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Originally published:

OCTOBER 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 10

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Stories In This Edition

Feeling the heat on water

Good grapes

Province funds hazelnuts

Farmers left in lurch by risk-averse insurers

Fresh marketing

Editorial: A familiar problem

Back 40: Climate change action depends on political will

Viewpoint: UN Food Systems Summit sets an ambiguous agenda

Province falls short on dam safety oversight

All the elements

Orchard industry awaits government report

Sidebar: Competitiveness fund on hold

Ag Briefs: Collins wins gold for food security column

Ag Briefs: Agrologist and sector champion dies

Ag Briefs: Kelowna approves land exclusion

Ag Briefs: BC on watch for hornets

Province begins wildfire recovery payments

Beef sector sees strong demand

Thanks for the support

BC-bred females sell well in fall production sale

Sheep producers monitoring for bluetongue

Columbia River Treaty impacts reviewed

Summer weather takes toll on OK fruit

Cheesemakers felt the heat this summer

Housing rules continue to challenge farmers

National plant health lab gets new director

All’s gourd – pumpkins not squashed by heat

Female ranchers excited for mentorship opportunities

Island project establishes baseline for bugs

Show me the money!

Corn trial provides options for changing climate

High heat, low pest pressure test corn plantings

Research: Breeding a better, more nutritious apple

4-H BC: 4-H event helps develop future community leaders

Farm Story: Carrots offer a peaceful break

Plow match perseveres despite pandemic

Woodshed: There’s more than truck trouble with Delta Faye

Mesh covers control vegetable pests

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall weather calls for cool comfort food

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4 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

1 month 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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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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Feeling the heat on water

Groundwater licensing extension remains unlikely

October 1, 2021 byPeter Mitham

DUNCAN – The province is facing pushback over its water management strategy following four fish protection orders this summer, a management tool that runs counter to its troubled groundwater licensing initiative.

Two years ago, agricultural irrigators in the Kokilah River watershed became the first to have water access curtailed under Section 88 of the Water Sustainability Act, which also introduced a first-in-time, first-in-right licensing regime.

This summer, farmers in the Koksilah and three other watersheds – the Bessette, West Kettle and Salmon – saw protection orders issued with little notice, effectively cutting them off overnight from water extractions through September 30 (access was restored in the Bessette Creek watershed September 8). Violators faced the prospect of a million-dollar fine or up to a year in jail for breaching the orders.

But many are criticizing the government for going against the spirit of its own laws.

“The WSA is fundamentally a first-in-time, first-in-right act,” says Mike Wei, the province’s former deputy comptroller of water rights who now works as an independent consultant. “When you do a Section 88 fish protection order, you’re always cherry-picking, which takes a lot of staff time and politics. … They try to pick the politically least-impactful users.”

But in the case of livestock producers, the production impacts are significant even if the political impacts aren’t.

Cowichan dairy farmers voluntarily developed an irrigation schedule in order to maintain water access in the Koksilah watershed this summer but still found themselves cut off in mid-August.

“A fish protection order was still issued despite their best efforts, impacting forage production in an already challenging season,” says BC Dairy Association executive director Jeremy Dunn. “BC Dairy has made the case to government that long-term solutions are urgently needed to maintain critical water supply for agriculture and conservation.”

But that’s exactly what the Water Sustainability Act is meant to do. By arbitrarily cutting off the very users they’re trying to sign onto a system based on seniority, the province is effectively undermining confidence in the system.

“You can’t just rely on this one tool when the act is fundamentally based on a seniority system,” says Wei. “They probably do it because they don’t have everybody in the licensing fold yet. … Once the deadline’s over and they get a better handle on it, they can’t keep relying on Section 88. That’s just not fair.”

Wei coauthored a report earlier this year on the province’s challenges implementing its groundwater licensing regime for the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC. He says the partnership will be briefing government this fall on its concerns.

As of August 31, the province had received just 4,164 licence applications for existing wells. This is up from approximately 4,000 a year ago, despite the province announcing that no further extensions to the application deadline for existing users – set at February 28, 2022 – passes.

The province has been trying to register and license upwards of 20,000 wells since 2016, but has issued little more than 1,200 licences.

BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development received an extra $11 million in this year’s provincial budget to support the activities of its regional offices, which are on the front lines of the licensing process, but competing priorities mean results to date have been scant.

It’s not just growers who are affected. Retail and hospitality ventures are also vulnerable, endangering a broad cross-section of rural businesses.

In addition, the province says access to dugouts will also be cut off, though it has paused consultations with ranchers regarding a new livestock watering regulation.

The slow pace of licensing concerns the BC Cattlemen’s Association, which has noted a subtle shift in tone with respect to water conservation. Requests are no longer framed as voluntary.

“Now the province’s letters read, ‘We are requesting water users reduce their water use by …’ whereas before it encouraged licenced users to ‘voluntarily reduce their water use,’” says BCCA assistant general manager Elaine Stovin.

During this summer’s restrictions, the association asked the province to let ranchers access streams to fight fires on their properties, which would help protect valuable range.

Despite the changes, BCCA says the pilot of a six-tier drought rating system for the province has gone smoothly. On this point, at least, it’s in agreement with the ministry.

“Overall, we feel implementation of the new drought-rating system has been a success,” a statement from FLNORD told Country Life in BC. “There will be an internal review this fall to determine if any updates or changes are required for the classification system.”

 

 

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