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Originally published:

March 2017
Vol. 103 Issue 3

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Stories In This Edition

Mother Nature packs a wallop

IAS Coleman Meadows Water Buffalo Cheese

PAS draws record attendance

Snow hampers annual FCC event

Enderby milk producer recognized: Gala

Editorial: Mind your business

Back Forty: It’s a tough long road

Viewpoint: BCCGA Sustainability, supply mgmt

Right to farm review concludes in fall

Safety without borders

BCFGA president returned by acclamation

Resolutions identify industry concerns

Coldstream reviewing noise bylaws

Biogas conference highlights opportunities

Well licensing frustrates producers

PAS photo – egg sorter

Ambitious export plans

New app helps stop spread of apple pest

Pressures increasing North of Fraser

Snow days at Islands Ag Show

Island farmers get direct marketing tips

Cherry growers eye new markets, pests

Rent surprise: UBC dairy centre

Photo: Scotia Bank Succession Award

Hazelnut growers eye new varieties

Food safety regs open for comment

Organic dairies embracing automation

Tour planner bids adieu

Specialist delivers rational for ration prep

Photo: Gala – ag safety award

Dairy advancements north of Fraser

Research: What the public thinks about dairies

Risk management key for beef producers

Water supplies will determine future’s food…

Co-operative effort puts food testing within reach

Photo: Poultry in motion IAS

On the election trail

Snow pack lows reduce flows

Photo: Spuds in Tubs

Top fruit growers honoured

Solar-powered weather stations

Results beginning to germinate

Forage manual now available

Make a statement with farm safety policy

Photo: PAS

Progress slow, steady on berry selections

Researchers have basketful of berry options

Photo: PAS

Berry growers face grim outlook

Photo Gala AITC

Soil compaction is preventable

Hopeful beekeepers swarm to courses

Night market fills gap

Wannabe

Got poop?

Working multiple jobs

Woodshed

Judes

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4 days ago

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details. ... See MoreSee Less

A turkey farm in West Abbotsford is the second commercial poultry flock to tested positive for avian influenza since the initial case was reported in Enderby on April 13. CFIA announced the case May 19, but has yet to define the control zone. Ray Nickel of the BC Poultry Association says more than 50 farms are in the vicinity of the infected premises, meaning control measures — including movement controls — will have a significant impact on the industry. The supply of birds moving into the country from US hatcheries will also be affected, compounding the host of supply chain issues growers have been dealing with over the past year. A story in our June issue will provide further details.
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2 weeks ago

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the province's deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed. ... See MoreSee Less

The province has extended the order requiring regulated commercial poultry operations to keep their birds indoors through June 13. Originally set to expire this Friday, the order was extended after a careful review by the provinces deputy chief veterinarian. Poultry at seven premises, all but one of them backyard flocks, have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza since April 13. The order allows small-scale producers to continue pasturing their birds outdoors provided biosecurity protocols developed by the Small-Scale Meat producers Association are followed.
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Sounds like 2 weeks to flatten the curve turning into 2 years.

USDA doing avian vax research, May 11 bio-docs to UN incl section on H5N8 w/wild bird spread. Found link to apparent pre-release on May 11 Geller Report. Good luck farmers.

3 weeks ago

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.” ... See MoreSee Less

Two more small flocks in BC have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza. The latest cases are in Richmond and Kelowna. CFIA is in the process of determining a control zone around the property in Richmond, the first report in the Fraser Valley of the H5N1 strain of the virus among poultry. Speaking to Country Life in BC this week, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said CFIA staff are working diligently to address outbreaks, and she encourages small flock owners to do the same. While commercial farms have tightened biosecurity measures, owners of small flocks have greater freedom. “Some smaller ones don’t necessarily have these measures in place,” Bibeau says. “They should also be extremely careful, because if we have a case in a backyard flock ... it could have an impact on bigger commercial installations.”
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Killing our food chain. How do we know they are actually carrying a virus, look what's taking place with covid, is it real.

Ik kan niet zo goed Engels maar als ik het goed begrijp is bij jullie ook vogelgriep maar nog niet bij jullie

Any idea when this episode or bird flu might be over?

