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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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10 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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Leasing farmland a vital strategy for farmers

Land-matching initiative builds on strong foundation

Lorraine and John Buchanan of Parry Bay Sheep Farm own just two of the 1,000 acres they manage on southern Vancouver Island. It’s the most economical way to get onto land, they say. PHOTO / BARBARA JOHNSTONE GRIMMER

January 1, 2021 byBarbara Johnstone Grimmer

METCHOSIN – While the province has been keen to support land-matching to help new farmers launch their operations, leasing farmland is a long-standing practice in BC that’s been vital to many farm businesses.

Recent research by the provincial government’s Behavioural Insights Group underlined the importance of land leases to agriculture, stating that it’s commonplace for BC landowners to lease unused farmland to farmers.

John and Lorraine Buchanan of Parry Bay Sheep Farm in Metchosin on southern Vancouver Island only own two acres, yet they are one of the biggest operations on Vancouver Island.

“We lease all of the land we farm,” says Buchanan. “The land ranges from two to 200 acres for about 1,000 acres in total.”

Parry Bay has 30 pastures and croplands spread over a large geographic area, from Central Saanich to Metchosin. The Buchanans grow barley, wheat, oats, kale and turnips, as well as hay and pasture for their large flock of sheep.

“In the mostly suburban areas where we farm, it is the most economical way to get onto the land,” explains Buchanan. “We have had no issues in the 40 years that we have been farming with this arrangement.”

Economical

Bill Zylmans of W & A Farms in Richmond agrees with that observation.

“Of the 400 acres that we are farming, we own 70 of that,” says Zylmans. “The costs are much less to lease compared to buying in an area that has become quite urban.”

Zylmans calls himself the “biggest dirt farmer in Richmond,” based on the number of cultivated acres that he farms, outside of the region’s blueberry and cranberry farms.

He leases a range of parcel sizes. As a seed potato farmer, he is happy if he can rent six to 12-acre parcels for the different seed potato varieties he grows. He has a long-term lease for 200 acres from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, along with leases from non-farmers and other farmers.

“I lease from older farmers who want to see their land farmed,” says Zylmans. “One of the farms that I lease is from a widow whose husband passed away. It is a win-win for people who want their land farmed and looked after, and they can receive a property tax reduction.”

Zylmans also subleases to other farmers for rotational purposes. It introduces diversity into the cropping system, which in turn benefits the land.

One thing that Zylmans stresses is the importance of good-quality land.

“We have the [Agricultural Land Reserve] which provides great protection to good land. We can’t afford to farm marginal land anymore. It has to be top-notch,” says Zylmans, a former vice-chair of the Agricultural Land Commission’s South Coast panel. “They aren’t making any more farmland.”

Zylmans says that it’s more cost-effective to keep good quality farmland in good shape. It no longer pays to put in infrastructure improvements and extra inputs to upgrade marginal land. However, lower quality farmland can host greenhouse operations and other uses that don’t require highly productive soil.

Long-term leases preferred

He prefers long-term leases that give him the confidence to make investments and manage the land with a view to its long-term quality. A short-term lease doesn’t offer the same incentive.

“I like to see a five to 10-year timeframe with a first-refusal option to purchase so that I can put money in and do necessary work like cleaning ditches, fertilizing or enhancing the land,” says Zylmans. “Farmers are the best stewards of the land.”

The BC Land Matching Program managed by the Young Agrarians provides a new spin on the old practice of leasing land, providing a customized service to help match those looking for farmland to rent with landowners who are interested in leasing part – or all – of their land for farm use. The program launched in Metro Vancouver in 2016, and matching began in 2017.

With support from the province, the program expanded across BC in 2018. Young Agrarians now has five trained land-matchers in BC covering Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands, Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, the Okanagan-Thompson, Columbia Basin and Central and Northern BC. The team offers a range of support services, lease forms and materials and recently released a “BC Transition Tool Kit” to help with non-family land transfers.

To date, just under 600 people have registered for the program: 334 land-seekers and 264 landowners. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic enquiries for land from land-seekers doubled but this has since levelled off, says Darcy Smith, BC Land Program Manager at Young Agrarians. At the same time, there has been a slight decline in landowner enquiries.

“I would say that there’s a wide variety of people participating in the BCLMP for both land seekers and landholders – folks of all ages, production types, backgrounds, etc. – where the unifying thread is a focus on building resilient food systems and providing opportunities to farmers to grow viable farm businesses,” explains Smith.

The program recently made its 100th match. For the 81 land matches with statistics available from the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, 4,653 acres are being leased for farming through the program.

Tenure documented

Statistics Canada’s Census of Agriculture, which is set to take place this May, records land tenure. The last census in 2016 reported 17,528 farms in BC covering a total of 6.4 million acres. Nearly half of this acreage was owned, with the rest leased from governments, non-farmers, other farmers, or rented under other arrangements such as crop-sharing.

BC Assessment reports 11,138 farm properties on the 2021 tax roll, of which 869,382 acres are leased. This does not reflect area leased from one farmer to another for cover crop rotations or other arrangements. It also doesn’t reflect properties being farmed but not holding farm class status. It is also not indicative of the total number of leases in the province, as a farm can have more than one tenant.

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