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Originally published:

APRIL 2020
Vol. 106 Issue 4

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Stories In This Edition

Sheep labour

Growers scramble for workers

Province implements Bill 15

Farmers’ markets help communities recover

Looking ahead

Back 40: Food security demands out-of-box thinking

Viewpoint: Government needs to step up farm support

Groundwater bill causes confusion for Island farmer

Cannabis expansion goes up in smoke

Dairy producers surveyed on regulation impact

Institute keeps ALR changes on the front burner

Organic growers face mainstream competition

Egg producers reflect on productive year

Better together: Broilers, hating eggs collaborate

A job well done

Turkey growers see slow demand for birds

Dairy driving increase in semen sales

Beef conference BC-bound

Dairy producers rail against new transport rules

Beef industry looks beyond pandemic

Abattoirs required to cut back overtime

Tax credit review

Cattlemen take their concerns to Ottawa

Cattle sales an essential service

Funding will help farmers address nutrient runoff

Manure management guide updated for small-lot farmers

Potato growers optimistic

Hazelnut growers survey indsutry

Cherry growers focus on export opportunities

Weather woes drive cranberry yields lower

NFU highlights role for ag in climate crisis

Research: Reducing dairy production’s carbon footprint

Independent corn trials a priority for group

Silage management must be taken seriously

Brewing a local future

Orchardists urged to work smarter, not harder

Breakout sessions take growers deeper

Farm News: With spring comes a field of dreams

BCAFM considers Alberta vendors in border markets

Woodshed: Kenneth reaches a new low in the Bahamas

Authentic stories will resonate with consumers

Jude’s Kitchen: Food for holy days

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9 hours ago

Farmland Advantage is receiving a $445,000 grant from the federal government. The program, the “brainchild” of Invermere cattle rancher Dave Zehnder, provides compensation to farmers for their conservation efforts to protect BC’s grasslands, riparian areas and wildlife habitat. The funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada under the Species at Risk Partnerships on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) and Priority Places programs, will be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas appeared in our March 2022 edition and you can view it at ... See MoreSee Less

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Rewarding farmers for enhancing riparian areas

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INVERMERE – Farmers and ranchers in the Columbia Valley will continue to see rewards for taking action to conserve and enhance important riparian areas on their farms. The Windermere District Farmer...
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5 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

2 months 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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Groundwater bill causes confusion for Island farmer

Paying a municipal fee didn’t prevent a provincial bill

April 1, 2020 byPeter Mitham

NORTH SAANICH – A farmer in North Saanich is questioning how the province charges farmers for groundwater after registering his well and being billed for drawing water – even though his farm is on municipal water.

Hamish Crawford grows wheat, grapes and a small amount berries and eggs on his 10-acre farm north of Victoria. The grapes are used by the family’s estate winery while the other produce supports an on-farm bakery and bistro. Collectively known as the Roost Farm Centre, it claims to be the province’s only on-farm bakery.

Crawford’s daughter Sarah and her husband Dallas Boll run the Roost. Crawford focuses on the farming side. When he and other local producers saw that the province was moving ahead with a new system for managing groundwater, he wanted to do the right thing. The fact the government was waiving the fee for registering existing wells and applying for a licence to use groundwater was an incentive.

“I made an application for a license to use well water last year as the information I had indicated that the registration fee would be waived if I applied sooner than later,” he says.

Like many other growers, Crawford found the application process difficult so FrontCounter BC, which is coordinating the initiative, put him in touch with someone who walked him through it. The well was registered, and Crawford thought nothing more of it. His primary source of water is the system run by the local municipality.

The well is one of an estimated 20,000 in BC that the province has been trying to register since the new Water Sustainability Act took effect in 2016. The new act introduced a first-in-time, first-in-right system designed to help manage groundwater. Registered wells maintain their historical priority in the event of groundwater restrictions. Well owners who don’t register by March 1, 2022 must pay an application fee and lose their priority in the new regime.

But rights need to be exercised, and in early March the province sent Crawford a bill for $191.94. The fee reflected groundwater used since February 29, 2016, when the new regime came into place. Since the well existed, according to the province, Crawford must be using it.

Groundwater used for non-domestic purposes is subject to a minimum annual fee of $50. The rate reflects a rate of $0.85 per 1,000 cubic metres. Well owners who have registered their wells and use less than $60 of water a year – not uncommon for small farms like Crawford’s – receive a bill once every three years. By the end of March, the province estimated it had collected fees totalling nearly $2 million from 920 groundwater licences. The majority, $1.7 million, is for water drawn from existing wells.

Crawford, who already pays North Saanich for the water it delivers to his farm, was shocked.

“We are hooked up to the municipal water system and get the agricultural rate, so I do not require well water,” he says.

When he complained to FrontCounter BC, he was given the option to withdraw his application, which he promptly did. He plans to have the well capped to avoid being charged for the water he hasn’t been using.

According to the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, 56 other applications have been either abandoned or withdrawn. This is about 1% of the 5,000 applications received for groundwater licences.

Just how many of those wells are providing water alongside municipal systems is unknown.

Crawford, for his part, feels the province needs to do a better job of explaining the new system to growers.

I don’t think it’s been explained very well,” he says. “I suspect there’s a lot of farmers out there that have just been in denial or not looking at it, and all of a sudden they’re going to get this bill and ask what’s going on.”

 

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Slow drip on groundwater licences

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