• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Country Life In BC Logo

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915

  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

Primary Sidebar

Originally published:

June 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 6

Subscribe Now!

Sign up for free weekly FARM NEWS UPDATES


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Your information will not be
shared or sold ever

Stories In This Edition

First Cut

Hog farm won’t face charges

Okanagan drives land values

Where’s the beef?

Minister defends Bill 15 changes

Back Forty: Farmers, not just farmland, need revitalization

Editorial: No peace, no order

ALR restrictions make commuting a fact of life

Johnston’s Packers targeted by activists

Child labour

Sidebar: When is a crime not a crime?

Berry growers get long-awaited funding boost

Proteobiotics reduce poultry, swine infections

Greenhouse growth stymied by gas prices

Bloom

Increase farm productivity with cover crops

Ag Briefs: Water fees not evenly distributed among users

Ag Briefs: BC Tree Fruits prepares to relocate

Farmland trust explored for Island

New owner, same faces

Fruitful experience

Fruit growers cautiously optimistic on bloom set

Honeycrisp key to success for Golden Apple winners

Changes to slaughter rules taking too long

Going! Going! Gone

Local meat deamnd creating opportunities

Sidebar: Compost in 14 days

Ranch takes pasture to plate at face value

Market Musings: Technology has its challenges

Oliver veggie grower prefers wholesale

Grocer offers tips to get a foot in the door

Greenhouse veggie days a hit with school

Haskap research may help berry go mainstream

Grow up!

Research: Bee sensitivity linked to neonic pesticides

Fraser Valley orchardist calling it a day

Rally cry

Worming his way to the top of the heap

Mushrooms a viable crop for small growers

Island 4-H beef show celebrates 25 years

Woodshed: Deborah starts her vacation a golf widow

Brewery’s food program spawns farm project

Jude’s Kitchen: Celebrate dads!

More Headlines

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

1 day 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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 8
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Patti 😊

3 days ago

... See MoreSee Less

View Comments
  • Likes: 4
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

3 days 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

Link thumbnail

Ranchers get the backstory on public perception

www.countrylifeinbc.com

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...
View Comments
  • Likes: 3
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

4 days 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

Link thumbnail

Lake Country packing house sold

www.countrylifeinbc.com

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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 7
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 5

Comment on Facebook

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.

View more comments

5 days 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/
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Subscribe | Advertise

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Ranch takes pasture to plate at face value

Devick Ranch builds Class A abattoir to meet consumer demand

PROBLEM SOLVING Frustrated by how the lack of meat processing capacity in the province was preventing expansion of direct meat sales to their customers, the Devick family built a Class A abattoir on their ranch near Kamloops. [ANITA DEVICK PHOTO]

May 28, 2019 byTom Walker

by TOM WALKER

HEFFLEY CREEK – Taking the bull by the horns is something the Devick family has been doing since 1906. That’s when it first built a ranch and began running cattle in the Heffley-Louis Creek area north of Kamloops.

It often takes an independent business person to step up and fill a need in the market. While the lack of meat processing capacity has been a topic of concern in BC for a number of years, the Devick brothers and five of their sons have quietly gone ahead and built a Class A abattoir at their ranch.

“We have been doing beef sales for the last 15 to 20 years,” says Paul Devick, who gave a presentation on building a Class A abattoir at the annual general meeting of the BC Association of Abattoirs in April. “We run about 850 cow-calf pairs a year and we also have a feedlot and have been fattening our own cattle.”

A family meeting in February 2017 calved the idea for the slaughterhouse.

“The meat business has been pretty good for us selling to neighbours and friends,” notes Devick. “With our own plant, we would have everything in-house from gate to plate, eliminate the middleman and improve our bottom line along the way. We decided to move forward with the abattoir.”

Although the family wasn’t experienced in abattoir construction, it contracted Dave Charchuck and Sandra Vanderbyl to guide them and talked a lot with veteran Kamloops butcher Ron Keeley.

The first step was to work with BC Ministry of Agriculture staff and develop strategies related to marketing, business development, risk management and labour management.

“This was a very helpful exercise to see if we should carry forward,” says Devick. “We spent a lot of time talking and considering the ups and downs, and it still looked positive.”

They determined that half the plant would be for their own cattle. It would need to process about 12 to 15 animals daily for an annual capacity of 1,500 to 1,600 animals. The coolers would be able to hold about 70 whole beef carcasses, or 140 sides.

“We made a floor plan,” says Devick. “We had a limit of 6,000 square feet and it took probably 10 different plans before we got the [processing] flows right.”

He says they also developed HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and standard operating procedures.

Deciding what type of building to construct was where the fun began, continues Devick.

“We looked at a stick-frame and we looked at concrete,” he recalls. “In the end we went with SIP [structural insulated panels].”

Permits and licences were required before a shovel could be put in the ground.

“This is a very important step to be taken care of first,” he emphasizes.

The licences included one for water extractions, a water treatment permit, zoning and building permits, an abattoir licence, a licence to construct a compost system for waste disposal, a sewage disposal permit and, of course, a business licence.

The family acted as their own general contractor and picked trades they could work alongside, which saved money.

“Challenging but worth it,” says Devick. “But check out your contractors. We had a range from very good to one guy who was smoking a joint on his lunch break.”

Ranch equipment was used to move earth and prep the site.

“Make sure you get a geotech survey for your site,” cautions Devick, who said the one he got flagged the need to remove truckloads of clay before construction began.

Other challenges included starting construction in September 2017 and having to work through the winter, something he doesn’t advise. A mix of old and new equipment means that not everything works with the same ease.

On the plus side, labour has not been an issue.

“We feel we are quite lucky with the Kamloops labour base; we have been able to find good help,” he says. “We have one worker who has completed the Thompson Rivers University meat-cutting program and we have another one coming from the program next month.”

Devick says the ranch is now able to manage animals all the way from breeding to the butcher’s block, making them better able to satisfy customers. This hasn’t stopped them from buying animals to meet demand, however.

“It is a challenge having animals available all year round and we do buy some in the summer months,” he says.

A 900-pound calf going into their feedlot takes about three months to reach a 1,200 to 1,300 lb. slaughter weight. The animals are usually spoken for when they enter the yard, part of the ranch’s marketing program.

After their first kill in August last year, they were right into the fall run.

“It’s been a big learning curve but I think it is working well,” Devick says. “For the future, we are planning to move towards more value-added when we get the smoker and the sausage kitchen up and running. We have also looked at the possibility of doing a pet food line to try to reduce our waste and improve our bottom line.”

Devick says one of the keys to the successful start was being able to talk to other plant operators in the province about how to make things work.

“It’s great to have the support of your business associates and this association. They sure helped us a lot,” he said, gratefully.

 

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

New licences, new inspections

BC abattoir volume up 30% in 2020

Province reveals abattoir changes

SlaughterRight training launched by ag ministry

Rural recovery funds agriculture

Meat producers frustrated by consultations

Abattoir association calls for action

Closures underscore need for licensing reform

Rethinking the concept for mobile abattoirs

Industry mourns abattoir champion

Island farmers renew request for local abattoir

Meat inspection budget tightens

Previous Post: « Bill 15 could be delayed
Next Post: June boosts costs »

Copyright © 2023 Country Life in BC · All Rights Reserved