown

Letters: Minister is misleading

Chicken growers on watch for avian influenza

Ag Briefs: OrganicBC pursues structural review

Ag Briefs: Online bull sale exceeds expectations

Ag Briefs: Groundwater deadline passes

Turkeys emerge from 2021 in a strong position

Sidebar: Benoit trades turkeys for flowers

Agri-industry project gets green light from ALC

Resilient cherry growers target exports

Labour shortage has abattoirs hogtied

No progress on livestock watering regulations

Soakin’ up the sun

Regenerative agriculture vision outlined

Strong yields and new strategy for cranberries

Tree fruit growers struggle to source plants

Fumigation options

Farm Story: Cull potatoes are about to earn their keep

Pilot program bridges the extension gap

There is a future for BC’s apple industry

A warming world calls for new strategies

Heat dome, cold snaps hit some, miss others

Boiler project cuts costs for Duncan farm

Woodshed Chronicles: A little tough love for Frank and Kenneth

Farm partnership supports local non-profit

BC entrepreneurs meet food waste challenge

It’s time to dust off the barbecue

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4 days 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 weeks 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.

3 weeks 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?

3 weeks 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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4 weeks ago

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises. ... See MoreSee Less

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises.
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Chicken growers on watch for avian influenza

Disease pressure, low prices follow disastrous 2021 season

April 1, 2022 byPeter Mitham

ABBOTSFORD – With pandemic restrictions lifting and demand for chicken stabilizing, BC poultry producers are renewing their focus on biosecurity to stave off some well-known infectious diseases affecting their birds.

“Biosecurity continues to be a challenge for us,” BC Chicken Growers Association president Dale Krahn told growers at their annual general meeting in Abbotsford, March 1. Disease caps the now-familiar litany of afflictions the industry faced in 2021, including heat domes, forest fires, flooding, atmospheric rivers that strained supply chains, increasing costs and endangering human and animal safety.

The risks have quite literally gone viral as 2022 dawns, with highly pathogenic avian influenza and infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) threatening flocks.

“The world is fighting with avian influenza,” says Krahn, noting that Europe, Asia, Africa and the US have all seen significant outbreaks, in some cases with heavy losses.

Atlantic Canada has reported an outbreak, and the virus was also identified in an eagle in Delta.

“Growers are reminded to continue their heightened biosecurity as we see health challenges approach BC,” says Krahn. “So far the BC poultry industry has had success staving this off by following our stringent biosecurity measures, which are continually updated by the BC poultry biosecurity committee.”

BC’s last significant high-path AI outbreak was in the winter of 2014-2015.

Krahn notes that strong biosecurity measures are important against a host of threats, including ILT.

“We know that the most likely route by which [the ILT] virus moves is on the wind from contaminated manure, or infected flocks being moved,” he says. “As a poultry industry, we need to work together to mitigate this disease.”

Rising costs

Growers continue to struggle with high costs that have eliminated margins and pushed many into loss positions. Despite two previous rejections for the A-173 and A-174 production periods, BCCGA is claiming exceptional circumstances for the A-175 production period in the hope of winning a price for growers that reflects production costs.

“Growers must have their costs addressed in any pricing solution for our industry to have any chance of sustainability,” says Krahn. “These cost increases, including feed, chicks, sawdust and energy costs – as the membership well knows – are far beyond what our growers can sustain, and for which the current BC pricing formula cannot account. These extraordinarily high costs are expected to continue for some time.”

Yet neither the BC Chicken Marketing Board nor BC Farm Industry Review Board have accepted the requests for adjustments to pricing, although BC Chicken has acknowledged the issue.

BC Chicken chair Harvey Sasaki told growers that wheat futures were $65 a ton higher than corn in June 2021, but the differential had increased to $177 a ton by December. Grower prices are based off corn, the dominant feed grain in Ontario, whereas BC growers use wheat. The huge differential is a huge pain for growers, on top of inflation-adjusted prices that are half what they were in the 1970s.

“Dale described it best in his presentation,” notes Sasaki. “That’s a pretty tough bill to be able to accommodate in the light of all these other challenges.”

BC FIRB took a hands-off approach at the meeting, saying industry must settle the pricing question itself.

“BC FIRB is looking to the chicken board, and the broiler hatching egg commission, as the first-instance regulators in the broiler chicken industry,” FIRB executive director Kirsten Pedersen told growers in response to questions.

Krahn was clear that the situation was dire before 2021, and is now unsustainable.

“We have said it consistently since 2016, and we continue to remind our governing bodies that chicken growers’ returns are not sufficient to meet their ever-increasing costs as they farm chicken,” he says. “We are farming our depreciation, and it is unsustainable.”

But there was some good news for growers on the financial front. BC Chicken returned $943,000 in surplus levies from 2019 to growers, and more could be forthcoming if challenges this year don’t intervene.

Chicken Farmers of Canada first vice-chair Nick de Graaf, a Nova Scotia producer, also urged growers to register for federal support through the Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program, which compensates growers for market access concessions made under the CP-TPP and CETA trade deals with Pacific Rim and EU trading partners. BC growers have access to $48 million under the program.

“We don’t have to ask for the actual funds right away but we must all register. The challenge is that some farmers still haven’t,” he says. “I understand that not all of us will need or want the funds until later, maybe several years later, but we must ask you to register now.”

Registration will show appreciation for and demonstrate the importance of government support for the sector.

 

 

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