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Originally published:

DECEMBER 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 12

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Stories In This Edition

Parties unite on trespass legislation

Protesters rally at Ag Day

Got milk?

Peace faces worst grain harvest in 30+years

Editorial: Light in darkness

Back Forty: The West is packing its bags. Does Ottawa care?

Farmers’ passion for the land is strong

Ranchers voice ALR concerns at public meetings

Chefs, farmers foster new relationships

Sidebar: VFM Direct shuts down

Summerland grower steps up as co-op president

Recommendations from report nearly fully implemented

Food and beverage innovation centre launched

Japanese beetle control an industry priority

Langley farmers launch local farmers’ institute

BC agritech attracting major partners

New dam safety information flows

Bee-utiful

No-till takes centre stage at field day

Students showcase on-farm research projects

Emergency plans top agenda for bison ranchers

Rad

Regulatory issues top concerns for cattlemen

Processing adds value to Cowichan farm

Mentorship network helps new farmers

Research: Gene-editing eliminates horns in dariy bulls

Preserving owl, bat habitat is good for farming

Sidebar: Better bait

Seed app helps producers grow research data

Cannabis class wins high marks at BC fairs

Cannabis growers square off against diseases, pests

Pear-fect

Sidebar: Breaking the mold

Fine-tune feeding for healthier lambs

Farm Story: Performance anxiety knows no boundaries

Island AgSafe consultant changes gears

Woodshed: Intrigue deepens as barn repairs take shape

Century Farm award honours historic milestone

Jude’s Kitchen: So much to celebrate

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3 weeks ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

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ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

4 weeks ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

4 weeks ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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4 weeks ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

4 weeks ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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No-till takes centre stage at field day

Untilled soils are healthier, have greater biodiversity

Catherine Tarasoff, left, and Rachael Roussin demonstrate an infiltrometer that measures how long it takes the soil to absorb water. TOM WALKER PHOTO

December 1, 2019 byTom Walker

ROCK CREEK – West Kootenay farmers had a field day in the hills above Rock Creek on September 10.

“We had an opportunity to view both informal and formal field trials that the farmers are developing,” says Rachael Roussin, coordinator of the Kootenay and Boundary Farm Advisors, which organized the event. “But these field days also make a space for conversation among the farmers.”

The first stop was at Doug and Erica Fossen’s cattle ranch. Classic curious farmers, the Fossens are always looking to improve the efficiency of their ranch.

This has made Doug is a fan of zero-till, the practice of seeding each year’s crop through the stubble of last year’s.

Benefits include less compaction and healthier soils because there’s no loss of organic matter or microbes.

“We’ve had spots, like on our calving grounds, where the soil was so compact we couldn’t grow anything,” he explains. “We have been zero-tilling for probably 20 years now, and those areas are not compacted anymore and the soil is getting stronger.”

Less time on the tractor also saves on the gas bill.

“We are always looking for ways to reduce our fuel bill,” he adds.

The Fossens showed a field planted to corn and intercropped with clover. The aim was to have some clover left behind for fall grazing after the corn was cut for silage. The clover was not as successful as he had hoped, however.

“My timing was a bit off, and the seeder I am using is really old,” he says. “But there should be some clover roots to stabilize the hillside soil in the spring and the new growth could give some early grazing.”

He also shared tips on growing and harvesting corn silage and corn grazing.

“I got good yields on my corn, around 7.5 tons of dry matter per acre,” he says. “I had more than I needed for silage so I left two fields for the cows to graze in December.”

He grazed an eight-acre field two years ago and he believes he got the equivalent yield in the field as if he had harvested it.

“I am hoping that each 13-acre field with about 400 cows will last 15 to 17 days,” says Fossen. “So, hopefully, we can get an extra month of grazing past when we would normally have to start feeding.”

But it’s good to have a back-up plan, he says.

“We have enough silage out in the pit to feed if everything goes wrong and it is just an ugly experiment for the neighbours to talk about,” he chuckles.

Radish rescue

Over 100 years of dry-land farming in the Rock Creek sunshine have left the grain and forage fields on Jamie Haynes’ ranch pretty compact. When it does rain, the dense soils are less able to absorb the moisture.

“After talking to the Fossens, I have transitioned to no-till methods to increase organic matter and reduce soil compaction,” explains Haynes.

A grant from the BC Agriculture and Food Climate Action Initiative’s Farm Adaptation Innovator program helped Haynes conduct an on-farm research project to see if he could improve soil function by interplanting tillage radishes while maintaining a satisfactory forage yield.

“We wanted to see if the radishes would help with water infiltration so when it does rain, the water will go in further and last longer,” explains Roussin.

Half a 60-acre field was planted with spring rye, oats and peas, and tillage radish, while the other half had no radish. Roussin coordinated the trial and Catherine Tarasoff, of Thompson Rivers University, and Agrowest Consulting provided support for research design and standardized measurements.

Tarasoff says the radishes served two purposes.

Radishes have long roots that are able to punch through the hardpan layer of soil, she explains. When the roots rot in the fall, they leave a kind of tube in the soil that allows water infiltration as well as adds organic matter.

“We found that [infiltration] where the radishes had been planted was almost twice that of the control area,” says Tarasoff. “But it’s not a silver bullet. That hardpan has taken years to build so it will take a number of plantings of radishes to break it up.”

The yields in both plots were comparable.

“We found that the yields on both the rye, oats and peas alone and the radish mix were very similar,” says Tarasoff.

However, radish planting reduced weed growth.

“The radish plantings had only half as many weeds and a more consistent yield,” she says.

That’s good for the long-term health of the field, Tarsoff points out.

“If the weeds are choked out, they will have less to seed the next year,” she says.

Low risk

On-farm research doesn’t require a lot of risk, Tarasoff notes.

“You can start with an acre just to see if something works,” she says. “And you always need an adjacent plot without the experiment so that you can compare

results.”

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