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FEBRUARY 2023
Vol. 108 Issue 2

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7 days 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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2 weeks 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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Record high pork stocks

September 25, 2019 byTom Walker

Chinese consumers eat 88 pounds of pork a year, more than anyone else in the world, but a trade war means producers from North America won’t be able to feed that market – and they’ll have to deal with rising inventories of their own in the interim.

China is home to more than half the world’s pigs, explains Anne Wasko, a market analyst with Gateway Livestock Exchange in Eastend, Saskatchewan.

In January 2018, it had 441.6 million hogs. By this April, African swine fever (ASF) had resulted in a 22% drop in sow numbers. That works out to 9.7 million fewer sows in China, or the birth of 150 to 200 million fewer piglets – the equivalent of 12 to 15 million metric tons less pork. The shortfall has chopped 30% of the country’s pork.
“It’s not going to be a fast fix,” says Brian Warr, cattle veterinary services manager with Zoetis. “We can only hope [ASF] stays right there in China. We have a global concern about its spread.”

But the market hasn’t yet seen the effects of China’s pork shortfall, says Wasko. China slaughtered and froze as much pork as it could last year, but those inventories are running out. Pork prices began to rise in August.

“They are starting to import more of all three proteins: pork, chicken and beef,” she says. “Even though beef will never be the leader there, we will see some uptick.”

The reason, Wasko explains, is that Chinese consumers eat about 88 lbs of pork per person a year, more than anywhere else in the world. There is no way the rest of the world can fill the gap created by ASF.

“World-wide exports of pork are only eight million tonnes,” notes Wasko. “So even if it all went to China, it would not make up the shortfall.”

Moreover, tariffs on US meat and a ban on imports from Canada mean China can’t look to North America to supply it.

“Chinese consumers will simply have to eat less pork,” says Wasko.

Meanwhile, a record high pork inventory in the US has begun to push down beef prices because there’s simply too much meat relative to demand.

“It’s a protein story,” says Wasko, noting that much demands on whether or not US producers can find alternative export markets, something producers in Canada also trying to do. “This story has a long tail to it and we will be talking about it next year as well.”

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