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Originally published:

NOVEMBER 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 11

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Stories In This Edition

Down to the crunch

Producer prices on the rise

Feeling burned

Groundwater users could lose rights next year

The right thing

Editorial: Freedom worth having

Back 40: The battle continues long after the war is over

Viewpoint: Stories bridge the gap between producers, consumers

Growers wrestle with irrigation upgrades

Wildfire 2021

Abbotsford updates farmland policies

Stormy skies

Ag Briefs: Douglas Lake “right to roam” challenge dismissed

Ag Briefs: Creston food hub opens

Ag Briefs: Food processors receive funding

Ag Briefs: Vanderspek appointed

Summerland grape specialists retire

Grapevine virus spread threatens BC industry

Caught in the act

Abbotsford sheep grower honoured

Tag readers help with livestock recordkeeping

RegenBC kicks off agritech network

Producers silent on Columbia River Treaty impacts

Cranberry fields forever

Manitoba farmers make dreams a reality

Enderby dairy is anything but conventional

Improvement to classification services explored

Up close and personal

Partnering with farmers to reduce food loss

Sidebar: Upcycled food

Slow and steady wins the day for irrigation

Research: Study takes soil health to the next level

Nelson farm builds soil and local community

Cash flow analysis is key to resilience

New app zeroes in on reducing lost produce

Sidebar: Food hub offers room to grow

Farm Story: To hoard or not to hoard: that is the question

Bursary benefits rising farm professionals

Woodshed: So much for a little peace and quiet

Saanichton Farm receives Century Farm award

Jude’s Kitchen: Fall Flavours

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2 days ago

BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

#BCAg
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Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!

Congratulations

Congratulations <3

Congratulations to Duncan, Jane, and all the rest of the Barnett family!

Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane & Duncan 🥳

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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3 days ago

Grapegrower Colleen Ingram, who was recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association. “Given the devastation we have had over the last three years, I feel like this award should be given to the entire industry,” she says. Her story appears in the June edition of Country Life in BC, and we've also posted to our website.

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Industry champion named BC’s best grape grower

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KELOWNA – Colleen Ingram’s enthusiasm for collaboration within the BC wine industry is so great that when she was named 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association, she wanted to sh...
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1 month ago

From orchard manager to government specialist and now executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association, Adrian Arts brings a rare blend of hands-on farming experience and organizational leadership to an industry poised for renewal. His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BC fruit growers, with Arts expressing enthusiasm about continuing the momentum built by his predecessor and working alongside a board that signals a generational shift in agricultural advocacy.

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Arts leads BCFGA forward

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A combination of organizational management and practical farming experience has primed the new executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association to lead the industry forward.
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1 month ago

A public consultation is now underway on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board. Key issues for dairy producers include transportation costs, rules governing shipments and limitations on supporting processing initiatives. Stakeholders have until May 31 to comment.

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Milk board undertakes review

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A public consultation on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board is underway as part of a triennial review required by the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board Regulation.
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1 month ago

BC wool shipments drop sharply in 2023, according to StatsCan data released in mid-April. Local producers shipped just 5,200kg at 37¢/kg, down from 18,600kg at $1.08/kg in 2022. While many farmers now use wool on-farm or dispose of it due to low market value, innovative producers like Emily McIvor point to untapped opportunities. Read more in our Farm News Update from Country Life in BC.

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BC wool value, volume drop

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BC sheep producers shipped less wool for less in 2023, reversing strong growth a year earlier. BC producers shipped 5,200 kilograms of raw wool in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data released on...
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To hoard or not to hoard: that is the question

November 1, 2021 byAnna Helmer

It could be said, so I’ll say it here, that it’s quite likely farmers come in two types: those who save their scrap metal, and those who do not. Obviously, there are myriad further sub-types. Farmers are a complicated, thoughtful, diverse and stereotype-busting bunch and I would be the last to publicly suggest otherwise. On my farm, however, it seems we are divided by our approach to metal.

Metal is the inevitable issue of farming with all this necessary metal equipment. Left behind following modifications, strip downs and breakdowns, it seems metal begets metal. Scrap metal. Call it what you will, I don’t want to part with any of it, a position reinforced almost regularly when a new purpose is found for previously useless pieces of metal. I don’t know what the future looks like. I must keep it all.

It gets stashed. I hoard with relish and use with triumph. My personal inventory, the metal I have been involved in scrapping, is pleasingly diverse and extensive. Ranging from the smallest bits to large – in all their enormous, cumbersome and weighty glory – I even remember where most if it originated. There are shelves stuffed with nuts and bolts and random cuts. There are two or three diminishing digger chains, the links gradually being re-purposed as trellising stakes in the greenhouse and gardens. Several historical hydraulic cylinders are almost certainly stacked in a corner I haven’t been back to for a few years. A rather extensive selection of broken S-tines, bent cultivator tools and cracked cast iron items requiring repiling reside there as well. Discs with broken bearing centres are starting to line the barn walls, and old potato planter and harvester gears are in a bin so heavy it might never move again.

This year, I was very pleased to use the good end of a length of a long-ago driven-upon water pipe, which I had poked into the bushes at the time both to hide the evidence and to save for later use. I dragged it out, cut off the crushed part, and attached the remaining six feet to the line. The muddy bank on the swimming hole was thusly cleared, thereby allowing clear water to gush forth.

Good thing I kept that broken pipe, right? All you metal-throwing-out-farmer-people who cavorted in a swimmable pond during a heat wave should be thankful.

I anticipate going through the usual middle-aged creative welding phase which I hope will consume the whacks of handle-less shovels, spades, forks and rebar tidbits I have saved for this eventuality. At least, I hope it does because I need to get ahead of the growing inventory. It is a troubling fact that the other type of farmer, the one who does not save scrap metal, exists on my farm. They are active, enterprising and tend to sneak my metal off for recycling.

Anyways, I digress. What I really wanted to talk about is social media and how to constructively manage its shockingly addictive nature. Kidding. I have no idea how to do that.

I would also like to mention fall farming and how thankful I am that it has arrived. A day rarely passed in this rain-less summer, as successive heat waves followed the heat dome, where I didn’t wistfully reflect on the inevitable yet impossibly distant arrival of autumn. Not to sound too dreary about it, but I held fast to the vision of a cold, wet fall.

Sure enough, the fields are getting too muddy to work, raindrops are rolling down my neck and I am contending with cold fingers in inadequate work gloves.

It’s really all I dreamed of.

Anna Helmer’s farms in Pemberton with her family of several types.

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