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Originally published:

February 2019
Vol. 105 Issue 2

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Stories In This Edition

Joy Ride!

Critics urge licence delay

ALR committee files report

Cannabis drives drop in Delta farm assessments

Editorial: Party and province

Back Forty: You can’t get apps on that

Viewpoint: Annual assessments a chance to take stock

Staff reorganization targets leaner fruit co-op

Preliminary hearing in high-profile poultry abuse

Growers pin hopes on Columbia River update

Survey keeps national park reserve in spotlight

Political engagement headlines dairy meeting

World milk prices take blame for shifting returns

Patience is a virtue

Ag Briefs: Sasaki appointed new head of chicken board

Ag Briefs: Ottawa invests in dairy sector

AB: Piece rates, taxes increase

AB: AITC focuses on growth

Capital Region considers compensation cuts

Letters: Protect farmland from cannabis production

Letters: Dog owners need to accept responsibility

Letters: The beef about climate change

Cadillac’ of aviaries will reduce labour costs

Berry growers face new import requirements

Open house reveals secrets of diagnostics lab

Cannabis propagation industry sprouting in BC

Sidebar: Deep roots

FCC targets women with new business program

Agreement sets stage for fish farm phase-out

Grazing, forage and water top list at town hall

Ranchers reassured regarding bovine TB cases

Digging into soil nutrition at education day

Microgreen grower attracts far-flung following

Science of cannabis takes centre stage

Blueberry growers hone use of box liners

Ostrich industry takes flight with big plans

Tunnels boost fruit quality, add to berry season

Big bucks being spent to protect bee health

Sidebar: Province boosts funding

Mystery bee disease studied

Direct-marketing opportunities have potential

Research: Preventing soft scald in apples

Regional food system is the new focus of group’s efforts

Wannabe: Growers deserve our love

Woodshed: A performance Kenneth can’t afford to miss

Jude’s Kitchen: Happy new year, my sweet Valentine

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24 hours ago

Fecal coliform levels in the streams and watercourses that flow through Langley has been an issue for decades. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has received $97,000 from the federal government to work with property owners to help them reduce their impact on water quality and the environment, and ensure their properties are in compliance with the Agriculture Environmental Management Code of Practice (AEMCoP). The story is in the February edition of Country Life in BC. Subscribe today bit.ly/3RIKms9/.

#BCAg #aemcop
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Fecal coliform levels in the streams and watercourses that flow through Langley has been an issue for decades. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has received $97,000 from the federal government to work with property owners to help them reduce their impact on water quality and the environment, and ensure their properties are in compliance with the Agriculture Environmental Management Code of Practice (AEMCoP). The story is in the February edition of Country Life in BC. Subscribe today https://bit.ly/3RIKms9/.

#BCAg #AEMCoP
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2 days ago

BC dairy farmers are feeling the pinch and some in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. It's our cover story in the February edition of Country Life in BC.

bit.ly/3JGgk6B

#bcagriculture #bcdairy
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BC dairy farmers are feeling the pinch and some in the Fraser Valley are considering selling as narrow margins get tighter and high financing costs complicate succession plans. Its our cover story in the February edition of Country Life in BC.

https://bit.ly/3JGgk6B

#bcagriculture #bcdairy
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So much pressure being put on the dairy industry from the US. It’s hard to keep the lobbying at bay. Canadian dairy should supply Canadian tables and the farmers who provide it should be paid what they are worth. There is no such thing as cheap food

Farm Management is key. It can't all be blamed on the government.

Just been watching NZ TV news and the price of food. Most complaining about the price of dairy products due to the fact that domestic prices are high with most production being exported. No supply management.

I really don't understand the concern here. The article literally says 30-40 of 600 BC dairy farms (that's less than 1%) are experiencing financial pressure, likely due to being somewhat overleveraged. Sounds like just some mismanagement rather than a broad policy failure is the cause here.

Whole Food Plant Based eating ...oat milk coconut milk Almond milk soy milk etc

Noooooooo. That’s exactly what this LIB/NDP party wants. They want everyone to cave in to their knees. Don’t do it. It’ll be the end.

A lot of this is government squeeze. Be hungry and compliant!

The government is the eternal enemy of humanity.

