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Originally published:

November 2016
Vol. 102 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Hazelnut growers optimistic

Animal welfare bill defeated

David Schmidt honored with lifetime achievement award

Ag council recognizes civic support for farming

Urban farm seeks stable footing

This could be final harvest for Site C dam opponents

Kelowna cracks down on ALR abuse

Water workshop for farmers

Agri-food bankruptcies on low side

New roles at ministry

Early snow downgrades Peace harvest

$2.5 invested in Peace flood

BC farms stay focused on safety

Worker dies

Ranchers square off against wood rustlers

New hires to investigate ALR complaints

Opportunity as Western feelot closes

Forage trial in Central Interior

Good planning essential

Genomics will help build a better beef herd

Mobile juicer initiative inspires community outreach

K&M has different approach

Fruit growers offered incentive for safety training

Honey producers urged to stand up

Honey prices spiral down

Zombie bees

Making a case for biosolids

Saving rural areas from sludge

Biosolids: Are they safe?

Money for composting

Serotinin for milk fever

Preparing for next year’s weeds

Vineyard owners are creative

Abattoir cashing in

Room for expansion – hops

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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

2 days 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

3 days 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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The Mainland Milk Producers Association could continue its support of local communities with initiatives kickstarted in 2020. MMP president Mark Van Klei says its donation of $25,000 to Fraser Valley food banks last year aided those affected by COVID-19. The organization also sponsored two Ag in the Classroom programs in 2020 – the Pencil Patch, a working garden where K-12 schools get hands-on lessons about agriculture, and Take a Bite of BC, which delivers fresh, BC grown products five times a year to secondary schools running a culinary arts program. “Ag in the Classroom takes our dairy message right to the children’s classrooms straight across the province. I think it works really well,” Van Klei told almost 80 people attending the MMP annual general meeting via Zoom on January 8. With both initiatives getting good feedback from directors, Van Klei says they could be added to the 2021 budget. “COVID doesn’t always make it easy but we plan to work with (the BC Dairy Association) to look at making sure we can keep some of these initiatives going.” Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BC's farmers and ranchers. ... See MoreSee Less

4 days ago

The Mainland Milk Producers Association could continue its support of local communities with initiatives kickstarted in 2020. MMP president Mark Van Klei says its donation of $25,000 to Fraser Valley food banks last year aided those affected by COVID-19. The organization also sponsored two Ag in the Classroom programs in 2020 – the Pencil Patch, a working garden where K-12 schools get hands-on lessons about agriculture, and Take a Bite of BC, which delivers fresh, BC grown products five times a year to secondary schools running a culinary arts program. “Ag in the Classroom takes our dairy message right to the children’s classrooms straight across the province. I think it works really well,” Van Klei told almost 80 people attending the MMP annual general meeting via Zoom on January 8. With both initiatives getting good feedback from directors, Van Klei says they could be added to the 2021 budget. “COVID doesn’t always make it easy but we plan to work with (the BC Dairy Association) to look at making sure we can keep some of these initiatives going.” Country Life in BC is the agricultural news source for BCs farmers and ranchers.
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To advance agriculture for the future, Farm Credit Canada industry relations director Marty Seymour says the the industry must be willing to challenge conventional thinking and practices. Speaking at the Agriculture Excellence conference Farm Management Canada hosted last month, he said the sector has two easy options for doing this. One is including youth on industry boards and drawing on what they’re being taught. The other is for farm businesses to assemble boards of directors from other sectors, both inside and outside the agriculture industry, and learn from their experiences. Subscribe to buff.ly/2H3dK8k ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

To advance agriculture for the future, Farm Credit Canada industry relations director Marty Seymour says the the industry must be willing to challenge conventional thinking and practices. Speaking at the Agriculture Excellence conference Farm Management Canada hosted last month, he said the sector has two easy options for doing this. One is including youth on industry boards and drawing on what they’re being taught. The other is for farm businesses to assemble boards of directors from other sectors, both inside and outside the agriculture industry, and learn from their experiences. Subscribe to buff.ly/2H3dK8k
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Around 60 viewers attended the BC Grapegrowers’ online pruning session earlier today. After an overarching Pruning 101 presentation by Troy Osborne from Arterra, a panel of growers from across the Okanagan shared their knowledge during an open Q&A. The panel included viticulturist Miguel Fontalvo from Monte Creek Ranch Winery near Kamloops, Felix Egerer, viticulturist at Tantalus Wines in Kelowna, Ralph Suremann, longtime BCGA director from Pegasus Vineyards at Naramata and Amy Richards, 2020-elected BCGA director from Phantom Creek in Oliver. While some North Okanagan wineries won't be pruning until later in the spring, pruning is already underway further south and at Tantalus in Kelowna. The panel cautioned growers against pushing new vineyards to produce grapes too soon. Suremann says a decision to have vines produce before year three or four can result in a setback of several years, while Egerer remarked that one bad shoot thinning can harm five years of growth. BCGA says all their events are being planned online for 2021 and there’s no date yet for the AGM. ... See MoreSee Less

