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Originally published:

AUGUST 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 8

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Stories In This Edition

Summer labour issues ease

Broad shoulders

Abuse charges recommended

Huge tract of Creston farmland seeks buyers

Editorial: Doctor’s orders

Back 40: Remembering a revoluntionary in food security

Viewpoint: The case for provincial meat inspection

Province urged to intervene as scorch claims rise

Ranchers seek answers on BC Beef brand, dams

Ag Briefs: Province funds extreme weather preparedness

Ag Briefs: Okanagan wine appellations expand

Ag Briefs: ALC rejects Teacup appeal

FIRB pushes back on complaints about BC Veg

Hay there

Get sustainable to get funding, ag ministers say

Weather heightens wildfire risk in the Peace

Islands Ag Show recharges farmers’ knowledge base

Ranchers need support for range use compliance

Low volume, high quality in cool season

Industry working through tree fruit recommendations

Life is better with cherries

Orchard sector pilots new job-matching website

Province funds eight new weather stations

Weather delays strawberry harvest

Foreign worker protections undergo overhaul

Tea Creek is training ground for new farmers

Innovative manure applicator could be a game-changer

Farm Story: Perfecting other skills while potatoes grow

Cover crops gain ground as growers build soil health

Buckwheat proving an ally in the wireworm fight

Sidebar: Know thy pest

Fossens recognized for innovative practices

Bottom lines improve when customers eat fresh

KPU seed lab accelerates seed producers

Sidebar: Growing local

Woodshed: Delta Faye comes to Kenneth’s rescue

After a two-year hiatus, fall fairs return to BC

August offers a rainbow of produce

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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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Orchard sector pilots new job-matching website

Growers hope the platform will keep workers longer

An app used to connect workers in BC’s film industry has been tweaked to help BC fruit growers connect with new workers this season. MYRNA STARK LEADER

August 10, 2022 byTom Walker

KELOWNA – Fruit growers who employ temporary workers each summer may find a phone app being trialed this season will help  fill the gap left by the retirement of long-time BC Fruit Growers Association liaison Ron Forrest.

“Over the last 15 years, Ron and other BCFGA team members have welcomed, provided safety and orientation training, and directed travelling backpackers to jobs on Okanagan farms,” says BCFGA general manager Glen Lucas. “As a result of Ron’s retirement and new direction at the Tree Fruit Industry Stabilization Plan, the BCFGA is no longer conducting the summer farm labour initiative.”

Those will be big shoes to fill.

“I’m not sure people were really aware of all the work that Ron did on behalf of growers in the valley,” says Tyrion Miskell, executive director of the BC Grape Growers Association.

Besides English, Forrest was fluent in French and Spanish and could get by in another couple of languages. His years of experience and easy-going manner allowed him to recruit and connect with temporary workers both from within Canada and internationally.

He also had a track record with growers, who knew he could provide workers, teach them safety and picking skills and step in if there was a problem.

Miskell is leading a cross-industry labour committee, a recommendation of the province’s tree fruit stabilization committee report last summer.

“It doesn’t matter what you grow, we all need farm labour,” Miskell says.

Representatives of the BC Grape Growers, BC Cherry Association, BCFGA, BC Tree Fruits Co-op and the province have been meeting to come up with strategies.

One of the committee’s goals is to change the image of temporary labour.

“We want to move away from the terms ‘Quebecois’ or ‘backpackers,’ says Miskell. She believes there is a certain stigma there that, in part, has discouraged locals from taking farm jobs.

“We are trying to rebrand the industry with a positive spin,” Miskell says. “We are advertising for ‘branch hands’ using positive hashtags like #sweetlife, #branchhands and #plumjobs.”

Temporary employees make a valuable contribution to the fruit industry, Miskell notes.

“On-farm jobs can allow for adventure, flexibility and meaningful work. We hope that locals who are looking for a bit of extra money will consider on-farm jobs.”

But they needed a platform, something BC Cherry president Sukhpaul Bal pointed out at one of the committee’s early meetings.

“We needed a kind of dating app where workers and employers could connect and organize meeting for

on-farm work,” says Miskell. “We found CrewDriver, which is a platform designed in Vancouver that connects employers and workers in the film industry, an industry that relies heavily on a gig economy of temporary workers.”

The committee is running a pilot this summer via BCFruitWorks.com, which lets employers register for direct, easy connections with potential employees.

“This is a pretty low-tech system that works off your phone,” explains Miskell. “We want to be able to connect growers in their orchards with workers who may be camping.”

Miskell says the app also allows growers to message workers, telling them not to come if it’s raining, for example.

“You don’t need the Internet to run it, and you won’t be making phone calls all day to organize help,” she says.

Many growers have their own relationship with returning workers, Miskell acknowledges. “But we encourage them to sign up as well,” she says. “Not only will they be able to source a temporary replacement for a sick worker, but we may be able to keep their workers in the valley longer and have them go on to help at other farms.”

An HR kit is also in the works.

“We are offering supports to employers to be more creative in advertising their jobs,” Miskell says. “You have to sell what you offer. You are competing with other growers and other industries in the valley.”

Growers interested in participating in the pilot project can send an email to [info@bcfruitworks.com] with “INTERESTED” in the subject line to receive set-up information.

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