3 weeks ago

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions. ... See MoreSee Less

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC welcomed its first new members in 20 years at its AGM on April 27. The BC Blueberry Council, BC Cherry Association, BC Cranberry Marketing Commission, BC Food & Beverage Association, BC Meats and Organic BC were approved as members, bringing the IAFBC’s membership to 15 farm and food organizations. IAFBC is also growing in responsibility, managing a record $8.3 million in funding from six funding agencies and developing new programs to support the agriculture sector including Farmland Advantage and Agricultural Climate Solutions.
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4 weeks ago

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises. ... See MoreSee Less

A second BC flock has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the province reported this evening, April 25. The small backyard flock of chicken and ducks near Kelowna has fewer than 100 birds and is relatively isolated. This is the second backyard flock to be suspected of high-path avian influenza in the past week. The other, on Vancouver Island, was found to be AI-free. Amanda Brittain, chief information officer with the BC Poultry Association’s emergency operations centre, says the latest case is of minimal concern to industry because there are no commercial flocks within 12km of the premises.
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Mother Nature packs a wallop

March 1, 2017 byDavid Schmidt

CHILLIWACK – Collapsed barns and greenhouses, missed milk shipments and broken trees: the early February storm which blanketed the Lower Mainland with snow and freezing rain left a trail of destruction in its wake.

The eastern Fraser Valley was hardest hit. BC Ministry of Agriculture provincial dairy technologist Roger Pannett has also been Environment Canada’s volunteer weather observer for Chilliwack since 1988. He reports Chilliwack received a total 90 cm of snow followed by 25.6 mm of freezing rain during the week-long storm.

For the past few years, the BC Climate Action Initiative has been predicting more extreme weather events and this storm certainly qualifies. However, it is far from the record of 67 cm of snow that fell on Chilliwack November 16, 1996, or the 66 cm on February 14, 1923. Nor was the freezing rain a record. Nursery grower Gord Matthies recalls seeing two inches of ice on Cannor Nursery’s trees as a youth in the 1970s.

“We lost all our trees that year,” he recalled.

The damage this year was more sporadic. Matthies says Cannor lost many of its evergreens and a group of maples although other groups were unscathed. However, it is not his problem as the family sold the 380-acre wholesale and retail nursery in mid-December.

“A number of caliper tree growers (like Cannor) had damage from the freezing rain and melting snow,” reported BC Landscape and Nursery Association president Len Smit.

Most nursery growers with dormant plants escaped damage, including Kato’s Nursery (where Smit is the production manager) and Bradner’s Growing Concern (where he is co-owner), but had to do a lot of work to keep up with snow removal.

“The wind caused huge snowdrifts in west Abbotsford,” Smit said. “I had drifts to the top of my hoophouses (nine feet).”

His brother was not so lucky, losing about 600 square feet of his 20,000-square-foot glass floriculture greenhouse to the heavy snow. He was not alone, as one glasshouse in Chilliwack was lost completely.

“Growers who didn’t have heat in their greenhouses had problems with the snowload,” Smit said. “I’ve heard of damaged vents and eaves in a number of glass houses.”

Dairy hit hard

The dairy industry may have suffered the most. Many milk pickups were delayed as tanker trucks could not get through.

“We had two farms which had to dump some milk because their farms were not accessible,” reports BC Milk Marketing Board general manager Bob Ingratta. Although milk is to be picked up from each farm at least every other day, milk may stay on-farm for up to four days in exceptional circumstances (if there is sufficient storage capacity).

There were also substantial delays in getting milk from Okanagan farms to plants in the Fraser Valley as all three highways connecting the Lower Mainland to the BC interior were shut down on February 9.

Ingratta said the impact on the dairy industry could have been much worse if not for the effort of both transporters and producers.

“Our compliments to Vedder Transport for working around the clock and substantial extra efforts…they battled through a lot of poorly plowed driveways and roads and a lot of wind on Sumas Prairie,” he stated, adding “most producers did an excellent job working with the transporters to clear driveways and roads as needed.”

Most of the milk got through but not all of the buildings did. A dairy barn on Nicomen Island collapsed as did a heifer barn in east Chilliwack. At least one farm lost part of its bunker silo while several others suffered some degree of damage.

In the Nicomen Island case, the damage was not as severe as it could have been. The milk had been picked up just prior to the collapse and quick, concerted efforts by neighbouring farmers and the fire department were able to free most of the 80 cows trapped within the barn with few injuries.

Poultry on two broiler breeder farms were not as lucky. One broiler breeder barn in east Chilliwack collapsed from the snow while another in east Abbotsford was lost due to fire a few days later. In that case, quick action by neighbours and the fire department kept the fire from spreading to other barns.

Both the BC Egg Marketing Board and BC Chicken Marketing Board reported no problems, noting there is some leeway as to when birds and eggs must be shipped.

“Table eggs are normally picked up once a week but can stay in an on-farm cooler for up to two weeks if necessary,” BCEMB executive director Katie Lowe said.

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