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Originally published:

MARCH 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 3

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Stories In This Edition

Province to make Premises ID law

A wee bit of green

No extension for groundwater

Pandemic trends a moving target as spring comes

Editorial: Safe and secure

Back 40: Making the most of a simple pleasure

Viewpoint: Regenerative agriculture is the way of the future

SlaughterRight training launched by ministry

Ottawa to bankroll foreign worker quarantine

Ag advocates honoured at virtual gala

Coping with adversity requires an open mind

Blueberry growers dodge US trade complaint

Open for business

Codling moth control strategy shows promise for SWD

Cherry growers continue to focus on export markets

Ministry prepares to lend support to tree fruit co-op

Delta farm entrepreneur built strong relationships

Dairy picks new entrant short list

Early advocate for farmworkers’ rights remembered

Markets consider allowing Alberta vendors

Ranchers plead with province to address elk issue

Sidebar: Fencing program protects hay

Falkland beef plant finetuning operations

District A sets ambitious agenda

Don’t underestimate scope of farmers institutes

Everlasting

Strict pandemic plan keeps workers safe

Growers face up to labour challenges

Time to tap

Sidebar: Housing key for SAWP workers

Tulip festival to bloom again in Spallumcheen

Hazelnut growers face increased disease, pest threats

Resources go online

Hope prevails as hazelnuts target expansion

Research: Wildfires influence pollinator offspring

Raspberry growers see improved IQF pricing

Raspberry researchers select for hardiness

Direct farm marketers prepared for new season

Sudden dieback now showing up in cherries

Viewpoint: Consumers need more than a Buy Local campaign

New framework to measure AITC outcomes

Farm News: Wishful thinkign for the winter that wasn’t

Ewe know it’s spring

Juiced up over local produce options

Peer groups help foster innovation, support

Sidebar: How to start

Sisters create website to help small producers

Woodshed: Divorce proceedings take off with a dog fight

Gardener pens book about mason bees

Jude’s Kitchen: Spring is coming

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3 weeks ago

It’s been four years since the last tulip festival was held in Abbotsford, but this year’s event promises to be an even bigger spectacle than ever. Spanning 27 acres along Marion Road, Lakeland Flowers will display more than 70 varieties of the spring blossom, including fringe tulips and double tulips, the first of six months of flower festivals hosted by the farm. Writer Sandra Tretick spoke with Lakeland Flowers owner Nick Warmerdam this spring to find out how the floods on Sumas Prairie in 2021 have had an impact on his business plan as he transitions from wholesale cut flower grower to agri-tourism. We've posted the story to our website this month. It's a good read.

#CLBC #countrylifeinbc #tulipfestival
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Tulip grower makes the shift to agritourism

www.countrylifeinbc.com

ABBOTSFORD – On a bright sunny day in early April, Nick Warmerdam points out his office window at No. 4 and Marion roads to a spot about half a kilometre away across the Trans-Canada Highway.
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Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

4 weeks ago

Farming, like any other job.. only you punch in at age 5 and never punch out 🚜 ... See MoreSee Less

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Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

4 weeks ago

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is allocating $15 million to be administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. for a perennial crop replant program benefitting tree fruit, hazelnut, berry and grape growers. The program aims to cover 100% of plant removal costs and 75% of replanting costs. Funds are also available for sector development. The new program replaces a suite of sector-specific replant programs and recognizes the importance of sector adaptation in the face of market, disease and weather challenges.
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4 weeks ago

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year. ... See MoreSee Less

Just a week after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials revoked the last primary control zones established in the Fraser Valley to control last fall’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, a new detection on April 29 at a commercial premises in Chilliwack underscored the risk of a spring wave. This is the first new detection since January 22, also in Chilliwack, and brings to 104 the number of premises affected since the current outbreak began April 13, 2022. The disease has impacted 3.7 million birds in BC over the past year.
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Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

4 weeks ago

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agriculture's interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry. ... See MoreSee Less

The province is contributing $3.2 million for upgrades to the Barrowtown pump station in Abbotsford that was overwhelmed during the November 2021 flooding on Sumas Prairie, part of a collaborative approach to flood mitigation in the region. During a press conference at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food offices in Abbotsford today, the province said a collaborative approach that includes First Nations is needed as Abbotsford pursues a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy due to the potential impacts on Indigenous lands. Agricultures interests will be represented by technical teams within the agriculture ministry.
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I sure hope part of that money is to educate the people in charge of the pumps and drainage system! They just relayed on computers and weren’t even physically monitoring the water levels. I’ve lived in the Fraser Valley my whole life and the old guys managing that system know how to do it. The new generation just sit behind computer screens and don’t physically watch the water levels. That system works very well when you do it right. The Fraser river levels are very important. The system is designed to drain the Sumas Canal (the part that runs thru the valley) into the Fraser. When they let it get backed up it put pressure on the dyke and the weak part burst. Simple science. And yes, the dykes need to be worked on too. Abbotsford has not been maintaining properly for years.

