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Originally published:

NOVEMBER 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Down to the crunch

Producer prices on the rise

Feeling burned

Groundwater users could lose rights next year

The right thing

Editorial: Freedom worth having

Back 40: The battle continues long after the war is over

Viewpoint: Stories bridge the gap between producers, consumers

Growers wrestle with irrigation upgrades

Wildfire 2021

Abbotsford updates farmland policies

Stormy skies

Ag Briefs: Douglas Lake “right to roam” challenge dismissed

Ag Briefs: Creston food hub opens

Ag Briefs: Food processors receive funding

Ag Briefs: Vanderspek appointed

Summerland grape specialists retire

Grapevine virus spread threatens BC industry

Caught in the act

Abbotsford sheep grower honoured

Tag readers help with livestock recordkeeping

RegenBC kicks off agritech network

Producers silent on Columbia River Treaty impacts

Cranberry fields forever

Manitoba farmers make dreams a reality

Enderby dairy is anything but conventional

Improvement to classification services explored

Up close and personal

Partnering with farmers to reduce food loss

Sidebar: Upcycled food

Slow and steady wins the day for irrigation

Research: Study takes soil health to the next level

Nelson farm builds soil and local community

Cash flow analysis is key to resilience

New app zeroes in on reducing lost produce

Sidebar: Food hub offers room to grow

Farm Story: To hoard or not to hoard: that is the question

Bursary benefits rising farm professionals

Woodshed: So much for a little peace and quiet

Saanichton Farm receives Century Farm award

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall Flavours

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4 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

1 month 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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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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Groundwater users could lose rights next year

Unlicensed water could be reallocated to new users

Okanagan Irrigation. A vineyard gets irrigated at dusk in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada.

November 1, 2021 byPeter Mitham

VERNON – This summer’s dry weather resulted in a record number of restrictions on water use across southern BC, underscoring just how tapped out some basins are.

Salmon River remained at drought level 5 last month – the most severe under the province’s new six-tier drought rating system – even after the autumn rains arrived. The Upper Nicola was rated 4, only slightly better, with irreversible harm to aquatic life still possible.

With the province standing firm on a deadline of March 1, 2022 for existing non-domestic well owners to license their wells, a renewed push is taking place to make sure those wells are licensed. If they don’t, users in watersheds such as Bessette Creek in the North Okanagan, could find themselves out of luck.

“If you’re in an area like that, it’s going to be difficult to get a licence, because most of those streams are already fully recorded,” says Andrew Petersen, a water management specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries who addressed the Abbotsford-based Centre for Organizational Governance in Agriculture on October 7. “You’d basically have to prove your groundwater well is not connected to the river to get your application through the door.”

The scenarios facing well owners in other areas of the province after March 1, 2022 are no less daunting. Users who have not applied for a licence will have effectively relinquished their historical rights, and the province will treat them as new users. This means their existing water rights will be reallocated to new applicants on a first come, first serve basis – the guiding principle of the first in time, first in right system BC has enjoyed since water rights were first regulated under the Gold Fields Act of 1858.

“You will lose your historic rights, you will lose your fee waiver, and depending on where you are, you may have a very difficult time getting that licence,” says Petersen, calling out the four watersheds where fish protection orders were issued this summer — the Bessette, West Kettle, Koksilah and Salmon. “They’re very drought-stricken. The chance of getting a new water use licence is going to be very, very low. So I’m really, really pushing hard to get producers to apply before deadline on that existing use.”

Yet the deadline doesn’t mean the taps will be turned off if users haven’t applied for a licence.

“It’s not going to be a mass send all the [compliance officers] out tomorrow to go find people. We’re told that’s not going to be happening,” says Petersen, noting that the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development has not hired more staff for enforcement.

This undermines the credibility of the new licensing regime, says Ted van der Gulik, president of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.

During the recent provincial budget consultation, he urged government to allocate an extra $30 million per year for water management at FLNORD. This would include $11 million to hire staff to process licence applications, and $4.5 million for enforcement.

“The No. 1 thing is the province doesn’t have enough enforcement staff, and the province has not followed [up] on enforcement if you don’t have a licence,” he says. “If you’re not enforcing … guys that are flagrantly going against the act, and you’re not doing anything about it, why should I bother applying for a licence?”

While enforcement puts people out of business and is politically unpalatable, van der Gulik says sooner or later the province will have no choice.

One watershed he’s familiar with has seen new licence applications turned down based on the volume of current use, including one by a farmer who drilled a well expecting to be approved. The watershed currently has 270 registered wells, including more than 35 for irrigation. But just two have applied for licences.

“If I was that farmer, and I’ve got all this money invested in a well that I can’t use, I’m applying again on March 1, even though they turned me down on that previous application,” he says. “When I apply on March 1, the province cannot shut me down or turn my application away unless they shut down all the non-domestic users in that aquifer that have not applied, and so far it looks like there’s hundreds of them.”

While this situation may be extreme, it’s not uncommon.

According to Petersen, the province estimates that there are about 8,000 agricultural wells in the province. Of these, 2,700 have applied for groundwater licences. This works out to 34%, or more than triple the rate for all other sectors combined, which have filed just 1,300 licence applications. All told the province expects to licence 20,000 wells.

“Agriculture’s the shining star when it comes to the applications for existing groundwater. We really pushed hard, especially BC Cattlemen’s at the beginning,” says Petersen. “Agriculture’s done a very good job of trying to get out and get those applications in.”

 

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