Province funds feed access

The province updated industry this week on efforts announced July 14 to match producers with feed supplies.

Access to Feed, a provincially funded program delivered in partnership with the BC Cattlemen’s Association, will see BC Cattlemen’s match sellers of hay and feed domestically across Canada and internationally with farmers and producers.

The program is providing $150,000 to the BC Cattlemen’s Association, which has hired a matchmaker to link producers with suppliers. Cattlemen’s is engaging with the BC Grain Producers, BC Dairy Association, BC Forage Council and the BC Horse Council to search out feed domestically and internationally.

During a press conference held to announce the program, BC Cattlemen’s general manager Kevin Boon said the situation is dire following years of drought and wildfires that have depleted feed supplies provincewide.

Producers typically keep a year’s worth of feed on hand, but as the livestock sector pulled together to support each other during the 2021 heat dome, wildfires and flooding, reserves dropped. Drought conditions that began last summer have left producers unable to replenish their supplies.

“In the times that we were having the fires and we were having the floods, those people stepped up and gave up their year’s supply,” he said, praising the generosity of producers in the Peace and along Hwy 16. “They dug deep to be able to help their neighbours in the south. That’s part of what our industry does.”

The widespread nature of the dry spell that began last year has caught out everybody.

“Because [drought] this year was so widespread, we don’t have that past reserve,” he said.

With feed prices through the roof thanks to short supplies across Western North America, the province has won permission from the federal government to boost advance payments under AgriStability and streamline the application process to make it easier for producers to access support.

Boon said the industry will be looking not just for traditional hay supplies, but also turning to ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert to secure so-called “screening pellets” gleaned from loading systems between shipments among other sources.

Boon was unable to give an estimate on how much hay was needed, but said details regarding the support programs announced this week would give producers critical information.

“The big part of this is giving some insight and some answers to the ranchers so that they’re equipped to make the decisions that are necessary for them to carry on their operations and produce the beef and food that’s required,” he said. “We have individuals out searching for hay in other jurisdictions and we are finding it, and we are finding it at what I believe are reasonable prices to get here.”