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Originally published:

July 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 7

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Stories In This Edition

Sweet basil

Committee cancels meetings

Sidebar: Greater co-ordination; less conflict

Prince George packing plant gets further study

Sidebar: Co-op model lets producers pocket profits

Editorial: Buy the billions

Back Forty: Canada isn’t the cure for what ails US dairy

OpEd: Dairy industry will endure current trade issues

ALC allegations nix Delta farmer’s vision

Letters: Elk know no boundaries

Precautions taken against Japanese beetle

Great spring for nurseries

Chicken pricing formula isn’t right

Pitt crew

Criteria for Crown tenure still unclear

McClary’s leased to Aquilinis

Strawberries kick berry season off to good start

Food advocates grapple with rural-urban interface

Research updates presented to cherry growers

New farmers need to research livestock needs

Time for tea

Ag Brief: Farmers still waiting on new ag waste regs

Ag Brief: Drought watch

AgBrief: Good to meet ewe

Ag Brief: Staff change at FF/CF

Ag Brief: Market trail

Riparian restorations benefit from farm funding

Young Farmers network at Okanagan tour

Salmon Arm fleece brings top dollar

Perseverance, ingenuity aid haskap harvest

BC ranchers praised for wildfire response

Committee work pinpoints rancher priorities

Mentorship program helps expand horizons

Tour gives public insight to dairy farming

Island welcomes Angus breeders

Experts weigh in on future of raspberry cultivars

Preparation, customer service key to market success

Top 10 list for market success

UVF ag curriculum continues to diversify

Research: Going green

Buy BC relaunched

Farm camps for kids

Henderson continues on crash course

Jude’s Kitchen: It’s easy to make July veggie month

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7 days 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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2 weeks 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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Perseverance, ingenuity aid haskap harvest

Okanagan grower envisions being a hub for BC haskap production

July 1, 2018 byMyrna Stark Leader

KELOWNA – Growing a new crop is not for the faint of heart. In June, after five years in the making, Reg Tomiye harvested his first full crop of haskap berries. They grow in front of his home on a nine-acre plot in South East Kelowna which was converted from an apple and sour cherry orchard.

Tomiye, whose grandfather came to the area in the early 1900s to farm, started AgriForest Bio-Technologies, a tree nursery business in the 1970s. When he sold it and some land, he wasn’t ready to quit having his hands in the business of agriculture with his horticulture, financial and business background.

“We started planting in the fall of 2013 but the plants we get are quite small so what’s normally three to four years to harvest has become five,” says Tomiye who was told about the crop by Kamlesh Patel at AgriForest.

Tomiye says haskaps are well-known in Japan for their health benefits. Hokkaido Island has a history of using the thin-skinned berry dating back hundreds of years. They’re soft and have a unique flavour like a blend of several berries with a zing at the finish, depending on variety and ripeness.

New crop, new challenges

Growing the self-financed berry crop didn’t come without perseverance and innovation.

“The first year that we had any berries, a couple years ago, I saw the berries on the plants and I went back the next day and they were all gone. There were starlings all over so the whole field was wiped out,” he explains, saying he looked at cannons and drones as bird control. However, smart birds arrive at 5 am when noise bylaws and neighbours are more restrictive.

Needing to monitor the crop, weed and control pests, and with the berry’s delicate nature, he’s spent about $80,000 to encase the entire field rather than placing net on top as is done with grapes. Visiting the crop feels a bit like walking into a more sophisticated net version of a childhood blanket fort.

“We engineered the canopy over a two-year period. We got some good old Alberta oil drill pipe and a 12-foot auger attached to the end of an excavator to drill the post holes 10 feet deep and then concreted them in. Then, we cabled everything. But last year we didn’t have everything secured. A wind storm blew all the netting and we lost quite a bit,” says Tomiye.

As a result, he designed cross-sectional cabling to strengthen the structure. He’s also engineered a telescoping post for the middle of the crop to provide support for the net and enable the harvesting equipment which straddles each row from the top.

“This year the netting is staying in place. Last year, it would move 15 feet one way or the other in the wind, which broke wires.”

Hope for ROI

With five varieties and some numbered research plants from the University of Saskatchewan in his plantings, Tomiye continues to experiment with new varieties.

Tomiye uses a blueberry harvester and has two reefer trailers to do the processing. The berries will be frozen. His 2018 crop looks good in terms of size, sugar content and volume. He’s keeping detailed records on varietal results and hoping to see a return on his investment this year.

He plans to market some locally to consumers or chefs. One of the benefits is that haskaps are an early season berry. They may fetch $15 per pound. But his eyes are focused on future opportunities. He’s been talking with overseas buyers who visit the Okanagan looking at cherries.

He sees potential for his farm to become a central haskap collection, processing and distribution facility for frozen berries or berry powder which opens up further use in the food, cosmetic and medicine industries. He says new firmer berry varieties with more upright growth would also help move a commercial industry forward.

“It’s starting to get planted here in BC but people are afraid because there’s no established market. We need to prove we have a market and we can process haskap,” he says.

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