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Originally published:

SEPTEMBER 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 9

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Stories In This Edition

Livestock groups ramp up security

Gaurav Maan

EU tightens shipping rules

New waste control rules kick in October 1

Dibs on ribs

Nip the buds

Climate woes are everyone’s responsibility

Viewpoint: Weighing in on the battle of the burgers

Ag counil defendes cannabis sector on odour

Feds announce compensation package for dairy

Potato harvest looks promising for BC growers

Motor Vehicle Act covers tractors

Province urges armyworm precautions

Feast for the eyes

Funding helps cherry growers court new buyers

Oregon hazelnut optimism inspires BC growers

Dairy tour showcases innovative farming

Minimize the risk of corn silage fires

Teachers receive valuable lessons about farming

Climate change concerns grapegrowers

Canada eyes clean vines network

Province extends deadline for meat consultation

Top seller

Winery upstart banks on ranch’s rich history

Sidebar: Room to grow

Market Musings: Rain creates haying challenges

Nechako win

Forage council ready for a changing climate

Armyworm warning

Soda Creek social highlights land-matching

Research: The symbiotic relationship in pregnancy

Sheep farmers have high hopes for cooperative

PNE lamb

AAFC seeks volunteer weather reporters

Land commission orders Gleaners off ALR

Tour highlights adaption

Maan Farms keeps the focus on family

Ceadrow Farm tops Chilliwack sheep show

Island Holstein show and sale reflects quality

4-H sale saves the bacon for ranching student

4-H sale at the PNE is the best part of summer

Success is in the bag for barley entrepreneurs

Simple steps help to overcome gas exposure

Blueberries find a home in wine at Baccata

Woodshed: Henderson backs off while Frank closes in

Volunteers harvest for FV charities

Nutritious autumn eats

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1 day 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.

2 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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Province extends deadline for meat consultation

Industry says it was shut out of original consultation process

September 1, 2019 byTom Walker

MERRITT—The province’s latest bungle in the seemingly endless consultations on meat processing in the province have added yet another note of frustration to the voice of Julia Smith.

Smith, president of the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association, is baffled at the province’s reasoning for not including industry in a request for feedback from local governments about class D slaughter licences, which allow holders to slaughter 25 animal units and engage in limited retail sales in 10 of the province’s 27 regional districts.

“They said if they told us, they’d have to tell everybody,” she says. “What is the worst that could happen if you told everybody?”

Unlike at facilities holding class A and B licences, the slaughter process at Class D establishments is not inspected by the province.

The BC Ministry of Agriculture asked local governments on June 3 for input on “proposals for new class D regions or sub-regions; and designation of new regions or sub-regions.”

Submissions were to be accepted through July 19.

Smith says there were three problems with the process: it came in the midst of summer holidays, regional districts are generally unfamiliar with the concept of class D licences, and the timeline was a short six weeks.

Moreover, industry wasn’t included.

“We heard about this second-hand,” says Smith. “We scrambled to make a big fuss and got an initial extension. And that’s when they told me they would have had to tell everybody.”

The initial extension ran until July 26, but was soon extended to October 1.

Smith says that the extra time gives small producers a chance to speak with their local governments and explain the business case for having a D-class abattoir in their region.

“We’d like to help the ministry get the feedback they are asking for,” says Smith. “The small-scale meat industry is a legitimate business with proven market demand and we need access to more processing – or we are hamstrung.”

Small-scale meat producers need to be able to process animals every month, explains Smith, who operates Blue Sky Ranch outside of Merritt, but that’s difficult right now given the long lead times abattoirs require.

“I’m trying to book for December and I can’t get a date,” she says. “I don’t even bother trying for September, October, November.”

Her association is asking for more D-class plants across the province, not only in the Thompson Nicola Regional District where she farms. TNRD is not considered remote and is not allowed to have D-class abattoirs at the present time.

“I think if the TNRD and other regional districts have a chance to learn about what the economic opportunity is here, I think they will get behind this,” she says.

Seasonal issue

Nova Woodbury, executive director of the BC Association of Abattoirs, isn’t sure more abattoirs are needed. (The province has commissioned a study of slaughter capacity in BC, due for delivery this fall.)

She travels across the province working with both inspected and uninspected plants, and feels the problems are limited to set times of the year.

“My feeling is that we only have a capacity problem during the fall run in October and November when a lot of the beef and game is getting processed,” she says. “We have the capacity to kill animals. We may have a lack of cooler space to hang carcasses, and we certainly do have a labour shortage to staff the cut and wrap process.”

Kamloops mayor Ken Christian is a director with the TNRD and previously spent 37 years in public health, ending his career as regional director, health protection, for the Interior Health Authority.

Christian doesn’t think more D-class licences would be a problem.

“I don’t think constituents are very aware of the lower level of inspection for D and E licences,” says Christian. “There is an assumption that every piece of meat that shows up on your plate in a restaurant is inspected and that is a naive and impossible assumption.”

And that’s likely to remain the norm.

“I think that random testing and random inspection of slaughterhouse floors is probably the best that you will ever get,” he says.

However, he says better follow-up is needed when complaints arise to maintain public confidence in meat when food-borne illnesses occur. The current process is complaint-driven, and regulators need to make sure complaints are adequately addressed.

“If they did that better, then I think you would be able to nip these things in the bud,” he says.

Christian says staff did annual visits to licensed plants along with following up every complaint when he was with IHA.

A key area for concern, Christian says, are farmers’ markets, such as the one in Kamloops.

“It is more or less an extension of farmgate sales, and that is something that people turn a relatively blind eye, too,” he says.

The risk that worries him is a food-safety incident at a local market which could jeopardize the reputation of the entire meat industry. However, he doesn’t think the risk is any greater at uninspected plants than government-inspected plants.

“Quite frankly, even with the federal system, you have that potential,” he says. “I don’t think there is going to be a whole lot of difference.”

This doesn’t sit well with Woodbury, who believes government is missing the point by considering more

D-class licences.

“There is no reason to increase uninspected meat in this province,” she says. “Third-party oversight assures the consumer that food safety and animal welfare concerns are being addressed.”

Smith says her association isn’t opposed to inspections. She would like to see slaughter capacity in small communities, reducing travel time for animals even if it increases it for inspectors.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to say that the second and third Tuesday of the month are kill days in Merritt and they send an inspector to the Nicola Valley?” she asks. “Wouldn’t that be easier than having all of us haul our animals all over the place?”

But it’s a tough discussion to have, especially with governments throwing their support behind plant-based diets.

“I worry that meat is not a very politically popular topic right now,” she says. “Nobody wants to talk about killing animals, but that’s what we need to talk about.”

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