5 days ago

Around 60 viewers attended the BC Grapegrowers’ online pruning session earlier today. After an overarching Pruning 101 presentation by Troy Osborne from Arterra, a panel of growers from across the Okanagan shared their knowledge during an open Q&A. The panel included viticulturist Miguel Fontalvo from Monte Creek Ranch Winery near Kamloops, Felix Egerer, viticulturist at Tantalus Wines in Kelowna, Ralph Suremann, longtime BCGA director from Pegasus Vineyards at Naramata and Amy Richards, 2020-elected BCGA director from Phantom Creek in Oliver. While some North Okanagan wineries wont be pruning until later in the spring, pruning is already underway further south and at Tantalus in Kelowna. The panel cautioned growers against pushing new vineyards to produce grapes too soon. Suremann says a decision to have vines produce before year three or four can result in a setback of several years, while Egerer remarked that one bad shoot thinning can harm five years of growth. BCGA says all their events are being planned online for 2021 and there’s no date yet for the AGM.
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Hazelnut growers optimistic

November 1, 2016 byDavid Schmidt//  Leave a Comment

CHILLIWACK – The BC hazelnut industry has bottomed out, BC Hazelnut Growers’ Association director Thom O’Dell told a large group of current and potential new growers at the hazelnut field day at Helmut Hooge’s farm in Chilliwack in September.

Once flourishing in the Fraser Valley, hazelnut growers started falling on hard times when Eastern Filbert Blight invaded just over a decade ago. Since then, many long-standing orchards have been removed and the remainder are heavily infected with the incurable disease.

Seeing the writing on the wall, five (now four) Fraser Valley growers and one on Hornby Island worked with O’Dell to bring in six new EFB-resistant varieties from Oregon in tissue culture. Helped by a grant from the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC, the growers planted the first of the new trees in 2011 and another set in 2013 in a trial to see how they would perform.

Hooge is one of the participants in the trial and now has 230 Yamhill, 200 Jefferson and 70 Sacajawea trees as well as a few Eta, Theta and Gamma pollinators in his orchard.

“Every fourth tree in every third row is a pollinator,” Hooge said.

He stressed the trees are “resistant” but not immune to the disease, saying pruning can keep the disease at bay, if not eliminate it altogether.

“We started seeing some EFB in the new trees in 2013,” O’Dell reported, telling growers to apply an approved fungicide on young trees after bud break and prune out and burn any affected limbs.

Hooge has followed that strategy and his new trees show few signs of EFB despite being located right next to his heavily infected Barcelona orchard.

Both he and O’Dell say they have already learned a lot about managing the new varieties, including how and when to plant them. That was obvious in Hooge’s orchard as the 2013 plantings appear to be more vigorous and productive than the 2011 plantings, despite being two years younger.

Although this has been a good year for production, growers wrestled with what to do with their nuts. Because so many of the infected orchards have been uprooted, there were not enough nuts for John Vandenbrink, who has the only remaining commercial-scale nut dryer in the area, to run his dryer this year. Instead, most growers sent their nuts to Hooge for drying, used other small-scale dryers or shipped their nuts to Oregon for drying.

New growers

In the meantime, O’Dell and the other BCHGA directors are doing all they can to interest new growers.

“We received an agriculture enhancement grant from the Abbotsford Foundation and are partnering with the University of the Fraser Valley and a farm in Abbotsford to make the general public more aware of hazelnuts,” BCHGA president Neal Tebrinke said.

O’Dell said hazelnuts are ideal for small acreages, claiming “you can get enough nuts from two acres to get your farm status.”

Denise Parker of MNP concurred, saying hazelnuts could “help fund a farming lifestyle” and preserve farm status for capital gains exemption. She presented an enterprise budget prepared in July 2015 which suggests that even though growers can expect losses in the first three years, that will level out as the orchard comes into production. By year 20, growers will have generated a total gross margin of $40,000 per acre based on current prices.

O’Dell believes prices will only improve, noting there is a “growing (worldwide) demand for all nuts.”

There may even be an option for potential new growers who are interested in hazelnuts but may not have the time or expertise to plant and/or manage the orchard.

Custom services

James and Anthony Dick, who have years of experience growing cedar hedging, are planting five acres of hazelnuts on their own property this fall and will then offer that service to other growers.

“We have the equipment to prep and plant an orchard and will purchase harvesting equipment to offer custom work services on a per hour basis,” they said.

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