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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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1 week ago

The province remained short on details Thursday as it repeated an announcement it plans to invest $5 million in a new animal disease preparedness and response program. “This investment will provide BC farmers and ranchers with the support to plan and respond quicker and better to disease outbreaks,” said BC agriculture minister Pam Alexis, who was joined by MLAs from Langley East, Chilliwack and Chilliwack-Kent at Canadian Organic Feeds in Chilliwack.

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #BCpoultry
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The province remained short on details Thursday as it repeated an announcement it plans to invest $5 million in a new animal disease preparedness and response program. “This investment will provide BC farmers and ranchers with the support to plan and respond quicker and better to disease outbreaks,” said BC agriculture minister Pam Alexis, who was joined by MLAs from Langley East, Chilliwack and Chilliwack-Kent at Canadian Organic Feeds in Chilliwack.

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #BCpoultry
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Stay away from government programs

It's a killing program ..

1 week ago

With the stroke of a pen, BC has officially entered into a new agreement with the federal government that will see more than $140 million invested over the next five years in “strategic” agricultural initiatives. The money represents a 25% increase of about $29 million over the previous funding agreement, which ends on March 31. “This partnership will support our government’s focus on food security for all British Columbians while investing significantly in BC farmers, producers and processors,” says BC agriculture minister Pam Alexis. The agreement was signed earlier today, during federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s visit to the province. ... See MoreSee Less

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Bilateral agreement signed

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BC will see an additional $29 million over five years from the federal government when the new agricultural policy framework debuts April 1. A new bilateral agreement between the provincial and…
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1 week ago

BC farmers and producers have until June 30 to register for AgriStability, pay their fees and secure coverage under the program. AgriStability provides support to growers with large financial declines caused by production losses as a result of extreme weather, disease outbreak (such as avian influenza) and increased costs or declining market conditions. About 2,100 BC farmers enroll in the program annually. For more information or to enrol, visit www.gov.bc.ca/AgriStability

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #AgriStability
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BC farmers and producers have until June 30 to register for AgriStability, pay their fees and secure coverage under the program. AgriStability provides support to growers with large financial declines caused by production losses as a result of extreme weather, disease outbreak (such as avian influenza) and increased costs or declining market conditions. About 2,100 BC farmers enroll in the program annually. For more information or to enrol, visit www.gov.bc.ca/AgriStability

#BCAg #countrylifeinbc #AgriStability
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2 weeks ago

A new provincial agricultural extension program is in the works, and hopes are high it heralds a fresh start for regional agricultural support in BC. Set to launch this spring, the program intends to increase engagement with producers, with a focus on climate mitigation, adaption and overall sustainability.

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Provincial extension service coming

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A new provincial extension service is in the works, an initiative applauded at an Agri-Extension and Research event organized by the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District and held at the BC Ministry of...
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2 weeks ago

A planned food hub in the Kootenay Boundary region could be a reality this fall after three years of planning, supporting local meat processing capacity in the southern Interior. “We have settled on a butcher hub with two components, a dedicated space for cut-and-wrap with Magnum Meats as the tenant and a value-added meat processing area with a smokehouse and sausage-making equipment available for daily rental," says Vicki Gee, who sits on the food hub committee. The story appears in our March edition and we've uploaded it to our website.

[Schweb Cattle Co photo]
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Butcher hub moves ahead after three years

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ROCK CREEK – A planned food hub in the Kootenay Boundary region could be a reality this fall after three years of planning, supporting local meat processing capacity in the southern Interior.
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Jessica Coburn you see this?

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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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