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Originally published:

May 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 5

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Stories In This Edition

Fraser Valley bee shortage overstated

Still waiting: ag waste regs

Cannabis shift delivers hit to vegetable sector

Peter’s legacy

Editorial: The straight dope

Back Forty: Our best friend deserves greater recognitiontory

Overheard: Farmers should embrace First Nations model

Change is coming, fast and furious

Foundation effective in fueling ag projects

New meat producer association launched

Sidebar: On board

Traceability regs to include animal movement

Report recommends FN approval on tenures

Province urged to regulate farmhouse size

Dairy group highlights industry needs on tour

Ottawa plays hardball with Agassiz leases

IAF showcases innovative ag projects

Neonics in water not from farm operations

Potato growers need to exploit opportunities

Spuds in tubs

Vegetable commission optimistic

Sidebar: Variety update

MacAulay grilled over farm labour issues

Apiarists want pollination income to count

Sidebar: BCHPA launches pollinator health study

Raspberry growers increase board size

Popham meets with berry growers

Hazelnut growers flush with optimism

Ranchers schooled in disaster preparation

Westgen eyes beef semen sales for growth

Big prize money draws big entries

Holstein auction sets new sale benchmark

North 40 bull tops Vanderhoof sale

Reclaiming market share in a global economy

Day-neutrals show promise for strawberry fields

Weather skews results in Peace variety trials

Salal berries have market potential

Vole control in blueberries

Wannabe: When tragedy brings us together

Watchful eye

Woodshed Chronicles: Henderson masterminds an apology

Jude’s Kitchen: Celebrate May with beef on the ‘barbie’

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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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Vole control in blueberries

Raptors can help control rodents

April 30, 2018 byRonda Payne

LANGLEY – Vole, mouse, shrew or mole: researcher Sofi Hindmarch wants to help blueberry growers better understand the rodents in their fields to help them reduce the volume and cost of rodenticides and improve the health of their plants.
A project co-ordinator with the Fraser Valley Conservancy, Hindmarch’s work with barn owls and other raptors is well known around the Lower Mainland. This project will include producing videos to help educate farmers.
“We are getting with the times,” she says.
The videos will provide information similar to fact sheets but delivered in a way that can be easily accessed on phones, computers and tablets. The first will be about voles because they’re especially prone to mistaken identity.
The Townsend’s vole is typically 11 to 14 cm in length (excluding the tail) and weighs 45 to 90 grams. It has chocolate brown fur that hides the ears, and a tail less than half its body length.
Deer mice are very common in blueberry fields and are much smaller (15 to 25 grams) with light brown to grey fur, visible rounded ears, long tails and they tend to hop along the ground rather than run like a vole.
Shrews and moles are often in blueberry fields but are seldom seen, which shouldn’t be troubling because shrews eat insects and moles eat worms. They don’t dine on plant roots and stems like a vole.
Of the rodents, only the voles feed extensively on woody shrubs and tree seedlings when grasses and sedges aren’t available, primarily in the late fall and winter. They can cause a significant amount of damage to a blueberry field.
While appearance is one way to determine if a rodent is a vole, mole or mouse, another method of identification is by looking at the tunneling.
Voles leave holes in the ground of about five centimeters in diameter, whereas mouse holes are much smaller, at about 2.5 centimetres. Vole holes lack dirt piles, unlike molehills.
Vole tunnels are often visible on the surface of the ground as runway depressions that lead to holes and deeper tunnels. The highest vole densities typically occur in fall and winter and their tunnels are commonly seen when the snow melts.
Voles like to burrow along the rows of blueberry bushes, giving them easy access to roots and stems for food. Some of the signs of feeding on blueberry bushes include parallel grooves from front teeth, scratch patterns in various directions, damage above or below ground and any damage will also have tunnels and runways nearby.
While weevil damage may mimic vole damage, it lacks the parallel teeth grooves, a presence of weevil larvae, leaf notching from adult weevils and a lack of tunnels and runways.
“The key thing we want to get to farmers is the (correct) identification of voles in a blueberry field,” Hindmarch says.
According to Hindmarch, monitoring shows that fields with less vegetation (or close-cropped grass) have fewer voles as do fields that flood and aren’t adjacent to grassy fields.
Reducing rodenticide use
A second video will focus on a subject near and dear to Hindmarch’s heart – reducing rodenticide use.
“We want to reduce the amount of rodenticide in the agricultural landscape,” she says.
Rather than constantly deploying rodenticides, Hindmarch recommends using them in a targeted and efficient manner. This requires an understanding of rodent behaviour and a regular assessment of the effectiveness of the controls.
Rodenticides approved for use in fields include brands like Ground Force, Ramik Green and Ramik Brown.
She says rodenticides should be the last resort of control, not the first or only option.
“All our residue data is showing the rodenticide in raptors is 100%,” says Hindmarch. This means that every raptor studied has at least one type of rodenticide in their system, often more. Hindmarch’s research has found rodenticides can harm these traditional friends of farmers and leave them unable to fly properly. Many die.
Part of keeping raptors (and pets) safe starts with reducing grassy vegetation and monitoring. If this isn’t effective, a targeted PVC pipe bait station can be placed where damage is most severe, as voles don’t travel far from their holes. By using bait stations only in areas with damage, farmers can reduce rodenticide costs.
Since raptors eat voles, Hindmarch says bait stations should be temporary to prevent secondary poisoning of raptors.
Ideally, Hindmarch would like to see raptors like barn owls or hawks used to control vole populations. She continues to set up nest boxes on farm land to encourage barn owls and advise farmers on where to place perching poles to attract raptors that can assist in rodent control.

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