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MARCH 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 3

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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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Flood recovery will take time

And so the clean-up begins. A fence at Copper Creek Ranch in Princeton is packed with debris from flooding that hit the area in November. [Catherine Brown photo]

December 8, 2021 byKate Ayers

The floodwaters are finally receding in the Lower Mainland, but farmers across southwestern BC now face the monumental challenge of cleaning up their properties.

Just 500 properties in the Fraser Valley remained under evacuation orders on December 7, according to the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Those farmers who have returned have been busy clearing debris, sanitizing facilities and trying to return ongoing operations to normal.

But the much larger task of disposing of carcasses, debris and preparing fields for a new growing season remains. The ministry says 626,000 poultry, 12,000 hogs and 420 dairy cattle perished in floods that hit the Lower Mainland following the extreme weather of November 13-15. The extent of losses in the Interior remains unknown.

BC agriculture minister Lana Popham plans to visit the Nicola Valley this week, weather permitting. Her federal counterpart, Marie-Claude Bibeau, also plans to visit BC in the coming days to see the damage and meet with producers.

Staff at emergency operations centres are organized into teams to assist farmers. The teams are helping producers coordinate feed and on-site care of animals and facilitate deadstock removal. Staff from the agriculture ministry are assisting with the removal of contaminated chemicals and other fertilizers, while the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy is the contact for other hazardous waste such as drywall.

Popham was unable to give an exact tally of ministry resources working with producers, but says it’s “all hands on deck” as the province moves from flood response to recovery.

Just how much work remains to be done is visible at Kane Lake Ranch west of Merritt, where John and Kate Anderson run 250 head.

The extensive damage to Highway 8, including the loss of four bridges, didn’t impact their ranch directly, but they still have plenty of cleaning up to do. Riparian improvements helped protect their property but will also require costly repairs.

“We are in a better position than a lot of people,” John told Country Life in BC. “We’ve invested significantly over the last few decades building riparian fish-friendly habitat along the river. … That helped us significantly with the flood but there is a lot of damage.”

The flooding took out fencing along the river as well as the pumphouse for their irrigation lines. In addition, John estimates that between 400 and 500 tons of hay in the Nicola Valley was lost.

“People have lost hay that they can’t retrieve … and that’s on top of a drought year,” he says.

He says government needs to provide immediate help ensuring local ranchers have access to feed, but also make long-term changes that streamline regulations governing works in riparian areas that help make the landscape and ranches more resilient.

The agriculture ministry has said it is assessing the feed resources available to support ranchers. It is also allowing for late participation in the 2021 AgriStability program. Producers who were not enrolled by December 1 can now submit claims for this year through to the end of 2022.

BC is also working with Ottawa to develop an AgriRecovery program that will provide support to producers affected by flooding and mudslides.

 

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