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Originally published:

AUGUST 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 8

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Stories In This Edition

Province allows family on farms

Teamwork!

Rain hammers cherry crop

Sidebar: A brief history

Chilcotin ranchers’ hope for hay crop washed away

Editorial: Dog days

Back Forty: Keeping the kids safe down on the farm

Viewpoint: Top-down governance no way to help caribou

Egg board set to get cracking on quota distribution

Get ’em while you can

Feds address labour shortages

Bee healthy!

Marketing board names new entrant winners

BC berry research gets big funding boost

BC hosts International Blueberry Organization

Tour showcases innovation, marketing savvy

Governments agree to national park reserve

BC’s oldest farm seeks new management

Apple dieback investigation underway

Bumper crop for raspberries fails to materialize

Balance key to restoring fire-affected range

Global demand set to buoy cattle prices

A good start helps calves finish in top shape

Ranchers collaborate to preserve grasslands

Rotational grazing pays off year-round

Sidebar: Track costs, see profits

Stock show kicks off summer for 4-H members

Finding new potential for a lost native berry

Sidebar: Others see same benefits

Shuswap tour showcases local producers

Research: Do honeybees spread viruses to wild bees?

Volken Academy breaks ground on new farm

Woodshed: Romance is in the air, for all but the Hendersons

Fourth-generation farmers chart ambitious course

Jude’s Kitchen: In-season produce is king

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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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Marketing board names new entrant winners

Process awarded quota to three out of 95 applicants

Melanie & Edward Dyson

August 1, 2019 byDavid Schmidt

ABBOTSFORD—The BC Milk Marketing Board has chosen the first three successful applicants in its New Entrant Program.

After clearing the waitlist in its previous Graduated Entry Program, the BCMMB introduced the NEP in August 2018. Ninety-five applicants paid the $250 fee to be included in the first draw, held in February 2019. A random draw selected eight applicants for the second step in the process. Each was required to submit a detailed business plan to a board-appointed selection committee.

Chaired by Walt Goerzen, who also chairs the board’s Milk Industry Advisory Committee and Specialty Producers Advisory Committee, the committee included two agri-business reps, one financial services rep, one processor rep from the Western Dairy Council, one producer chosen by the BC Dairy Association and one current GEP producer.

After meeting with each applicant and studying their business plans, the committee recommended and the board accepted Edward and Melanie Dyson of Port Alberni, Jonathan and Eleny Quapp of Rosedale and William Romeyn of Chilliwack to be the first three successful applicants.

“It was quite a challenge to pick three from the eight,” Goerzen said, noting they had a “diverse” set of applicants to choose from.

In the end they focused on each applicant’s experience, business plan and passion for the industry.

Experience was critical. The committee questioned the chances of an applicant succeeding without any direct experience in dairying, Goerzen says, and he expects the committee to recommend tightening future application criteria to weed out unsuitable applicants.

“It’s a new program so the process has some room for adjustments,” he notes, pointing out the BC Egg Marketing Board’s NEP has a more detailed initial application process which may have some merit in the dairy industry.

Another important question was whether the applicants could begin a dairy operation without the help of the NEP.

“Helping new entrants into the dairy industry that otherwise couldn’t do that is a key aspect of the program,” Goerzen states.

Edward Dyson, one of the three successful applicants, calls himself “a second-generation wannabe dairy farmer” at 27 years old. His parents, Agricultural Land Commission chair Jennifer Dyson and her husband, were once on BCMMB’s GEP waitlist but gave up waiting after several years.

Instead, the Dysons moved to Port Alberni in 2003 and started a water buffalo dairy. The herd has 70 animals and they’re currently milking 20 water buffalo. (The number fluctuates.)

“I’m already running a dairy farm, just with a different species,” Dyson says.

He and his wife, Melanie, a 24-year-old agricultural graduate of the University of Alberta, are already living on the family farm. Dyson is presently “an unofficial full partner” in the farm and he says the farm ownership will be reorganized to meet NEP requirements.

Dyson admits “a bit of nervousness” about the process but felt “we were good candidates. We spent quite a bit of time on our business plan.”

He believes he has a head start, noting the farm already has a double-four herringbone parlour for its water buffalo herd. The parlour will be retrofitted so it can be used to milk both the water buffalo, which they will continue to farm, and the dairy cows.

“Our goal is to start by this time next year,” he says. “We want to take our time to get healthy animals and do things right.”

As new entrants, the Dysons will receive 15 kgs of Continuous Daily Quota, worth $547,500 at the current quota exchange price, enough for about 12 to 13 cows. The program also provides a 1:1 matching grant of up to eight kgs for additional kilograms purchased on the exchange, something Dyson expects to take full advantage of.

“We hope to maximize the program within five years,” he says.

BCMMB manager of policy and communication Vicki Crites explains that the NEP quota is subject to a declining assessment of 10% a year.

“After 10 years they would cease to be ‘new entrants’ and would simply be considered producers,” she explains.

Dyson admits that even 31 kgs of CDQ may not be enough to make the farm fully viable as a stand-alone dairy but believes it is “a good start.”

“It’s pretty tough to get a start in the industry,” he says, noting, “we have the water buffalo to help us in the early years and hope to grow the dairy over time.”

Dyson admits he and Melanie are guinea pigs for the new program.

“With the water buffalo, we had to be open and transparent so we’re used to the attention. We’re happy to share our experience with the public and the industry,” he says.

Although the program accepted only three applicants this year, that will change.

“The 2019 NEP process was considered a transition year,” Crites says. “The board will run another NEP application and selection process in 2020 (and every second year thereafter). The 2020 process will select six new entrants for production starts in 2021 and 2022. New deadline dates and an updated user guide for the 2020 NEP selection process will be posted to the board’s website in fall 2019, with an expected application deadline early in 2020.”

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