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Strict pandemic plan keeps workers safe

Fruitgrower didn’t have a single COVID-19 case last summer

KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE. The Carlson family of Carcajou Fruit Co. in Summerland employed strict COVID-19 protocols early on to keep their families and workers safe. Many of those protocols will continue after the pandemic ends. CARCAJOU FRUIT CO.

March 1, 2021 byTom Walker

SUMMERLAND – Carcajou Fruit Co. is a 160-acre family business that typically hires 60 domestic workers to pick their cherries over a six-week period each summer.

But the COVID-19 pandemic last summer changed the labour game for the family-owned orchard. While the farm was lucky to receive 13 foreign workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, the farm’s human resources manager and COVID-19 coordinator Claire Tamang gave growers attending the Lower Mainland Horticultural Improvement Association’s short course at the end of January tips on managing domestic workers during the pandemic.

“In the past, we have been able to recruit backpackers, both from overseas and eastern Canada,” says Tamang.

With the border closed to non-essential travel and interprovincial travel discouraged, Carcajou was forced to look closer to home for harvest help.

Carcajou has a colourful, friendly website where workers can apply. There are short descriptions of the jobs, working conditions and benefits.

“We were able to attract a number of local restaurant workers who had been laid off,” says Tamang. “They had accommodation in the area and transport, so that was positive for us, and we paid them for travelling time.”

Carcajou was also able to hire a number of tree planters whose season usually runs from April to June.

“They are used to piecework and they already had experience living in a COVID-safe camp,” says Tamang.

Unlike for foreign workers, farmers aren’t required to provide housing for seasonal domestic workers such as backpackers, but it’s no secret that good picker camps attract the best workers. For out-of-town workers, Carcajou has three separate picker camps. It charges workers $5 a day, which covers the cost of tent platforms, fully equipped kitchen shelters, washroom and laundry facilities, lockers, WiFi and a full-time cleaner. In 2020, anyone who used their own vehicle to drive themselves and others to the orchards did not pay the $5 daily camp fee.

This is a significant improvement over some camps that spring up in orchards over the summer.  But Carcajou had expectations of pickers in return.

“We are not a party camp,” says Tamang, noting that long-standing policies remained in place. “We don’t allow pets or outside visitors; this is our home, too. We needed people to stay put.”

All workers completed the AgSafe COVID-19 awareness training first, then attended a mandatory orientation session that set out Carcajou’s expectations.

“We ended up having a lot of first-year pickers,” says Tamang. “They weren’t as fast as some of our backpacker crews, but they were happy to have work and abide by our expectations.”

Employees were grouped in work units of five that would live, eat and travel to the orchards together. They would self-assess each morning, mask-up in close situations, use sanitizing stations as they entered the orchard and refrain from mixing with other groups. If there was a pause in the harvest, workers weren’t to be picking up jobs at neighbouring farms.

“If they wanted extra work on a Saturday we found something for them to do,” says Tamang.

And there were to be none of the usual summer bush parties.

“We were strict, but we figured the risk of a shut-down from COVID and not being able to bring in our highly perishable crop far outweighed replacing a worker,” explains Tamang. “It helped that someone else was making the rules, but we expect that we will continue most of our routines in future summers.”

Four workers had to self-isolate while waiting for test results and received isolation pay, but there wasn’t a single case of COVID among Carcajou staff the entire summer.

Retaining travelling summer help can be challenging, so Carcajou pays what it calls a “bitter-end bonus” of 2-4 cents a pound for workers who stay the entire season.

“We would often have pickers who would take the last week off to head to the beach before going back to school,” says Tamang. “But most of our crop are late season cherries that we pick right up till the end of August.”

Even so, there was still time for fun.

“We had someone volunteer to be the social director and they organized beach days and we had our usual year-end party, though it was not the traditional blow out,” says Tamang.

Two chefs among the pickers were hired to cater a take-out bowl party and there was a musician, but employees stayed in their work units.

“We didn’t want to be the source of an exposure right at the end of our season,” says Tamang. “Workers packed up their camps and were on the road the next morning.”

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