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Originally published:

June 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 6

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Stories In This Edition

A Taste of Spring

Flooding wallops southern interior

Ottawa wires CAP cash

Minimum wage hike squeezes farm margins

Editorial: The new democracy

Back Forty: Horgan on receiving end of pipeline challenge

Viewpoint: BC has led country in national check-off support

New chair appointed to land commission

Richmond expands farmhouse provisions

Demand for land drives farmland values higher

Biosolids raise a stink with neighbours

Rising wine sales boost demand for red grapes

Game-changer on dividend splitting

Mushroom merger

Wildfire, flood review has First Nations focus

Sidebar: Snapshot of recommendations

Labour tops issues as hothouse growers meet

Growers on look-out for activists

Antimicrobial lockdown

Ag briefs: Island farmers on lookout for armyworm

Ag briefs: AgSafe elects new chair

Ag briefs: No flood of licences

Ag briefs: Direct delivery

Hops revival gains traction with feds

Wildfire top concern of grape growers

Sidebar: Preparing for fires in the Okanagan

Nuffield scholars

Two studies promise to ensure slaughter capacity

Sidebar: Consultation schedule

Oversight sought

Bumper crop of invasive weeds after wildfires

Elk sights have producers concerned

Guichon heads back to life on the ranch

Research: Grazing cattle the sustainable way

Farmers markets focus on cultivating trust

Veggie days open house

Co-ops offer values-based alternatives

Region focuses on boosting local food usage

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Growing opportunity

Garden City project breaks sustainable ground

Weevils pose challenges

Protecting pollinators key for crop yields

Wannabe: Keeping up with the times

Young farmers turn on, tune in and download

Woodshed: Kenneth has another go at the Massey

4-H BC thanks partners for their support

Jude’s Kitchen: Co-op food

 

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The Greenery Garden Centre opened on Friday, the earliest ever for the Kelowna nursery. Head grower Bob Hackman says they grew more tropicals this winter to meet increased demand. On Friday, shoppers lined up to get a touch of spring. Growing out more tropicals from smaller plants brought up from the coast was completed to keep retail costs affordable while still generating some profit. Some of the plants were started last August. Typically, the greenhouse opens the third week in March. Subscribe to our monthly newspaper, the agricultural news source for BC's farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

8 hours ago

The Greenery Garden Centre opened on Friday, the earliest ever for the Kelowna nursery. Head grower Bob Hackman says they grew more tropicals this winter  to meet increased demand. On Friday, shoppers lined up to get a touch of spring. Growing out more tropicals from smaller plants brought up from the coast was completed to keep retail costs affordable while still generating some profit. Some of the plants were started last August. Typically, the greenhouse opens the third week in March. Subscribe to our monthly newspaper, the agricultural news source for BCs farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur
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Day one of the BC Cherry Growers Association's annual general meeting today saw the entire board acclaimed in their current positions: president Sukhpaul Bal, Valley Orchards, Kelowna; vice president David A. Geen, Jealous Fruits, Lake Country; secretary Graem Nelson, Consolidated Fruit Packers, Creston; treasurer Erin Carlson, Savanna Ridge Orchard, Carajou Fruit Fruit Company, Summerland, and directors at large Harman Bahniwal, Ravi Dhaliwal, Dr. David H. Geen, Richard Isaacs, Dariel Trottier and Neal Van Der Helm. The association represents over 120 BC cherry growers or about 90% of all growers in the province. Subscribe to Country Life in BC in time to receive our March paper, in the mail next week. buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago

Day one of the BC Cherry Growers Associations annual general meeting today saw the entire board acclaimed in their current positions: president Sukhpaul Bal, Valley Orchards, Kelowna; vice president David A. Geen, Jealous Fruits, Lake Country; secretary Graem Nelson, Consolidated Fruit Packers, Creston; treasurer Erin Carlson, Savanna Ridge Orchard, Carajou Fruit Fruit Company, Summerland, and directors at large Harman Bahniwal, Ravi Dhaliwal, Dr. David H. Geen, Richard Isaacs, Dariel Trottier and Neal Van Der Helm. The association represents over 120 BC cherry growers or about 90% of all growers in the province. Subscribe to Country Life in BC in time to receive our March paper, in the mail next week. https://buff.ly/2ReiFur
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Nine post-secondary institutions have signed on with the province’s FeedBC program, with a goal to increasing the use of BC food on campus to 30%. The program is already in place at a number of regional health authorities, including Interior Health, Fraser Health and Northern Health. The nine schools represent some of the largest post-secondary institutions in BC, which number 25 province-wide. The participation of post-secondary institutions was made possible through a partnership with the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, highlighting the inter-ministry focus on agriculture under the new BC NDP government formed last fall. Subscribe to the print edition of Country Life in BC: buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago

