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Originally published:

April 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 4

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Stories In This Edition

Labour trouble

OYF winners from Kootenays

Loan program will focus on female farm entrepreneurs

Editorial: Telling the story

Back Forty: Political succession has its perks and pitfalls

Op Ed: Research is a focus of BC’s grape and wine sector

Lack of processor capacity limits quota increases

Raw milk advocates take case to Victoria

Pig Trace identifies over 900 BC hog producers

Organic growers provide feedback on ALR

COABC changes governance structure

Organic growers prep for new labelling regs

Above-normal snowpacks cause for concern

Senate hearing highlights climate change concerns

BC egg producers ramp up production

Sidebar: Call for collaboration

Ag spending up, but don’t say “fire”

Trump wrong on NAFTA

Chicken growers demand pricing parity

Allocations clawed back as demand dwindles

Sidebar: Supply management debate

Ag Brief: Fruit industry mourns leader Greg Norton

Ag Brief: ALR draws feedback

Ag Brief: BC rancher to head Canadian Cattlemen’s

Ag Brief: Provincial lab vindicated

Farmers’ markets aiming for greater share

Cannabis smoke screen

Cherry growers eye Korea

Market champions

Making the right call in a horrible situation

Optimistic outlook for beef sector

Bull buyers on a mission

Soil, cover crop management highlights workshop

Fibresheds give local movement new meaning

Compensation available for sheep losses

Research: Study considers optimism & pessimism in calves

Weeds a big challenge for forage producers

Cranberry growers wrestle with low yields

Sidebar: Election postponed

Sanding and cranberry plant health

US consumers buy up non-browning apples

Foodgrains tour to Nepal makes a difference

Sidebar: Career options

Sale benefits those in need

4-H BC: The grand prize

Wannabe Farmer: Patience is a virtue embraced by farmers

Woodshed Chronicles: The Massey takes Henderson for a spin

Jude’s Kitchen: Spring greens

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4 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

1 month 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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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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Research is a focus of BC’s grape and wine sector

Viewpoint

July 4, 2018 byHans Buchler

The British Columbia grape and wine industry began investing in research around 15 years ago, first with levies collected under the research and development committee of the BC Wine Institute and, since 2006, through the British Columbia Wine Grape Council (BCWGC), established under the BC Farming and Fishing Industries Development Act.

The grower and winery community realized early on that industry-initiated and funded research could make a considerable contribution to the success of the sector. From the beginning, optimization of the quality aspects of grapes and wine and the sustainability of the entire value chain with particular emphasis on the environment have been the two main focal points of our efforts.

Over the past few years, we have built on earlier efforts to develop the Sustainable Winegrowing Program [sustainablewinegrowingbc.ca], which is now beginning to gain momentum in the wine, grape and hospitality sectors. We hope that the quest for continuous improvement, which is the foundation of any sustainability program, will become the norm for the majority of our members.
Research efforts supporting the goal of sustainability include, for example, investigations into the use of cover crops to reduce climbing cutworm and other insect pests and increasing populations of beneficial organisms. General reduction of pesticide use through better understanding and modelling of disease and pest complexes is a priority for current and future research.

The increasing adoption of regulated deficit irrigation based on years of work conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers has not only contributed to the overall improvement in grape quality, but has also resulted in sometimes considerable reduction in water consumption.

The quality of BC wines has consistently improved over the last two decades, which has greatly contributed to the ongoing increase in market share of BC wines in this province, in Alberta and the rest of Canada. The research activities that have contributed to this outcome are too many to list, but the research team at the federal Summerland Research and Development Centre and those at UBC, both in the Okanagan and Vancouver, have been the main contributors.

Successful participation in the two Growing Forward five-year funding cycles led the BCWGC to decide to further enhance partnerships and collaboration with the three other wine-producing provinces. Together with its counterparts in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec, it developed a joint application for funding through the Science Cluster envelope under the new Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP).

This application for the five-year successor program to Growing Forward 2 is lead by the Canadian Grapevine Certification Network (CGCN). The CGCN was incorporated in early 2017 as a national not-for-profit corporation with the mandate to develop and implement standards and procedures for improving the phytosanitary status of domestic grapevine propagation material.

Because the CGCN is the only national organization representing grapegrower associations from all four provinces, choosing this body to head the Canadian Grape and Wine Science Cluster was a natural fit.

Proposal

In January of this year, we submitted a project proposal covering 29 research activities of national priority. Providing funding comes through, these will be undertaken in federal, academic and private research settings across the country. The CGCN will be in charge of co-ordinating the research and administering the finances. Knowledge and technology transfer to all related industries in the country will be of critical importance.

The application, titled Fostering the Sustainable Growth of the Canadian Grape and Wine Sector, has been grouped under seven theme areas, covering everything from pest control issues using new, environmentally benign approaches, to enhancing the quality of wine through a broad spectrum of management practices in the field and winery.

One of the high priority areas is the ongoing investigation and mitigation of a number of virus diseases that threaten vineyards in most major grape-growing regions across the globe.
Some of these viral infections can have a negative economic impact by reducing yield and impacting grape maturity and quality. As there is currently no cure for any of these viruses, early detection and elimination from existing plantings and propagation blocks is critical. This requires a well-co-ordinated effort, starting with diagnosis and vector control and then proceeding to elimination of infected material and replanting with virus free, clean stock.

All of this requires support from a broad range of research disciplines and fits perfectly within the mandate of the CGCN.

As the consuming public becomes more and more concerned with how crops are grown and processed, research will play a critical role in finding new solutions that comply with the principles of environmental sustainability.

Hans Buchler is chair of the Canadian Grapevine Certification Network and a director of the BC Wine Grape Council. He grows grapes at Park Hill Vineyards in Oliver.

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