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Originally published:

FEBRUARY 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 2

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Stories In This Edition

CPR on ALR Track

Sea of greens

Farm properties rising

Genomics lab expands service to local growers

Editorial: Put farmers first

Back 40: Knowing when to pull back on extensions

Viewpoint: A watershed moment for BC farms

Egg producer questions support for local eggs

Milk consumption up among young minorities

Nutrient recovery system in third phase

North Saanich approves Sandown proprosal

Tsartlip acquire Woodwyn Farm with provincial help

Woodwynn Farm was first known as Mawuec

Pandemic was profitable for nursery growers

Researcher brings experience to sweet role

Consultant delivered practical advice

Tributes pour in for Island farmer Colin Springford

On-farm abattoir approved for Alberni Valley

Plans for a provincial weather network move forward

Feedlots under pressure with kill instability

If you go out in the woods today …

Round bale bounty

CFIA services get a funding boost

Help available for farm business succession

Sidebar: Considering all the options

Diversification helps farms prepare for challenges

Creston advocacy group continues push for food hub

Frind matches his love of data with grape production

Greenhouse sets example for others to follow

On-farm food networks wire farms for success

OK irrigation systems have a long history

Pemberton family farms beer with deep roots

When life gives you lemons

Personal money strategy as important as farm stragegy

Farm Story: Winter brings the distractions of technology

Well-designed vegetable coolers make for hot sales

Woodshed: Janice Newberry sets the record straight

Research: Plants can recognize attacking herbivores

Jude’s Kitchen: Super simple

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6 days 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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2 weeks 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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Help available for farm business succession

Land Matching program expands from property to businesses

“Grampa Pete” Amyoony, 80, shares smiles with Zavion Assemat. Until recently, Amyoony was uncertain about the future of his market garden and greenhouse business but Zavion’s parents now appear poised to take over. SUBMITTED PHOTO

February 1, 2021 byRonda Payne

DUNSTER – With the average age of BC farmers close to 60, retirement and farm succession is a looming issue for many operators.

Pete Amyoony, who has a small market garden and a 1,250-square-foot greenhouse on a 10-acre property in the small community of Dunster, understands what it’s like to be anxious about what the future holds.

He’s produced bedding plants and vegetables on the property since 1996, but in his mid-70s he began thinking about the future.

“I was sort of at my wit’s end,” he says. “I thought, I’ve got to do some kind of preparation and get ready for this transfer. I can’t spend five hours a day down on my knees transplanting. And I thought, I’ve got to find somebody to come here and help out or take over the place. I was in a real quandary.”

Now 80, Amyoony has nieces and nephews, but they are in Nova Scotia and have no interest in coming out west.

But 10 years ago, Yann Assemat was visiting from France and fell in love with the mountains around Dunster. He visited with Amyoony for a few months and worked on the farm. Over the years, he continued to come over from France through the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program and further explore the province. On one of these visits to BC, Assemat was touring Vancouver Island, met Katrina Agnew and got married.

“When Yann started saying, ‘Oh, I’d love to find a place around here but I don’t have much saved up,’ I said, ‘well, let’s talk about you taking over this place,’ and his eyes just lit up,” Amyoony says. “So what we’re working out is an agreement that I can stay as long as I want in my little home, which I still really love. I said, ‘Come on, let’s talk about it and see if we can make everybody winners here,’ and that’s what we’re doing.”

Home sweet home

Assemat and Agnew, originally from Prince George, and now their son Zavion, live in a yurt on the opposite side of the property from Amyoony. The couple operate the farm as Roots ‘N Thyme with Amyoony serving as “garden guru.”

“I have my privacy and they have theirs, but we share meals,” Amyoony says. “They’re here with the baby and I’m grandpa Pete.”

They also share the Internet. It’s not as good at his house, so Amyoony heads over to the yurt for better connectivity.

“They are family,” he says of Assemat and Agnew. “I’ve let them take over most of the garden space now. They added another half acre last year.”

Having someone lined up to take over his market garden gives Amyoony peace of mind, but working out the logistics of the transfer requires legal input. He’s grateful to have the support of Young Agrarians, which manages the provincial land-matching program. The program recently reached a milestone of matching 100 new farmers to 5,000 acres of land through 46 matches.

“The Young Agrarians program is just amazingly helpful in a case like this because they have legal advice and forms and that for making lease agreements, and purchase agreements and so on,” he says. “It’s really helping us. Saving us lawyer fees.”

Non-family transfer

Amyoony is lucky. He was able to find a successor on his own. For those who need assistance, the province of BC has the BC Land Matching Program, part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.

BC Land Matching program manager Darcy Smith notes landowners participate in the program because they want to make sure their land remains farmed.

“The reality is that not everyone who wants to farm can afford to buy land,” she says. “And not everyone who can afford to buy land is a farmer themselves.”

Young Agrarians’ transition toolkit for non-family farm transfers – the program Amyoony is participating in – launched in November 2020.

“We facilitate conversations. There’s lots of detail involved as well as big picture vision stuff,” Smith says. “We’re going to help people figure out what their needs might be and then how they’re going to get resources to figure that out. Referrals to lawyers, or accountants or transition specialists. That’s where we see extra support being needed.”

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