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Originally published:

May 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Fraser Valley bee shortage overstated

Still waiting: ag waste regs

Cannabis shift delivers hit to vegetable sector

Peter’s legacy

Editorial: The straight dope

Back Forty: Our best friend deserves greater recognitiontory

Overheard: Farmers should embrace First Nations model

Change is coming, fast and furious

Foundation effective in fueling ag projects

New meat producer association launched

Sidebar: On board

Traceability regs to include animal movement

Report recommends FN approval on tenures

Province urged to regulate farmhouse size

Dairy group highlights industry needs on tour

Ottawa plays hardball with Agassiz leases

IAF showcases innovative ag projects

Neonics in water not from farm operations

Potato growers need to exploit opportunities

Spuds in tubs

Vegetable commission optimistic

Sidebar: Variety update

MacAulay grilled over farm labour issues

Apiarists want pollination income to count

Sidebar: BCHPA launches pollinator health study

Raspberry growers increase board size

Popham meets with berry growers

Hazelnut growers flush with optimism

Ranchers schooled in disaster preparation

Westgen eyes beef semen sales for growth

Big prize money draws big entries

Holstein auction sets new sale benchmark

North 40 bull tops Vanderhoof sale

Reclaiming market share in a global economy

Day-neutrals show promise for strawberry fields

Weather skews results in Peace variety trials

Salal berries have market potential

Vole control in blueberries

Wannabe: When tragedy brings us together

Watchful eye

Woodshed Chronicles: Henderson masterminds an apology

Jude’s Kitchen: Celebrate May with beef on the ‘barbie’

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1 day ago

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details. ... See MoreSee Less

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details.
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2 weeks ago

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the province's deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed. ... See MoreSee Less

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the provinces deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed.
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Sounds like 2 weeks to flatten the curve turning into 2 years.

USDA doing avian vax research, May 11 bio-docs to UN incl section on H5N8 w/wild bird spread. Found link to apparent pre-release on May 11 Geller Report. Good luck farmers.

2 weeks ago

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.” ... See MoreSee Less

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.”
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Killing our food chain. How do we know they are actually carrying a virus, look what's taking place with covid, is it real.

Ik kan niet zo goed Engels maar als ik het goed begrijp is bij jullie ook vogelgriep maar nog niet bij jullie

Any idea when this episode or bird flu might be over?

3 weeks ago

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions. ... See MoreSee Less

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions.
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4 weeks ago

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises. ... See MoreSee Less

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises.
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Fraser Valley bee shortage overstated

Farmers, apiarists respond to claim of hive shortage and poor health

April 30, 2018 bySean Hitrec

DELTA – BC blueberry farmers and some apiarists were left scratching their heads after it was reported that there would be a sizable bee shortage in the Fraser Valley this spring.

In April, the Vancouver Sun reported that beekeepers, including “major operators from Alberta,” were refusing to send their colonies to the Fraser Valley this year due to health and honey yield concerns. The article said the high-alkaline levels of blueberry pollen, a lack of variety in forage to make a balanced diet and possible contamination from fungicides used in blueberry fields were to blame. When the bees returned to Alberta, they underperformed.

While the concerns may have some validity, blueberry farmers say the correlation between healthy bees and healthy crop yields is what makes their operations work.

“Bee health is important to every [blueberry] grower that I’ve talked to because they’re spending a lot of money on it and you want the best bang for your buck, so you want good, strong, healthy, happy bees,” says Jason Smith, fourth-generation blueberry farmer and berry consultant in the Fraser Valley.

John Gibeau, commercial beekeeping instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and president of Honeybee Centre in Surrey, says apiarists who decided not to send their bees to BC this year may be making a mistake. He recalls when apiarists would not charge anything to place their hives with blueberry growers because the bees’ health and honey was worth it.

“The beekeepers shouldn’t have given up because there are some really good years,” he says. “[Normally] the colonies go back double the strength and … they get money for it.”

When asked why some colonies have done poorly recently, fingers pointed to the wet conditions in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley during the blueberry flowering period last year.

“The spring of 2017 was among the worst springs that we have ever encountered here on the West Coast,” notes BC provincial apiarist Paul van Westendorp. “We had incessant wet weather conditions and low temperatures for months on end. I am not surprised the bees were doing poorly.”

A high-alkaline diet combined with wet weather conditions can occasionally lead to “a very manageable disease called European foul brood,” he adds. “This disease tends to pop up in colonies that are stressed due to management or poor weather, but also because of certain nutritional deficiencies that blueberry pollen offers bees.”

The effect of fungicides, which growers spray for mummy berry, is currently unknown, van Westendorp says. Growers say the use of fungicides is often guided by Integrated Pest Management protocols, which help protect good insects such as pollinators.

“Among some beekeepers, it’s become the proverbial holy mantra; they think it’s the fungicides that have caused the damage,” he says.

To address the concerns, the BC Ministry of Agriculture and other parties have offered financial support for a multi-year study involving scientists in BC and Alberta that will conduct a proper assessment of the effect particular fungicides have on colony health.

The study will begin this year as the blueberries blossom.

Wintering bees in Southern BC has been a long-time practice of beekeepers from the Prairies. As many as 40,000 hives make their way to Southern BC from as far away as Manitoba every year to take advantage of the comparatively mild winters, says van Westendorp. Most of those colonies are not involved in blueberry pollination, he says, but the apiarists find there is less risk than when the bees spend the winter east of the Rockies. The bees also get up to an extra month of forage, meaning more honey production.

“The business of adding a pollination contract to it is a more recent phenomenon that only a few have taken up,” he says.

“I have learned that, in the meantime, because of the speculative environment, that those beekeepers who do make their colonies available have been jacking up the price enormously,” he adds.

Despite the reports, the BC Blueberry Council, with a membership of more than 600 farmers, says growers are not experiencing an abnormal colony shortage.

“To our knowledge, the majority of our growers … have not expressed concern about a lack of bees to pollinate this year’s blueberry crop,” wrote BC Blueberry Council executive director Anju Gill in an open letter to media.

To the contrary, she’s been recently contacted by beekeepers who are still looking to place their hives on farms.

“I’ve had calls since some of these stories from beekeepers saying, ‘hey, our bees are available,’” she told Country Life in BC.

Though an actual hive shortage and pricing is hard to quantify for blueberry farmers who make private deals with apiarists, Gill says she’s also heard reports the price per hive has gone up dramatically for some.

“If it was about $40 to $60 per colony [in past years], I’ve even heard as high as $150 [this year],” she says.

BC Blueberry Council chair Jack Bates farms 90 acres of blueberries in Ladner. He began securing beehives in the winter from various apiarists and has not noticed a shortage. He says he doesn’t mind paying a higher price for quality colonies as the larger crops he gets from three to four hives per acre is currently worth his investment.

“It is reality when they say you don’t get fruit without bees,” he said as a nod toward the symbiotic relationship between beekeepers and blueberry farmers. In turn, Bates takes great care to protect the animals that help his crops thrive.

“When the bees are in our field, we spray at night,” he said, adding this is common practice in blueberry farming. “You don’t want to turn them off your plants.”

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