Feed available but stocks low

The outlook for feed is good this season, a year after the BC Cattlemen’s Association launched its Access to Feed program with provincial support.

BC Cattlemen’s Association general manager Kevin Boon says BC is close to an average hay crop this year.

“We are seeing [more] consistent crops throughout the province,” says BC Cattlemen’s Association general manager Kevin Boon. “The Peace is probably again one of the hardest hit, if not the hardest hit for hay, but they are getting some crops off and it’s coming in.”

The big production areas, including the Nechako, Skeena and Highway 16 corridor typically export hay but did not have any to sell last year.

Whether or not this year’s average season delivers a surplus to help replenish hay stocks will depend on whether producers get a third cut or if the province shuts down irrigators like it did last year.

“It’s that third cut that is not taken yet that is hanging in the balance for irrigated land,” Boon says.

This year, the first and only cut in dryland areas had average or above-average yields and Boon expects producers in those regions will have hay for sale.

However, few producers have been in contact with Access to Feed to offer excess hay.

“Until we start to see hay get cut, we’re not going to see anything that we can match people up with and then after even at that, [it will be] the second and third cuts before they start understanding whether they’re going to have excess out there,” Boon explains.

Producers looking to sell or buy hay can go to BCCA’s website to get an idea of the inventory in their regions. Then, a coordinator will match producers without feed with a supplier.

The Access to Feed program, led by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food and BCCA, launched July 25, 2023. BCCA worked with the BC Grain Producers, BC Dairy Association, BC Forage Council and BC Horse Council to search out feed domestically and internationally.

The province provided $150,000 to BCCA to support the program last year but just $35,000 was required.

As a result, $50,000 was allocated to the program this year, with an additional $300,000 allocated to Livestock Drought Management Workshops.

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2 days ago

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Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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6 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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7 days ago

Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.