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FEBRUARY 2023
Vol. 108 Issue 2

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6 days 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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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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Christmas trees in demand

Art Loewen of Pine Meadows Tree Farms | Ronda Payne photo

December 14, 2022 byPeter Mitham

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,” says Art Loewen of Pine Meadows Tree Farms Ltd. in Chilliwack, who has been growing trees since 1970. “We’re getting customers from all over the Lower Mainland and Interior of BC.”

Despite the impact of last year’s unprecedented heat wave on some growers, the quantity and quality of trees making it to market this year is good.

“We have plenty of trees. We’re not going to run out,” he says. “The trees are good, the quality’s good. Our wholesale guys have been very happy with what they’re getting.”

Prices are also steady, supported by less product from other jurisdictions. In many cases, freight costs were simply too high to make it economical. Loewen did not source trees from Quebec this year given the high costs, allowing him to offer slightly better pricing to the wholesalers he supplies.

“We dropped the price a little bit this year because we weren’t bringing any from the east. Last year, we had to put the price quite high because of the cost of the freight,” he says.

Prices run between $8 and $15 a foot for trees at Saanichton Christmas Tree Farm on Vancouver Island.

“I haven’t put my prices up,” says owner Joan Fleming. “I should, but I haven’t. I don’t want to gouge my customers. They’re paying a good price for the trees.”

She has five acres in Saanichton as well as 50 acres of trees at Shawnigan Lake. Both properties are delivering good-quality trees, thanks to a combination of location and close management.

“I don’t have a shortage at all because we grow them,” she says. “The quality is good, and we didn’t get any scorching on our trees because the Malahat is at a higher elevation.”
The biggest threat to the local supply is a shortage of new commercial growers.

According to the latest Census of Agriculture, there were just 276 Christmas tree farms in BC last year, down from more than 400 five years earlier. Acreage more than halved, from 6,476 to 3,143 acres. The only areas to see growth were the Nechako and Peace regions, where five small-lot growers started up.

“It’s hard to retire when you have a Christmas tree farm,” says Fleming, now 69, who says raising trees is a full-time job that requires a long-term plan.

“It takes seven years to grow a seven-foot tree, so you’re putting in all the labour costs before you get a dollar for your tree,” she says.  “There has to be an ongoing cycle, because what I make this year is going into my labour costs next year. … It’s not just planting the trees and letting them grow.”

Plenty of small-lot growers are offering choose-and-cut, but Loewen says this does little to serve the broader market demand. Prices may be good for these growers but the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand.

“We have more and more people starting up with the small production. … People are interested in that here, and that’s going to help, but we don’t have any big growers starting up,” Loewen says. “So we’re always going to be short.”

 

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