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Originally published:

FEBRUARY 2023
Vol. 108 Issue 2

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Stories In This Edition

Ghosted

Dairy farmers on the brink

Groundwater showdown

Finding success in succession planning

Editorial: The great repricing

Back 40: Government priorities are asking a lot

Viewpoint: Does farming need to be a full-time job?

Frozen out

Sidebar: Pruning it right

Letters: Program delivery, advocacy have separate roles

Wild weather continues to hammer dairies

Ag Briefs: Province hires two new assistant deputy ministers

Ag Briefs: BC Milk opens organic stream

Ag Briefs: ALC eyes Heppell property for inclusion

Building not land value bumps farm assessments

Province scrambles to register farm employees

Growers contest compensation formula for AI

Funding available for Langley landowners

Potato crop takes a hit but set to rebound in 2023

Low snowpack worrisome for producers

Prescribed burns part of the three-year study in the Peace

Farmgate abattoirs shut out of insurance

Sidebar: Survey explores insurance coverage

Ranch used as part of treaty settlement

Climate-resilient cattle take shape at TRU

Japanese beetle continues to spread

Field trial shows alternative to traditional crops

On-farm storage helps boost profitability

Market garden powered by solar energy

Farmers need to prioritize mental wellness

Scholarship takes chefs on tours of BC farms

Farm Story: Of things we would be lost without

Sheep producer expands wool market

Sidebar: How M.ovi impacts wild sheep

Fernie grocer stocks only local products

Woodshed: Kenneth’s rescue is touch and go

New map app educates public about BC farms

Snacks for your sweeties

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2 days ago

BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

#BCAg
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Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!

Congratulations

Congratulations <3

Congratulations to Duncan, Jane, and all the rest of the Barnett family!

Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane & Duncan 🥳

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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3 days ago

Grapegrower Colleen Ingram, who was recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association. “Given the devastation we have had over the last three years, I feel like this award should be given to the entire industry,” she says. Her story appears in the June edition of Country Life in BC, and we've also posted to our website.

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Industry champion named BC’s best grape grower

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KELOWNA – Colleen Ingram’s enthusiasm for collaboration within the BC wine industry is so great that when she was named 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association, she wanted to sh...
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1 month ago

From orchard manager to government specialist and now executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association, Adrian Arts brings a rare blend of hands-on farming experience and organizational leadership to an industry poised for renewal. His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BC fruit growers, with Arts expressing enthusiasm about continuing the momentum built by his predecessor and working alongside a board that signals a generational shift in agricultural advocacy.

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Arts leads BCFGA forward

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A combination of organizational management and practical farming experience has primed the new executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association to lead the industry forward.
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1 month ago

A public consultation is now underway on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board. Key issues for dairy producers include transportation costs, rules governing shipments and limitations on supporting processing initiatives. Stakeholders have until May 31 to comment.

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Milk board undertakes review

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A public consultation on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board is underway as part of a triennial review required by the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board Regulation.
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1 month ago

BC wool shipments drop sharply in 2023, according to StatsCan data released in mid-April. Local producers shipped just 5,200kg at 37¢/kg, down from 18,600kg at $1.08/kg in 2022. While many farmers now use wool on-farm or dispose of it due to low market value, innovative producers like Emily McIvor point to untapped opportunities. Read more in our Farm News Update from Country Life in BC.

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BC wool value, volume drop

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BC sheep producers shipped less wool for less in 2023, reversing strong growth a year earlier. BC producers shipped 5,200 kilograms of raw wool in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data released on...
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Farmers need to prioritize mental wellness

Without action, AgSafe says the current situation will only get worse

Jimi and Tony Meier lived through the 2021 Sumas Prairie flooding at their dairy farm. When Jimi knew their farm was going to be okay, she began helping others. SUBMITTED

February 1, 2023 byMyrna Stark Leader

ABBOTSFORD – When it comes to mental wellness, the fierce independence and stoicism too common in farmers can be problematic.

“I heard from a poultry producer yesterday,” says Wendy Bennett, executive director of AgSafe BC. “She said, ‘My husband needs the support, but he won’t ask for it. So, when I call, and it’s peer group support, I hand him the phone and he’ll stay on it. It’s really helpful for him but he won’t make the call.’”

AgSafe offered three webinars in December encouraging discussion about resilience and mental wellness. There’s good reason for concern. The past year has seen BC producers face excessive heat, drought, fires, flooding, supply chain disruptions and more recently avian influenza, inflation and rising interest rates.

To respond to mental wellness calls from farmers, ranchers and their workers, AgSafe partners with a team of 14 counsellors able to respond in English, Spanish and Punjabi.

“We saw use increase slightly in the last month with the anniversary of the flood. It isn’t good there’s more need for support, but it is good because we know they are accessing it,” says Bennett, who gauges demand by each month’s counselling charges (calls are neither recorded nor tracked).

AgSafe’s program will be joined in fall 2023 by a nationwide 988 mental health hotline that mirrors one launched in the US in July 2022.

Bennett also hopes research University of Guelph conducted in 2021 will help AgSafe better target commodity groups at greater risk of stress. But even Bennett knows more open discussion is required around mental wellness.

It’s partly why she and Jimi Meier, a dairy farm wife from Abottsford, spoke about the BC flood experience and its impact on producers at Farm Management Canada’s Agricultural Excellence Conference in Canmore in November.

Meier and Hallie Jacobs, another farm wife, spearheaded an initiative to help to others during the November 2021 flooding in the Fraser Valley. It turned into a larger community-building movement that continues today.

“It just kept going. Someone called yesterday looking for a load of wood because they don’t have a furnace yet. It went on our Helping Sumas Prairie Farmers–Flood Support Facebook page and within 10 minutes, somebody messaged, and we got wood,” she says.

Although Meier knows it isn’t direct mental wellness support or enough to be a major change in someone’s life, she has direct experience with producers’ thinking.

“Ninety-nine percent of them will say, “Oh, no, please give it to somebody else. There’s somebody worse off than us.’ But you know, there are plenty of people I’m talking to where they don’t think there’s anybody worse off,” Meier says.

With help from donors, Meier and Jacobs collected and distributed about $106,000 in cash and gift cards as well as about $55,000 worth of items over the past year.

“Our initial goal was just to bring a bit of cheer,” Meier explains. “During the flooding, we drove around handing out gloves. Later someone said, ‘It was one of the best days because, even though it was just gloves, we knew that people knew what was happening and cared.’”

Normally an anxious person, Meier was reassured during 2021’s flooding because her husband kept saying they’d be okay given that their farm occupied higher ground. But when they received a notice of “imminent danger” in what could be “a catastrophic situation with potential loss of life,” she, five employees, her mother-in-law and her daughters relocated to family and friends. Her husband, sons and her daughter’s boyfriend stayed at the farm to care for the cows.

“My 14-year-old got very emotional about her 17-year-old brother, pleading, ‘Mom, he’s so young. He can’t stay.’ She was thinking about losing him,” says Meier. “Different people handle stress differently.”

Bennett says now is the time to address issues of stress in agriculture to try and prevent the worst.

“Our current WorkSafe regulations are literally there because someone died,” says Bennett. “If we don’t address mental health in agriculture, it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. If we can help to spread the word about mental health, maybe we can make it so somebody doesn’t die.”

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