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Originally published:

March 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 3

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Stories In This Edition

Ten-year plan

Simon Answerth

Province boosts ag spending

It’s a draw!

Well registrations lag in advance of final deadline

Editorial: Vice grip

Back Forty: Snow days make good days for seed selection

Viewpoint: Farmers need to prepare for annual snow melt

Smooth start to season as foreign workers arrive

Sidebar: Province mulls piece rates

Late winter has some Okanagan growers on edge

Ag show attracts near-record attendance

Ag Briefs: Traceability funding available for producers

Ag Briefs: Cattlemen’s launches webinar series

Ag Briefs: Grant winner announced

Labour remains a priority for fruit growers

Dairy, aquaculture take home awards at gala

Farmers need to prepare for uncertainty

Ag critic listens to concerns at farmers’ institute

Growers are responsible for workers’ safety

Robotic milkers sized up during dairy tour

Safe, high-quality silage depends on preparation

Young farmers crack open new vending concept

Diversification makes orchard a landmark

Going green boosts ranch’s credibility

Ranchers need to match forage with herd needs

Tru-Grit

Reducing waste will save money on winter feed

Producers question new Indigenous rights law

Hosting TRU students a way to give back

Livestock co-op provides selling, buying options

Sidebar: Market set to stay steady

Research: Bluetongue outbreaks expected to increase

Filling a niche for gourmet mushrooms

Regulations, housing key issues in Langley

Sheep producers seeing value in genetic program

Above and beyond

Vegetation fundamental to farms, landscape

Studies continue on forage, corn crop pests

4-H BC leader singled out

Growers go with the grain of beer revival

Agri-tourism has plenty of room for growth

Rose stem girdler poses threat to cranberries

Site prep critical for healthy hazelnut orchards

Sidebar: BC renewal program opens up

Wannabe: Renewal comes with a new generation of farmers

Mentorship gives Kelowna grower a headstart

Woodshed: Deborah and Doug McLeod turn up the heat

A good place to meet up

Jude’s Kitchen: Celebrate spring by eating outside

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4 days ago

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays. ... See MoreSee Less

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays.
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Patti 😊

7 days ago

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7 days ago

The top five issues the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity identified in a recent survey were the cost of food, inflation, the cost of energy, keeping healthy food affordable and the Canadian economy. “We are seeing that environmental concerns are not in the top 10,” says Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle Association’s public and stakeholder engagement program. “If you are concerned about being able to afford to feed your family, the environment becomes less important.” ... See MoreSee Less

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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VERNON – Ranchers might be concerned about how the public sees their industry, but a producer-funded team at the Canadian Cattle Association has their back. Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle...
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1 week ago

BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million. ... See MoreSee Less

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Lake Country packing house sold

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BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million.
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Who bought it ffs ?

Ted Nedjelski Karen Turner

One of my first jobs was apple grading in a packing plant in Vernon

Vivian, is this where you worked?

I’d hear the company that owns the big Cannabis company that owns the green houses all around this packing plant was buying up everything around to expand. Wonder if it’s them that got it.

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1 week ago

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Association's preparation for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/ ... See MoreSee Less

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Associations preparation  for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/
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Going green boosts ranch’s credibility

Third-party certification helps consumers understand claims

Tristan & Aubyn Banwell

February 26, 2019 byJackie Pearase

LILLOOET – Spray Creek Ranch owners Tristan and Aubyn Banwell say becoming one of five BC farms certified by A Greener World (AGW), a five-year-old certification body based in Terrebonne, Oregon, has been worth the extra effort.

They opted for Certified Animal Welfare Approved and Certified Grassfed from AGW because it best aligns with their regenerative farming practices.

“When we looked at all of the different options for animal certifications, this is the one that most closely reflected the types of practices that we are putting in place on the farm,” Tristan Banwell explains. “The other certifications have their place but they didn’t cover all the innovative practices that we are doing on our farm. We felt this was the best match.”

The Banwells farm about 130 of their 260 acres. The ranch is home to 400 laying hens and ships 20 to 40 beef cattle to market annually, as well as 50 hogs, 2,000 chickens and 300 turkeys.

Spray Creek operates a Class D slaughter facility and uses an animal welfare-approved Class A slaughter facility for its pork and beef.

Raising multiple species makes the work more challenging when dealing with multiple types and levels of marketing boards and regulating bodies, but it works better for them than the commodity cow-calf operation that existed before they arrived in 2014.

“We had to look at ways to diversify and start direct marketing in order to be able to make a living from the farm. And that’s what we’re doing. So neither of us work off-farm. We focus 100% on our farm production,” Banwell says. “I think if we were working off farm we wouldn’t be able to move the farm forward as quickly as we are, obviously, because we dedicate all our time to it.”

The farm’s livestock is certified organic through the North Okanagan Organic Association but Banwell says third-party audits by AGW add an extra layer of trust to their business, of which three-quarters is direct-to-consumer sales.

“The fact that we have third-party audits on our practices means that consumers can look at those standards that we’re adhering to and know that the claims we’re making about our products have been verified by an independent third party,” Banwell adds.

The audits include comprehensive farm visits that look at all processes and procedures, a detailed lifecycle analysis of a product chosen at random from the farm’s receipts, and – for the animal welfare certification – witnessing a test slaughter of each species certified on the farm, and audits on any source farms supplying Spray Creek.

The paperwork required for the additional certifications is considerable but, with detailed records already required for its organic certification, expanding the farm’s record-keeping was simple.

“We feel like record-keeping is a really important part of running a business and running a farm, so we already keep really detailed and good records using different types of software tools,” Banwell explains. “So that makes our audit pretty easy.”

AGW communications and outreach director Emily Moose says AGW’s certifications, which also includes Certified Non-GMO, offer more transparency, improve customer loyalty and create more reliable markets for farmers.

Moose says sustainability to AGW refers to food production and distribution systems that work in harmony with the natural environment, ensure high animal welfare standards, provide fair and secure income for farms, and provide high-quality, nutritious and reasonably priced goods to consumers.

“Truly sustainable production systems satisfy the food needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” she says.

Lemieux Creek Ranch, Big Bear Ranch, Grassy Gnome Acres and Lost Savanna Farm are other BC producers certified by AGW, and Banwell thinks those numbers will only grow.

“It is the most rigorous and in-depth certification, I think, for animal welfare that’s available to farmers today. It’s gaining more traction in Canada,” he says.

Since starting in 2014, AGW has certified over 1,500 farms and ranches in North America, including about 150 in Canada, and over 6,000 globally. It recently launched in Europe and Africa.

“Canada currently accounts for about 10% of our work, but that rate is growing significantly and we expect that percentage to grow with the increased interest in third-party-certified labeling,” Moose says.

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