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1 week 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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Staff reorganization targets leaner fruit co-op

Drive to cut costs could see co-op relocate

January 29, 2019 byTom Walker

KELOWNA – The province’s biggest fruit co-op is facing a dramatic shakeup, as turnover pares both the executive team and key staff

In November, BC Tree Fruits Cooperative’s board decided not to renew the management contract of CEO Stan Swales, who stepped into the role in November 2016. CFO Warren Everton also left to work for the city of West Kelowna after six years.

Within the past month, key grower support staff were dismissed and a member of the marketing department resigned. The individuals will not be replaced.

Co-op president Jeet Dukhia told Country Life in BC Everton “was looking for other opportunities.”

“We have advertised for the CFO position and we have had 41 good applicants. We are shortlisting and hope within a week to have a new CFO,” he said in early January.

Swales remains an employee of the co-op, assisting with operations. The board had the option to reassign him from management in the third year of his contract, which it has done.

“He likes the co-op so much that he wants to try something different where he can be more helpful,” says Dukhia. “He is assisting the operations manager and focusing on long-term plans.”

The co-op’s human resources manager, Bob Fisher-Fleming, is serving as interim CEO while Swales’ successor is chosen. The new hire will be the company’s third leader since 2012, when Alan Tyabji was hired. Tyabji was fired in 2016.

Fisher-Fleming’s mandate is “to keep things moving forward” during the critical winter marketing period, says co-op marketing manager Chris Pollock.

Dukhia did not comment on the quest for a new CEO.

Cost-cutting

Dukhia described the dismissal of five of the co-op’s grower support staff as “cost cutting.”

Its well-respected senior field services manager Hank Markgraf and long-time Okanagan field serviceman Tony DiMaria have both been let go. Creston Valley field serviceman Duane Holder was also terminated. Plant pathologist Danielle Hirkala and lab technician Lisa Hilbrecht were dismissed, too.

“The board has asked the acting CEO to restructure from the bottom end, to cut costs and bring the overhead into alignment,” says Dukhia. “These are both board and management-led decisions.”

Speaking on behalf of Fisher-Fleming, Pollock described the firings as “a board decision” and “without cause” and said the co-op offered each employee a severance package.

The cuts come at a time when the industry as a whole is expanding.

Dukhia says that growers have purchased 1,500 acres of new land for fruit production in the last three years. Moreover, land that has been fallow or seeded to hay has been brought back into orchard production. Across the province, older, less profitable apple varieties are being replanted with new cultivars that will promise growers better returns.

Pollock says the Ambrosia crop sits at 400,000 cartons, but he expects that to triple to more than 1.2 million cartons in the next seven to nine years.

But new varieties call for up-to-date grower knowledge.

Honeycrisp, the most profitable variety for growers in the current market, can suffer up to 30% losses in the orchard. Grower skill varies greatly, with apple production ranging from an average of 30 bins an acre to more than 80. The difference shows the need for field support to assist growers, service for which the BC Fruit Growers Association honoured Markgraf when it presented him with its award of merit in 2017.

“The board wanted to focus more on the core business of what we do,” says Pollock. “We provide services that other grower-shippers across the valley do not do – field services being one of them – and it was decided to cut staff.”

Pollock’s statement is not completely accurate, however.  Jealous Fruits, the largest cherry grower-shipper in the province, employs two field service horticulturalists for its one crop.

BCTF members grow apples, cherries, peaches, plums and nectarines.

Many of the new plantings in the Okanagan and Creston valleys are cherries, a profitable export crop, yet Doug Needham, the co-op’s former export cherry coordinator who resigned this summer, will not be replaced.

Dukhia doesn’t think that the firings, resignations and lack of replacements will reflect badly on the co-op, however.

“All the people I talk to are supportive,” he says. “We are the leaders in the industry and they want us to be in good shape and economically as lean as we can be to bring good prices.”

“That’s the bottom line,” emphasizes Dukhia. “The main aim is to get good returns to the growers.”

Dukhia adds that as a former president of the BCFGA, he has a good knowledge of the industry and connections with parties on both sides of the legislature.

“We are trying to get some money for our long-term plan to have an automated plant in the north,” he says.

Dukhia says the current restructuring could also involve relocating the co-op to a cheaper location on Kelowna’s outskirts. A decision is expected within six months as part of a master plan for its holdings.

“We have lots of properties downtown, which is very expensive. We should be on the outskirts of the city where land is cheap,” he says. “We are looking to the next 50 years.”

 

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