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Originally published:

JANUARY 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 1

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Stories In This Edition

BC leads AI case count

Winter harvest

Eby appoints new ag minister

Generational change in BC potato busienss

Editorial: Good news, bad news

Back 40: Give us this day our daily bread

Viewpoint: Changing the playing field for farmers

Popham ends terms with strong ambitions

Higher food prices make little difference to farmers

Growers fail to block co-op consolidation

Sidebar: Co-op nomination process sidelines critics

Ag Briefs: Former BCFGA president, co-op chair dies

Ag Briefs: New chairs announced

Ag Briefs: COVID-19 response reviewed

BC loses a champion of agriculture

Canadian diary sector positioned well for growth

Honoured

Dairy producers raise alarm on costs

Flower growers shutter auction gallery

Sidebar: Talking turkey about flower sales

Risk management plans make safety sense

Biodynamic workshops receive funding

Producers reflect on past, plan for future

Pacific Agriculture Show on track for 2023

Sidebar: Stand up for the BCAC gala

Provincial priorities in focus at ag show

Berried treasure …

Islands farm show gears up for next month in Duncan

New opportunities but little progress for meat capacity

Roll call

Sidebar: Hub money

Meat producers need to focus on cost management

Greenhouse extends growing season, sales

Plant physiologist heads up BC grape research

Work-life balance is a fallacy for farmers

Pilot helps UBCO’s Feed BC initiative grow

Sidebar: Other factors at play

Drones provide a high-level view of scorch

Farm Story: Mum’s the word on fellow farmers

Bees better kept at a distance

Sidebar: Survey says

Woodshed: Kenneth’s MacGyver moment fails him

Climate, food secuirty motivate change

Jude’s Kitchen: Adventure with your new kitchen gadgets

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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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Dairy producers raise alarm on costs

Margins fall below 4% as fuel, feed costs post double-digit increases

January 1, 2023 byPeter Mitham

BURNABY – Producer income loomed large on the minds of dairy producers as the province’s three dairy organizations gathered online for their annual general meetings November 22.

During the open discussion that followed the meetings, held online to facilitate attendance from across the province, the leading question asked was what was being done to improve producer income.

BC Dairy Association chair Holger Schwichtenberg said there was no easy answer to the problem, which isn’t unique to BC.

“It is more of a national question than a BCDA or BC Milk [Marketing Board] one,” he said. “We are looking at ways, but that is not solved overnight.”

Rising production costs and federally mandated price hikes that have failed to keep pace with them have pushed producer margins below 4% this year.

Dairy prices, set by the Canadian Dairy Commission, rose 8.5% last February and 2.5% in September, with a further 2.2% increase set for this February. The result has added more than a dollar to the retail cost of staples like a 4L jug of milk and a pound of butter, but it hasn’t been enough to offset rising costs for feed, fuel and other inputs.

But total input costs have increased by an average of 19%, according to information presented by the Western Dairy Council at the BC Dairy Industry Conference in late November. Key drivers include fuel, up 71%, and feed, up 39%.

According to BC Milk, transportation costs this year are set to rise 12% thanks to higher fuel costs, adding nearly $4 million to producer expenses. This is a significant shift from the additional $1.2 million last year, which took a bite out of the $15 million in revenue added by higher milk prices.

Two key initiatives that could help improve BC producer incomes include greater dairy processing capacity in Western Canada.

BC Dairy executive director Jeremy Dunn reports that a feasibility study is underway for a co-pack facility in the region that will provide space for small runs of products by multiple processors. The feasibility study, undertaken by KPMG in partnership with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, is expected early this year.

Dairy Innovation West, a new processing plant planned for central Alberta, will concentrate raw milk to reduce the transportation costs producers pay.  Undertaken by the Western Milk Pool, the plant is jointly owned by the provincial dairy organizations. BC Dairy holds a 35% interest in the project, and contributed $1.1 million to the project over the past year.

Despite the challenges, producers continue to work on producing top-quality milk.

BC Dairy’s annual milk quality award this year went to Dave and Melinda Matlak of Deroche, who maintained a high level of cleanliness over the course of the year. The farm’s somatic cell count (SCC) averaged 41,000 per ml while plate counts of anaerobic bacteria stood at 3,500 per ml.

“We like to be meticulous, and we’re concerned about what our numbers are, but those are truly astounding numbers over a whole year,” Schwichtenberg said in announcing the award. “Some of us may get there on occasion but it’s maintaining those numbers and not having the odd hiccup. … They should be commended for that.”

According to the latest Agriculture Canada numbers, the average SCC for BC over the course of the last dairy year was 152,896 while plate counts averaged 24,707.

The meetings updated producers on several in-house initiatives, including a new three-year strategic plan for BC Dairy.

BC Dairy members also voted on an overhaul of association bylaws as part of a regular review. The changes include provisions related to the new WMP governance structure, allowing the executive to act on members’ behalf at the regional level. The bylaws were revised to implement gender-neutral language throughout.

 

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