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Originally published:

JULY 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 7

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Stories In This Edition

Breakfast on the Farm

Province blinks on ALR

Berry grower hit with fines

BC hop industry matures despite challenges

Smaller than small

Back 40: The ups (and downs) of sustainable agriculture

Viewpoint: Debate over cannabis underscores challenges

Dry weather ushers in provincewide drought

Giant bee-killing hornet identified in Vancouver

Weather ideal for early start to strawberries

Fresh BC strawberries …

FIRB sides with K&M on annualized production

Pricing remains on ongoing issue for poultry sector

Tree fruit competitiveness funds start to flow

Farmers institute members discuss ALR changes

Dairy association seeks general manager

Sitting down on the job

Online platform gives food a second chance

Armyworm comes back for a second helping

Cannabis genes key to long-term success

Twenty years of ambassadors reunite

Policy shifts top ranchers’ list of concerns

Winner! Winner!

Clifton Ranch aims for better beef, habitat

Sidebar: Ranch operations

Treaties create uncertainty for range users

Market Musings: Summertime slowdown

Do you know a horse …

Grazing targets fire prevention, suppression

Kestrel nestbox project will help control starlings

Sterile moth program heads south of the border

Young farmers served a heaving helping of surf ‘n turf

Research: Welfare, reproduction a complex relationship

Variety trials showcase fresh options

Sweet potato has promise for BC growers

Headway made on organic SWD controls

My turn!

The fine art of raising commercial poultry

Winfield couple banks on organic growth

Woodshed: Plans hatch while Kenneth plays golf

Breakfast on the Farm has lessons for everyone

Jude’s Kitchen: Healthy choices

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10 hours 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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5 days 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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Clifton Ranch aims for better beef, habitat

Care for habitat is integral to herd management

June 30, 2019 byTom Walker

KEREMEOS—The Clifton family was extremely pleased to receive the 2019 Ranch Sustainability Award from the BC Cattlemen’s Association, but the initiatives designed to improve habitat on the family’s ranch weren’t done for attention.

“We didn’t start out to do this with the idea of winning an award,” says Wade Clifton, who undertook the projects with his brother Brad, who died in February. “We did it so that we could better manage the grass for our herd and grow more pounds of beef.”

It’s a tough place to manage grass. Clifton Ranch sits by Olalla on Hwy. 3A at the north entrance to the Similkameen valley. Its range is east over White Lake into Okanagan Falls and west through to Princeton and takes in some of the hottest and driest grasslands in the province.

“On the slopes next to White Lake, it can regularly reach 45 [degrees] Celsius,” says Clifton. Rainfall averages around 12 inches a year.

A key part of the sustainability equation for the Cliftons is economics.

“A project had to make economic sense before we developed it,” says Clifton.

An investment in a water system for example, will support the development of better grazing for the cattle and it will also enhance the restoration of a riparian area.

But one objective doesn’t outweigh the other. What’s good for the cattle is also good for the habitat.

Range cattle will gather where there’s water.

“When we had them drinking out of Horn Lake, the riparian area was heavily impacted by all the traffic, but the hillsides were quite scoured as well,” notes Clifton.

Initially, the cattle would overgraze the bottom grass closest to the lake.

“They would eventually move up the mountain for better grass, but then they would track back down to drink and they wore paths into the soil that would start to erode the hillsides,” he explains.

Brad Clifton’s solution was to install a 1,700-foot, high-elevation spring-sourced water line connecting nine water troughs located across the hillside. This led to multiple benefits.

“The first thing it did was to lure the cattle out of the bottom riparian area up to where there was better grass so that they ate better,” says Clifton.

The multiple troughs spread the cattle over a broader area, leading to less impact on the grass. The cattle began grazing across the slope rather than up and down the hillside, reducing impacts on the land. The riparian area saw less traffic, so it had a chance to recover, too.

In the long run, the cattle eat better, gain weight and put more dollars into the Cliftons’ pockets.

Overall, the Cliftons have 100 water developments. Some are gravity-fed systems, others are as simple as a collection trough on a small spring.

Any riparian fencing has a wildlife-friendly design. The top and bottom strands are plain wire with the middle three stands barbed.

“When deer go over it they are not going to catch a barb on their coat causing an injury and possibly ripping the fence,” explains Clifton. “It’s easier on the animals and we spend less time fixing fences.”

Clifton shows another range area that is also supported by a trough system and points out the unfenced creek bottom.

“When the cattle have access to water up in the hills, they don’t regularly come down to the creek,” he points out. “We don’t have to fence them out of the riparian area because they are only there for a couple of days to eat the grass and then they move up the hill and don’t come back.”

That dry Similkameen grassland is also home to 31 species at risk. As Ottawa identified and developed plans for the protection of these species on federal grazing lands, discussions with ranchers centered on the presence of cattle.

“They said if they remove the cattle we are going to help the species at risk,” Clifton recalls. “And I asked, is it going to help them?”

Challenging the conventional wisdom was mighty scary at first, but the Cliftons explained how the cattle were a key part of the grasslands ecosystem. Each individual species requires a diverse habitat and removing the cattle would significantly alter that diversity.

“Cattle have been grazing on that land for over 100 years,” notes Clifton. “The species that live there do so because the habitat supports them, and cattle are a significant part of that habitat.”

The family has won recognition for its work with the Nature Trust of BC in developing a range management plan that incorporates cattle to restore grasslands around White Lake. The White Lake Biodiversity Ranch is now a showcase property in the Nature Trust’s portfolio.

“They are 100% on-side with how we are managing,” says Clifton.

The Cliftons had bought half of White Lake Ranch, which is the middle of their range area, and Nature Trust had bought the other half hoping to restore areas which were overgrazed.

Clifton says the plan initially called for fencing off the grasslands to keep cattle out but it wasn’t working. That’s when they approached the Cliftons about a partnership.

“We asked them to consider what the cattle might do to help restore the grass,” says Clifton. “We showed them how, when grass is grazed at the right time, it stimulates a strong regrowth. We pointed out the weeds that the cattle would eat and we explained how closely we monitor and time our grazing.”

Indeed, timing is a key to the Clifton’s grazing plan.

“We watch our grasslands really closely to time our turn-out,” he says. “We don’t look at the calendar, we look at the grass to know when it is ready.”

In the most sensitive areas around White Lake, the cattle are on for just two weeks, sometimes with a three-year gap.

“This is a 50-year process,” notes Clifton. “When the grasslands are depleted in this hot, dry, environment, it takes a long time to recover.”

The restoration is starting to show success. Clifton points to a control area that is fenced off and has not had cattle grazing. That pasture has poor forage growth with weeds choking out the grass. Across the road, a grazed field has taller, healthier grass and fewer weeds.

The non-grazed area might eventually recover, says Clifton.

“The weeds might reach a point after a number of years where they crash, and the grass has a chance to come back,” he says. “But it is a lot of waiting for an unknown outcome.”

Due to the unique ecosystem and the location, there are multiple agencies that have interests in the grasslands of the South Okanagan and Similkameen. It is obvious from spending time with Clifton that his low-key, yet highly informed manner would come to be respected among the various interest groups and government agencies he deals with.

For the family, being recognized with the sustainability award creates opportunities to share their story of how cattle can support an ecosystem rather than damage it.

“What I am hoping more than anything is that it shows that cattlemen are actually doing the right thing to maintain our grasslands,” says Clifton. “I hope we can train people to u

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