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Originally published:

SEPTEMBER 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 9

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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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Cool weather improves wildfire response

Southern Interior the most active in terms of ranch impacts

It’s hard to imagine business as usual when a wildfire is nipping at your doorstep, but cows need to be fed this winter and forage needs to be cut. The fire came close but did not directly impact Clifton Ranch in Keremeos. FACEBOOK

August 31, 2022 byKate Ayers And Peter Mitham

PENTICTON – Wildfires in the area between the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys have shaped up as the biggest direct threat to BC ranchers this summer, with many still on edge after last year’s intense, wind-driven fires with lengthy perimeters.

The Keremeos Creek wildfire 21 kilometres southwest of Penticton, the largest blaze in the province outside the Northwest at 17,401 acres, was among 322 fires recorded in the Kamloops fire centre this year.

Kamloops is the most active area for wildfires this season, accounting for more than a quarter of the 1,242 reported fires. Total area burned as of deadline was just short of 97,500 acres – a fraction of the millions of acres burned in recent years.

But for Wade Clifton of Clifton Ranch, located north of Keremeos off Highway 3A, the Keremeos Creek fire was a stark reminder of the danger ranchers face each summer. While the fire kept its distance from his property, it was thanks largely to a backburn crews lit on the Olalla Creek Forest Service Road on August 11.

“We were really nervous about the ash because we thought it was going to come down on us. In the end, it never really got here,” Clifton says.

Concerted efforts to smooth relationships between provincial first-responders and ranchers have improved firefighting efforts, and Clifton praised the BC Wildfire service crews.

“They did a very good job on our end when they got here,” Clifton says of the fire crews in his area.

While a cooler season and higher moisture have helped limit fire risks this year, a more collaborative approach between landowners and BC Wildfire Service crews has also helped incident management teams keep ahead of the fires.

“The teamwork that we’re seeing between the BC Wildfire Service, ranchers, loggers, First Nations – it’s fantastic,” says Norene Parke, rancher liaison manager with the BC Cattlemen’s Association. “We haven’t had near the devastation that we had last year, for sure.”

Rancher liaisons, an initiative that debuted last year, has helped.

The first year of the program saw 13 people tapped to give rancher input to the incident management teams. But liaisons were quickly overwhelmed by the number and intensity of the fires and the sheer volume of cattle and livestock involved.

The rancher liaison for the McKay Creek fire, Parke urged BC Cattlemen’s to have a dedicated manager overseeing the program. A former superintendent for the BC Ambulance Service, she was asked to step into the role. Over the winter, she drafted a manual for rancher liaisons distributed to the 42 individuals tapped to be on standby this year in case of wildfires.

“The rancher liaisons were much better prepared in their role this year,” she says. “This year, there was a clear expectation as to what was going to happen.”

Communications have also improved, thanks in part to an app that allows ranchers and others to quickly report fires as they happen.

“They’re being reported quicker,” Parke says. “The incident management teams have actioned them quickly and they haven’t grown to any size.”

She says many ranchers report that crews are arriving within 15 minutes to extinguish the fires.

The result is that just four rancher liaisons have been activated this year, primarily in the Kamloops fire centre. The exception is for the Connell complex, a 7,000-acre fire in the Kootenays.

While this year’s fires have been less devastating, not all ranchers have been as lucky as the Cliftons. The wildfires south of Penticton have claimed residences and ranch infrastructure, one of three in the region to cause property damage.

 

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