• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Country Life In BC Logo

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915

  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

Primary Sidebar

Originally published:

FEBRUARY 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 2

Subscribe Now!

Sign up for free weekly FARM NEWS UPDATES

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Country Life in BC, 36 Dale Road, Enderby, BC, V0E1V4. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Your information will not be
shared or sold ever

Stories In This Edition

CPR on ALR Track

Sea of greens

Farm properties rising

Genomics lab expands service to local growers

Editorial: Put farmers first

Back 40: Knowing when to pull back on extensions

Viewpoint: A watershed moment for BC farms

Egg producer questions support for local eggs

Milk consumption up among young minorities

Nutrient recovery system in third phase

North Saanich approves Sandown proprosal

Tsartlip acquire Woodwyn Farm with provincial help

Woodwynn Farm was first known as Mawuec

Pandemic was profitable for nursery growers

Researcher brings experience to sweet role

Consultant delivered practical advice

Tributes pour in for Island farmer Colin Springford

On-farm abattoir approved for Alberni Valley

Plans for a provincial weather network move forward

Feedlots under pressure with kill instability

If you go out in the woods today …

Round bale bounty

CFIA services get a funding boost

Help available for farm business succession

Sidebar: Considering all the options

Diversification helps farms prepare for challenges

Creston advocacy group continues push for food hub

Frind matches his love of data with grape production

Greenhouse sets example for others to follow

On-farm food networks wire farms for success

OK irrigation systems have a long history

Pemberton family farms beer with deep roots

When life gives you lemons

Personal money strategy as important as farm stragegy

Farm Story: Winter brings the distractions of technology

Well-designed vegetable coolers make for hot sales

Woodshed: Janice Newberry sets the record straight

Research: Plants can recognize attacking herbivores

Jude’s Kitchen: Super simple

More Headlines

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

1 month ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

www.countrylifeinbc.com

ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
View Comments
  • Likes: 6
  • Shares: 2
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

View Comments
  • Likes: 18
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

1 month ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
View Comments
  • Likes: 0
  • Shares: 2
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
View Comments
  • Likes: 3
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

Subscribe | Advertise

Genomics lab expands service to local growers

Horticulture, livestock sectors benefit from high-level research

The expansion of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Applied Genomics Centre in Surrey this spring will support researchers like hops breeder Mathias Schuetz in their work with local growers. PHOTO / KPU

February 2, 2021 byPeter Mitham

SURREY – The expansion of a life sciences lab at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey this spring will deliver a boost to cutting-edge agricultural research in the Fraser Valley.

KPU’s existing Applied Genomics Centre offers 750 square feet of space for various research projects focused on genetics, including a hops development program.

“One thing we found is that if you look across British Columbia, there’s not a lot of universities that are focused on agriculture. Most are focused on human health, for good reason,” says centre director Paul Adams, who identified the farm sector as a distinctive niche.

While a lot of companies could benefit from a better knowledge of livestock and crop genetics, Adams says most lack access to the tools and facilities needed to conduct high-level research.

“They just don’t have access, especially small [and] medium companies,” he says. “[We’re] helping them do research and development.”

Current projects include work with WestGen to identify bacteria responsible for mastitis in dairy cattle and develop a test individual farms can use. The lab also works with Bovitech and Semex to improve the health of cattle embryos beginning at the genetic level.

On the horticulture side, the lab has partnered with Van Belle Nursery Inc. in Abbotsford to conduct DNA fingerprinting of local hydrangeas. It is also working to analyze new hop selections as part of a breeding program for the local industry.

“The lab at KPU is a big help for us in the sense that they are able to provide us with all the chemical analysis,” says Peter Voogt of Green Flora Greenhouses Ltd. in Abbotsford, who runs trials of new selections and supplies hop growers with plants. “If we would have to farm all that out to a professional lab, it would be very costly.”

The expansion will add to the lab’s capabilities, while new funding promises to support staff salaries.

KPU allocated funding last year that will give researchers 2,400 square feet of space. The lab is also one of 16 projects shortlisted for a federal grant that could provide approximately $5 million in operating funds over the next five years. Together with $2 million worth of equipment grants from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and BC Knowledge Development Fund as well as $500,000 in industry funding, the lab will be in a stronger position to serve local growers.

“That will allow us to take what we’re doing and make it bigger and continue to build that out over the next five years,” says Adams.

KPU plant biologist Mathias Schuetz says the lab could cut the time needed to develop new hop varieties by about half. While it can take eight years of field trials to develop a promising new hop variety, the centre makes a three-year timeline realistic.

The first crosses were made in 2018 and 15 selections were planted out in 2019 in partnership with Green Flora, which has a half-acre dedicated to trials. The top performers were replanted in 2020 at Green Flora and Myrtle Meadows in Pemberton. Twenty of each selection were planted, providing enough hops for analysis. Those trials are set to continue this year.

The analysis takes place at the KPU lab.

“Their goal is to come up with new varieties that give unique flavours,” says Adams. “In the process of creating these new hops, they also want to create ones that grow better in our environment, that are less susceptible to some of the local diseases that are unique here to British Columbia. … We’re involved using genetics as well as chemical analysis to guide this process.”

Developing locally adapted hop varieties is important because most new varieties are the result of private breeding programs. Those programs typically patent the new varieties, limiting access.

This has prompted interest among BC growers in varieties the local industry can call its own and potentially offer for export. While some local researchers have investigated the potential of domesticating feral varieties, Schuetz is focusing on genetics obtained from the US Department of Agriculture’s breeding program. It’s publicly funded and makes its repository of genetic material available to researchers.

“We decided, let’s make a breeding program here,” says Schuetz. “Let’s build something here for our local industry, something that is value-added, that was developed here.”

Both government and industry, led by the BC Hop Growers Association, have rallied around the vision.

The research has already held plenty of surprises for Schuetz. While mildew resistance as well as oil content, aroma and flavour intensity are all important traits, one of the seedlings produced from the early crosses exhibited dwarfing characteristics. This is of interest to Schuetz because it could lead to the development of alternative production systems.

“We have big tall trellising systems,” he says. “Maybe there’d be a market for a dwarf variety that didn’t affect yield, [was] easier [to] harvest, less infrastructure costs.”

A successful selection also has to appeal brewers and consumers.

“It has to be something that brewers can use. It has to be something that allows them to make a unique beer style, or has a value-add to them,” says Schuetz. “They have to be easily growable, and have good yields and make financial sense for the farmer, and also have to be good for the consumer.”

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

KPU genomics lab expands

Westgen looks beyond challenges

Pilot program bridges the extension gap for Gulf Island farmers

Vet shortage persists

Raspberry traits assigned values

Cherry growers discuss trade

Research association mulls future

Peace funds start flowing

Previous Post: « CPR on ALR track
Next Post: Growers scramble for flights »

Copyright © 2023 Country Life in BC · All Rights Reserved