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September 2023
Vol. 109 Issue 9

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1 week ago

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays. ... See MoreSee Less

The Great Spallumcheen Farm & Food Festival and North Okanagan Plowing Match is happening this Sunday, September 24 from 10-3 at Fieldstone Organics, 4851 Schubert Rd, Armstrong. The outdoor festival features tastings and a market brimming with local food and beverage vendors, a horse and tractor plowing competition and vintage farm equipment displays.
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Patti 😊

2 weeks ago

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2 weeks ago

The top five issues the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity identified in a recent survey were the cost of food, inflation, the cost of energy, keeping healthy food affordable and the Canadian economy. “We are seeing that environmental concerns are not in the top 10,” says Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle Association’s public and stakeholder engagement program. “If you are concerned about being able to afford to feed your family, the environment becomes less important.” ... See MoreSee Less

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Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

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VERNON – Ranchers might be concerned about how the public sees their industry, but a producer-funded team at the Canadian Cattle Association has their back. Amy Peck, manager of the Canadian Cattle...
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2 weeks ago

BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million. ... See MoreSee Less

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Lake Country packing house sold

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BC Tree Fruit Co-op has sold its Lake Country packing house as part of its long-term plan to consolidate operations. The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, closed on August 31, 2023 for $15.8 million.
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Who bought it ffs ?

Ted Nedjelski Karen Turner

One of my first jobs was apple grading in a packing plant in Vernon

Vivian, is this where you worked?

I’d hear the company that owns the big Cannabis company that owns the green houses all around this packing plant was buying up everything around to expand. Wonder if it’s them that got it.

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2 weeks ago

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Association's preparation for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/ ... See MoreSee Less

The federal government has committed $1.81 million over the next three years to support the BC Poultry Associations preparation  for direct participation in responses to future outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the province. “The persistence of the virus in wildlife and recurrence of outbreaks globally, presents additional risks during the migratory bird season in North America later in 2023,” the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Vancouver advised in July. For more, visit https://www.countrylifeinbc.com/ai-risk-rises-with-fall/
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Potato stocks tight

Photo | Ronda Payne

December 14, 2022 byKate Ayers

BC potato yields were decent despite a late start for most growers, but lower production may have processors and producers scrambling for supplies next year.

“Normally they would be done planting by sort of mid-May and [this year] they were still trying to get potatoes in the ground in June,” says United Potato Growers of Canada general manager Victoria Stamper.

A cool, damp spring contributed to a 1,300-acre decrease in BC’s planted acreage this year, she says.

Conditions turned more favourable in June and July, however, with next to no precipitation for the last three months of the growing season, but high temperatures throughout August and September sent spuds into self-protection mode and stopped some varieties in their tracks.

“You don’t get that same bulking up because the plants are sort of trying to protect themselves, so they’re not putting the same energy into that bulking up and sizing up that they would normally do, so the potatoes end up with a smaller size profile than we might normally see in a regular season,” she says.

Fortunately, warm dry weather allowed growers to delay harvest into October. Most of the crop was ultimately harvested. Yields average 320 hundredweight (cwt) per acre, marginally down from 325 cwt last year.

“Considering the start that they had, I think they were okay with the crop that they got,” Stamper says. “I think it was more a ‘Wow, okay, we got off more than we thought considering where we started from.’”

The result is a decent supply of fresh potatoes but stocks of processing and seed potatoes are tight across Canada.

“The fresh or table sector [supply] … is good,” Stamper says. “I would say overall that seed [supply] is fairly tight as well. So, we’re going to see how the table [sector] plays out because when the processing sector is tight, sometimes they’ll dip into the table or fresh sector. … We’re going to keep an eye on the holdings each month to see how that goes.”

According to Statistics Canada, BC growers harvested 1.6 million cwt of potatoes, yielding 23.1% lower production than last year.

In total, Canada saw a 0.8% increase in production this year reported at just shy of 123 million cwt.

 

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