Nine post-secondary institutions have signed on with the province’s FeedBC program, with a goal to increasing the use of BC food on campus to 30%. The program is already in place at a number of regional health authorities, including Interior Health, Fraser Health and Northern Health. The nine schools represent some of the largest post-secondary institutions in BC, which number 25 province-wide. The participation of post-secondary institutions was made possible through a partnership with the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, highlighting the inter-ministry focus on agriculture under the new BC NDP government formed last fall. Subscribe to the print edition of Country Life in BC: buff.ly/2ReiFur
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Ottawa is developing plans to quarantine incoming seasonal workers at no additional cost to farmers, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said today. While non-essential travellers will be required to quarantine at a hotel as of February 22, foreign farm workers can continue to their usual quarantine location until mid-March, when Ottawa will announce its quarantine plan for them. Bibeau told Country Life in BC today that Ottawa is budgeting $2,000 per worker, but this amount will vary by province. She indicated that Ottawa plans to cover quarantine costs BC has been covering since last year. Read more in the monthly print edition of Country Life in BC, the agricultural news source for BC's farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur ... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago

Ottawa is developing plans to quarantine incoming seasonal workers at no additional cost to farmers, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said today. While non-essential travellers will be required to quarantine at a hotel as of February 22, foreign farm workers can continue to their usual quarantine location until mid-March, when Ottawa will announce its quarantine plan for them. Bibeau told Country Life in BC today that Ottawa is budgeting $2,000 per worker, but this amount will vary by province. She indicated that Ottawa plans to cover quarantine costs BC has been covering since last year. Read more in the monthly print edition of Country Life in BC, the agricultural news source for BCs farmers and ranchers. buff.ly/2ReiFur
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Today is the final deadline to submit nominations for the BC Fruit Growers' Association board of directors. Like many other agricultural organizations, BCFGA's annual meeting will be online this year, on February 25, so there will be no nominations taken from the floor. buff.ly/3abkzEZ ... See MoreSee Less

2 weeks ago

Today is the final deadline to submit nominations for the BC Fruit Growers Association board of directors. Like many other agricultural organizations, BCFGAs annual meeting will be online this year, on February 25, so there will be no nominations taken from the floor. https://buff.ly/3abkzEZ
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Hops revival gains traction with feds

Pest management, financing programs get behind resurgent sector

June 1, 2018 byDavid Schmidt

CHILLIWACK – Fifty years ago, hops were a common sight across the central and eastern Fraser Valley with thousands of acres in production. About 20 years ago, the local industry ceased to exist as major brewers switched to lower-cost hops from the Yakima Valley.

In the past few years, however, hop production has returned to BC, driven by a surge in craft breweries not only in this province but all over North America. Rather than being dominated by one or two producers, the new hop industry is marked by small, independent growers still feeling their way.

“We all have a lot to learn,” says BC Hop Growers Association chair Ray Bredenhof.

That is one reason he and others formed the BCHGA a couple of years ago. The association hit the ground running, holding spring and fall field days and education seminars at the Pacific Agriculture Show. It also sent two directors to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency minor use initiative meeting in Quebec this spring and started working with government to develop a hop-specific crop insurance program and get hops included in the federal government’s Advance Payments Program, which provides loan guarantees.

The efforts appear to be paying off. PMRA approved funding for three of the hop growers’ “A-level priority” pesticides and government has promised that hops will be eligible for APP this year.

“BC hops are getting noticed internationally,” Bredenhof told the BCHGA’s annual meeting in Abbotsford, April 21. “We are now the largest hop-growing area in Canada.”

Just how large is anybody’s guess. That’s why a grower survey of both acreage and varieties is a priority for the BCHGA.

“The government needs hard numbers to work with us,” Bredenhof said.

Although hops have been promoted as an ideal crop for small acreages, he stresses that it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, pointing out it has proven not to be a good crop for non-farmers. Just like most other crops, it needs good management as it is susceptible to a variety of pests and diseases. It is also susceptible to weather issues, which dominated the headlines last year.

“We had flooding followed by drought in the Interior and a wet spring which caused a lot of mildew in the Fraser Valley,” Bredenhof said.

Despite that, “we had a good quality crop last year,” he stated.

However, the challenges continued even after the crop was grown. Not only can growers lose a crop “in a few minutes” on the drying floor, but you can even lose the drying floor. Just three days into last fall’s harvest, Chilliwack Hops, the area’s largest grower-processor, lost its processing plant in a fire.

“We look forward to them rebuilding,” Bredenhof said.

Getting into hop production and processing can be a costly proposition but help is available, says Chris Clifford of RCAP Leasing, which offers lease financing for equipment. Previously known as MCAP, the company became a subsidiary of RBC Financial Group in 2010 and was rebranded.

RCAP will provide lease financing for up to 100% of the value of buildings and equipment, Clifford told growers. He explained that leasing is attractive option because it reduces large down payments and speeds up depreciation.

“Leasing is tailored for tax purposes,” he said, adding that payments can be seasonally adjusted so larger payments become due during and after harvest rather than in the spring and summer when cash flow is tighter.

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