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Current Issue:

JANUARY 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 1

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9 hours 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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5 days 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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Langley logs Asian hornet

Asian Giant Hornet
PHOTO / Paul van Westendorp

November 3, 2021 byPeter Mitham

Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff made an unexpected discovery October 22 while performing a routine monthly check of a trap set to monitor for Japanese beetle in south Langley.

The decaying body of an Asian giant hornet lay within, the first confirmed report of one of the insects this year in Canada. Since no hornets were found in adjacent traps, all signs point to the individual being an interloper that flew north from Whatcom County.

Provincial apiculturist Paul van Westendorp told the BC Honey Producers Association annual meeting on October 29 that genetic tests are taking place to confirm the hornet’s connection to the four colonies Washington State Department of Agriculture staff have eradicated over the past year.

“It is probably highly likely that it all comes from the same stock as all these four nests had similarity, or relatedness,” he said. “It meant all of those came from one single introduction. This is hopeful.”

Van Westendorp said the close relationships between the hornets makes for a shallower gene pool that reduces the viability of future matings.

The latest discovery, near 216 Street and 3 Avenue, was just 1,200 metres north of where a WSDA team destroyed a nest at the end of August. WSDA destroyed two more nests in September, one of which was just 400 metres from the international boundary.

Researchers do not know how long the hornets have been present in the area. Langley beekeepers voiced concerns about the insect as early as 2018, but the first confirmed report of giant hornets in the province came in 2019. Sightings were confirmed that summer around Burrard Inlet and a nest was destroyed in September 2019 in Nanaimo.

The past two years have seen monitoring continue on Vancouver Island and in the Fraser Valley.

Asian giant hornets can measure up to 5 cm in length and appear to prefer hollow deciduous trees as nesting sites. They’re most active in the fall as they seek out animal protein in the run-up to winter. Honey bees are among the hornet’s targets; an attack can wipe out a colony in hours.

BC and Washington will continue surveillance programs pending eradication of the pest. Washington has engaged the public in its monitoring efforts, with all 31 reports last year coming from citizen scientists. Surveillance in BC is conducted by the province in partnership with local beekeepers, but similar to Washington, all six confirmed reports in BC last year were filed by the general public rather than government or beekeepers.

 

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