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Originally published:

JANUARY 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 1

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Stories In This Edition

Full moon rising

New year, new era

Insurance premiums soar

Popham looks forward to a new term

Editorial: New openings

Back 40: New farmers are a crop worth growing

Viewpoint: Let’s get real about mental wellness on the farm

Trade issues, pandemic dog dairy producers

Dairy associations pull through challenging year

Second wave of pandemic hits close to home

Grain producers mark one of their worst harvests

Grower takes issue with groundwater limits

Grape phylloxera found on Vancouver Island

Pioneering entomologist remembered

Leasing farmland a vital strategy for farmers

Raspberry growers tackle new pest challenge

Province comes through with replant money

Pacific Ag Show embraces the digital realm

Berries, berries and more berries

Sidebar: Short course continues to educate growers

Green shoots on the vegetable front

Gala closes out opening day

Ag innovation day

The show must go on

CannaTech West returns

Optimism follows on the heels of 2020’s challenges

Rotational grazing improves soil health

Taking the guesswork out of herd management

Research: Highly sensitive pigs help solve soybean allergies

Bill Awmack honoured with leadership award

Farmers put electric tractors to the test

Kootenay farm advisors resume field days

Kelowna school embraces new container farm

Farm Story: Winter is a good time to problem-solve

Farm women encouraged to take a stand

Woodshed: Breaking the good (and not so good) news

Uncertainty prevails for BC fairs in new year

Jude’s Kitchen: Leftovers re-imagined make tasty meals

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Vancouver council has rejected a bid to subdivide some of its only land within the Agricultural Land Reserve. The 8-acre site at 7520 Balaclava Street is home to an unused horse paddock and the former Celtic Shipyards. Vancouver council chose not to forward the application to the Agricultural Land Commission because subdivision would create lots that were too small at a site with multiple environmental and geotechnical issues. The cultural significance of the site to the Musqueam First Nation was also a consideration. ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

Vancouver council has rejected a bid to subdivide some of its only land within the Agricultural Land Reserve. The 8-acre site at 7520 Balaclava Street is home to an unused horse paddock and the former Celtic Shipyards. Vancouver council chose not to forward the application to the Agricultural Land Commission because subdivision would create lots that were too small at a site with multiple environmental and geotechnical issues. The cultural significance of the site to the Musqueam First Nation was also a consideration.
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Let’s hope someone with an Ag vision buys the property..

Seasonal workers continue to benefit from BC’s acclaimed publicly funded quarantine program, which covers the cost of meals and accommodations for incoming foreign workers during their mandatory self-isolation period. To date this year, 14 incoming workers have tested positive for COVID-19, with nine remaining in isolation and five cleared to work on BC farms. "Through this program, we have been able to help preserve our province’s food supply by ensuring local food continues to be grown and harvested throughout the pandemic,” the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries told Country Life in BC. "The program is regarded as best practice by other jurisdictions and the province is continuing with the self-isolation program for 2021 without significant changes." Subscribe to Country Life in BC at buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

Seasonal workers continue to benefit from BC’s acclaimed publicly funded quarantine program, which covers the cost of meals and accommodations for incoming foreign workers during their mandatory self-isolation period. To date this year, 14 incoming workers have tested positive for COVID-19, with nine remaining in isolation and five cleared to work on BC farms. Through this program, we have been able to help preserve our province’s food supply by ensuring local food continues to be grown and harvested throughout the pandemic,” the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries told Country Life in BC. The program is regarded as best practice by other jurisdictions and the province is continuing with the self-isolation program for 2021 without significant changes. Subscribe to Country Life in BC at buff.ly/2ReiFur
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Federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has awarded $6 million to Vancouver-based Enterra Feed Corp. through the federal AgriInnovate program to develop a full-scale commercial facility north of Calgary for the production of insect-based feed ingredients. The new facility handles more than 130 tonnes of food waste per day and feeds it to the larvae of black soldier flies. The larvae are harvested and processed for use in feed products for poultry, pets and wild birds. The first of its kind in Canada, the facility ships products across North America as well as to the EU. Country Life in BC is the agricultural new source for BC's farmers and ranchers. ... See MoreSee Less

6 days ago

Federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has awarded $6 million to Vancouver-based Enterra Feed Corp. through the federal AgriInnovate program to develop a full-scale commercial facility north of Calgary for the production of insect-based feed ingredients. The new facility handles more than 130 tonnes of food waste per day and feeds it to the larvae of black soldier flies. The larvae are harvested and processed for use in feed products for poultry, pets and wild birds. The first of its kind in Canada, the facility ships products across North America as well as to the EU. Country Life in BC is the agricultural new source for BCs farmers and ranchers.
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Cammy Lockwood, great news for Enterra

CP Rail’s plans for a new logistics facility on 100 acres of farmland in Pitt Meadows is facing opposition from neighbours, who question the impact of the project on their community and local agriculture. Close to 100 residents questioned CP representatives in an online open house this week but received few definitive answers. The project is exempt from Agricultural Land Commission and local government approval. Results of a survey that closes today will be made public in March, with mitigation measures of the project provided this summer. Construction could begin in 2026 if federal authorities approve. Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BC's farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

