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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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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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Congratulations!!!

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Congratulations Duncan and Jane Trott Barnett Well deserved recognition

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Congratulations to Duncan, Jane, and all the rest of the Barnett family!

Congratulations Duncan and Jane!!

Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

Congratulations Jane & Duncan 🥳

Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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2 weeks ago

Grapegrower Colleen Ingram, who was recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association. “Given the devastation we have had over the last three years, I feel like this award should be given to the entire industry,” she says. Her story appears in the June edition of Country Life in BC, and we've also posted to our website.

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Industry champion named BC’s best grape grower

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KELOWNA – Colleen Ingram’s enthusiasm for collaboration within the BC wine industry is so great that when she was named 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association, she wanted to sh...
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2 months ago

From orchard manager to government specialist and now executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association, Adrian Arts brings a rare blend of hands-on farming experience and organizational leadership to an industry poised for renewal. His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BC fruit growers, with Arts expressing enthusiasm about continuing the momentum built by his predecessor and working alongside a board that signals a generational shift in agricultural advocacy.

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Arts leads BCFGA forward

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A combination of organizational management and practical farming experience has primed the new executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association to lead the industry forward.
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2 months ago

A public consultation is now underway on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board. Key issues for dairy producers include transportation costs, rules governing shipments and limitations on supporting processing initiatives. Stakeholders have until May 31 to comment.

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Milk board undertakes review

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A public consultation on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board is underway as part of a triennial review required by the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board Regulation.
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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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