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Originally published:

August 2017
Vol. 103 Issue 8

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Stories In This Edition

Out of harms way: photo

Wildfires put hundreds of ranchers at risk

Popham appointed ag minister

LIFO a hindrance, supply managed groups say

Dream job

Editorial: Trial by Fire

Back Forty: Future of farming – without the farmer

OpEd: Annual fairs celebrate hard work, diversity of farmers

Ranchers first line of defense against wildfires

Photo: Too close for comfort

Wildfire destroys Ashcroft dairy, feedlot

Weather delivers a lighter berry crop

BC turkey allocations fall as consumption lags

Photo: Fan club

Kelowna ag plan looks to strengthen farming

Ag brief: Ag council announces new executive members

Ag Brief: Rollover claims farmer

Ag Brief: Scholarship winner announced

Ag Brief: FCC steps up

Letter: Protect farmland

Village Farms sets to roll with cannibis

Photo: Matsqui retirement

Surprise audits part of tighter food safety regimes

NAFTA on block

Demand for ranchland drives BC property sales

Photo: Strike

Island farmers grapple with armyworm infestation

Berryhill opens new Chilliwack processing plant

Alfalfa winterkill puts chill on Nechako Valley exports

Sidebar: Feed, pasture in short supply

Tractor parade honours well-loved

Cowichan farmer

Partnership creates forage possiblities

Sidebar: How did it work

Cover crop trials aim to throw new

seeds into mix

Research: Is bigger always better

Salmon a cash cow for BC fish farmers

Sidebar: Would you rather be a fish?

Kwantlen gives governments food system options

KPU field lab grows opportunities for students, public

Summerland location of choice for innovation centre

Soft landing

Impacts of farming under stress often hidden

Hedgerows offer native plants for native bugs

Sidebar: Cultivating pollinators

BC sheep producers take honours at national competition

Fair Season

Stock show

Wannabe – when fire rages

Alpacas find a haven in the North Okanagan

Woodshed: Henderson’s mishap no laughing matter

Dairy farm breakfasts welcome public

Dilly-icious dishes

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10 hours 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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5 days 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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Ranchers first line of defense against wildfires

August 1, 2017 byTamara Leigh

WILLIAMS LAKE – On July 6, Cheryl Monical and her husband Ed noticed smoke over the hill while moving cattle at their ranch near 105 Mile House. Twenty-four hours later, they were fighting a wildfire 200 feet from their doorstep.

“At the time the fire was coming at us, the police showed up and told us that we were under evacuation and we refused to go, so they took our vital information and who our dentist was and wished us luck,” says Monical. “It’s kind of creepy when they ask you for your dental records.”

Like many ranchers this summer, the Monicals chose to stay and fight. They built fire breaks, put out spot fires, installed sprinklers on buildings and tried to keep their cattle off the roads. With the support of neighbours and friends, the family fought the fire for five days before fire crews arrived.

“Forestry crews showed up on Wednesday afternoon and the fire boss said, ‘We were wondering why there was a straight line in the fire on the north edge,’” recounts Monical. “The fire crews didn’t know we were out there. The helicopters knew we were out there because they kept dumping water for the boys when they had time.”

Communication in any emergency is key but this year more than 200 wildfires sparked within a few short days. Closing the gaps was more difficult, leaving many ranchers feeling like they’ve been fighting the authorities as much as the fires.

“People were fighting against neighbours and ranchers working together to save their part of the community,” says Monical. “If that fire got past our homemade farmer firebreak, it was going to go straight into a bunch of big fir timber and straight to Lac La Hache from there.”

Kevin Boon, general manager of the BC Cattlemen’s Association, has been working to help improve co-ordination – taking calls from ranchers in need and relaying information to the Emergency Operations Centres.

“So many times, these ranchers are the first line of defense. … These people who stay behind know the lay of the land, know how to manoeuvre through it. They’re out to help the situation,” he says. “We have to work out a better system of communication to be able to get this access for the legit person who needs to be there for a legit reason.”

BCCA would like to see more ranchers receive S-100 Basic Fire Suppression and Safety training, which the BC Wildfire Service offers. In the meantime, he’s working with officials to take the pressure off ranchers like the Monicals who have stayed to fight the ongoing fires, some of which remained uncontained at press time.

“A lot of ranchers can’t get back in if they leave, so they are in greater danger because they are running out of food and fuel. Instead of starving them out, let’s help them stay to look after things we don’t have resources for right now,” says Boon.

His words resonate with Monical.

“What really got us was on the Saturday we had four water tanks and we were beating that fire back. On Sunday, they wouldn’t allow our people to cross security lines and we were down to one tank,” she says. “We had a fellow coming in with a water tank and fuel – he got arrested and they seized the truck. It’s a total lack of good management in my mind.”

Gratitude

While frustrations run high, so does the appreciation of the tremendous effort that has gone into protecting people, property and livestock during the crisis. Wylie Bystedt farms near Kersley, south of Quesnel, and when winds whipped a lightning strike into an inferno near her ranch in only two hours, fire crews hit hard and fast.

“We were advised to leave but we didn’t. When fire happens that quickly, it doesn’t give decision-makers a lot of time in terms of organizing responses or evacuation orders,” she says. “They hit the fire really hard the first night. The second water bomber saved my house and outbuildings. If it was 30 minutes later, I wouldn’t have a house.”

Bystedt and her husband retreated to the highway at the fire’s peak but returned that night to fight spot fires and ground fires while ground crews fought further away.

Despite the speed and intensity of the fire, they didn’t lose any livestock.

“We saved them all. Well, the llamas saved themselves. They were out in the back field so we had no way of finding them or catching them,” says Bystedt. “At the time of the fire, we had no time to even think about evacuating livestock. We put sprinklers on chicken coops and animal sheds and hoped like hell that they weren’t needed.”

With the fire in her area contained, roadblocks are coming down and people are getting on with the work of rebuilding.

“This has been a really tough year for local agriculture. We had floods in the early season; now, we have fires over the summer,” says Bystedt. “We’re not going to know

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