CP Rail’s plans for a new logistics facility on 100 acres of farmland in Pitt Meadows is facing opposition from neighbours, who question the impact of the project on their community and local agriculture. Close to 100 residents questioned CP representatives in an online open house this week but received few definitive answers. The project is exempt from Agricultural Land Commission and local government approval. Results of a survey that closes today will be made public in March, with mitigation measures of the project provided this summer. Construction could begin in 2026 if federal authorities approve. Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BCs farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur
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The BC Ministry of Agriculture has announced a new round of funding this week to support more community projects aimed at protecting the health and habitat of bees. The Bee BC program provides up to $5,000 to fund smaller-scale, community-based projects enhancing bee health throughout the province. Since launching in 2018, Bee BC has contributed almost $280,000 to 62 projects. The last round of 24 approved projects projects ranged from providing education in communities to planting bee-specific forage to using innovation and technology to help protect and ensure bee health in BC. The program is administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation. Check out the program guide for more information: buff.ly/3bCMzSW ... See MoreSee Less

1 week ago

The BC Ministry of Agriculture has announced a new round of funding this week to support more community projects aimed at protecting the health and habitat of bees. The Bee BC program provides up to $5,000 to fund smaller-scale, community-based projects enhancing bee health throughout the province. Since launching in 2018, Bee BC has contributed almost $280,000 to 62 projects. The last round of 24 approved projects projects ranged from providing education in communities to planting bee-specific forage to using innovation and technology to help protect and ensure bee health in BC. The program is administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation. Check out the program guide for more information: https://buff.ly/3bCMzSW
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Grower takes issue with groundwater limits

Intended use governs water licences

Oliver grape grower Hans Buchler says the province's decision to license groundwater use to crop unfairly limits his management and diversification options. photo / tom walker

January 1, 2021 byTom Walker

OLIVER – When Hans Buchler and his wife bought the land for their 18 acres of vineyard almost 40 years ago, one of the attractions was the water.

“There is a good well on the property, which was important,” he says. “When I talked to the district of Oliver, they told me it would be difficult and expensive to pump water up here, and there still isn’t a purveyor connection up to this bench.”

The bench sits north of Oliver in the shadow of McIntyre Bluff. The sandy soil supports grape vines for Covert Farms, Andrew Peller Ltd. and Okanagan Crush Pad. Buchler’s own vines are nestled in small pockets among rocky cliffs. When you notice the dry grasses and the antelope and rabbit brush popping up between the rocks, it is hard to imagine cultivating any crop without water. Indeed, the surface water rights on the property extend back to 1898.

But in order to tap groundwater under the new licensing regime the province introduced in 2016, Buchler has to specify the crop he intends to irrigate. He feels that backs him into a corner.

“When I began discussing my application with FrontCounter, I was told that my licence has to be tied to the crop that I currently grow, my grapes,” he says.

He feels this ignores the historic uses of the property, which in the past has supported livestock, forage and vegetable production. By licensing to crop, as the practice is known, he says FrontCounterBC is unfairly constraining him.

“Wine is a luxury item,” he says. “With the realities of climate change and food security, we may need this land for growing vegetables. I’ve had livestock here in the past and have even grown forage.”

Jeff Nitychoruk, senior water stewardship officer for Okanagan-Shuswap with the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, says groundwater allocations are tied to crop under section 30 of the Water Sustainability Act.

“If we were to issue a license that was designed for maximum allocation for forage, regardless of what was being grown, we would be setting people up for non-compliance of section 30,” he says.

Buchler filed his licence application three and a half years ago, in June 2017. The water use calculator the province provides applicants directed him to seek a licence for an annual allocation of 42,400 cubic metres for each of his two parcels. But that’s less than half the allocation he would need if he was growing apples.

FrontCounterBC says applicants can simply apply for a new groundwater licence if they change crops, but Buchler says it’s an expensive undertaking. Given the province’s duty to consult other stakeholders, he worries there wouldn’t be enough water to spare if he went back and asked for more.

“The amount of proof you would have to provide through environmental assessments and aquifer assessments would make it pretty much impossible for most farmers,” he says. “You are talking tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to have that type of assessment performed.”

Buchler believes that his surface water source, Park Rill Creek, is already over-allocated.

“I expect that I would be told that there was no more water volume available,” he says. “In very dry summers in the past, we have nearly run out of water.”

He also worries that a new license would jeopardize his first-in-time/first-in-right status.

Changing viticultural practices may also affect water demand. The growing adoption of organic practices in the Okanagan and Similkameen could see greater extractions to enhance cover crops and control emerging challenges such as red blotch virus.“There are several studies that are showing that doubling the amount of water for diseased vines helps control the virus for a time,” says Buchler.

Watering is cheaper than pulling up and replanting an entire vineyard with virus-free stock and waiting the three years before the vines are in full production. But the new groundwater regime isn’t flexible enough to accommodate such shifts, he contends.

“The people at FLNRORD who are administering the water licensing program seem to be completely out of touch with the needs of the farming community,” he says. “They have told us that our traditional water rights can be grandfathered in, which in my mind means that I would get to keep the volume of water that I now have.”

But that was never the intention of the legislation says Mike Wei, a consultant who was the province’s technical expert during development of the Water Sustainability Act and the Groundwater Protection Regulation.

“Grandfathering” is not a term found in the legislation, and staff are discouraged from using the word in explaining the licensing process to applicants, he says.

Buchler could appeal, but there is a catch.

“They have told me that I can appeal the allotment in my license, but of course I have to get the license first.”

With files from Peter Mitham

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