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Originally published:

June 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 6

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Stories In This Edition

A Taste of Spring

Flooding wallops southern interior

Ottawa wires CAP cash

Minimum wage hike squeezes farm margins

Editorial: The new democracy

Back Forty: Horgan on receiving end of pipeline challenge

Viewpoint: BC has led country in national check-off support

New chair appointed to land commission

Richmond expands farmhouse provisions

Demand for land drives farmland values higher

Biosolids raise a stink with neighbours

Rising wine sales boost demand for red grapes

Game-changer on dividend splitting

Mushroom merger

Wildfire, flood review has First Nations focus

Sidebar: Snapshot of recommendations

Labour tops issues as hothouse growers meet

Growers on look-out for activists

Antimicrobial lockdown

Ag briefs: Island farmers on lookout for armyworm

Ag briefs: AgSafe elects new chair

Ag briefs: No flood of licences

Ag briefs: Direct delivery

Hops revival gains traction with feds

Wildfire top concern of grape growers

Sidebar: Preparing for fires in the Okanagan

Nuffield scholars

Two studies promise to ensure slaughter capacity

Sidebar: Consultation schedule

Oversight sought

Bumper crop of invasive weeds after wildfires

Elk sights have producers concerned

Guichon heads back to life on the ranch

Research: Grazing cattle the sustainable way

Farmers markets focus on cultivating trust

Veggie days open house

Co-ops offer values-based alternatives

Region focuses on boosting local food usage

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Growing opportunity

Garden City project breaks sustainable ground

Weevils pose challenges

Protecting pollinators key for crop yields

Wannabe: Keeping up with the times

Young farmers turn on, tune in and download

Woodshed: Kenneth has another go at the Massey

4-H BC thanks partners for their support

Jude’s Kitchen: Co-op food

 

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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.

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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.

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Congratulations!!!

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Congratulations Duncan and Jane Trott Barnett Well deserved recognition

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

Congratulations Duncan and Jane!!

Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

Congratulations Jane & Duncan 🥳

Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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1 month 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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2 months 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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2 months 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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Wildfire, flood review has First Nations focus

Report with 108 recommendations draws heavily on BC Cattlemen’s submission

June 1, 2018 byPeter Mitham

KAMLOOPS – A report on the BC government’s response to the natural disasters that roiled the province in 2017 says those who know the land should have a greater role in future preparations for what it calls “the new normal.”

Those people are first and foremost the province’s First Nations, who figure in almost all of the report’s 108 recommendations, as well as the ranchers, outfitters and others working the land on a daily basis.

“Tapping into Indigenous and local knowledge of roads, watercourses, weather patterns and other criteria, is a must if government hopes to be more effective in responding to extreme weather events going forward,” states the final report of the review chaired by former provincial cabinet minister George Abbott and Maureen Chapman, hereditary chief of the Skawahlook First Nation in Agassiz.

The number of recommendations mentioning agriculture can be counted on one hand, but BC Cattlemen’s Association general manager Kevin Boon says a discussion paper ranchers submitted played an influential role in the report’s development.

“We were the first stakeholder group to meet with Abbott and Chapman on this,” says Boon. “I can go through this report and pull out portions that we put in that discussion paper that were taken, basically, word-for-word out of that discussion paper.”

A key area where ranchers played a role was in urging the need for clearer communications between all sides.

“We heard that citizens – First Nations, ranchers, farmers, logging contractors and others – responded spontaneously, without official direction, to limit the spread of wildfires threatening their communities until BCWS [BC Wildfire Service] teams could assist,” the report states. “In numerous cases, this intervention prevented small wildfires from becoming very large fires. Local citizens brought not only energy and resources, but also an intimate knowledge of their lands.”

“A lot of those co-ordination things were really what we focused on because we felt a lot of co-ordination hadn’t been done properly,” Boon said.

While the rapid pace of lightning strikes that sparked more than 160 fires on July 7 created a situation that no one could have anticipated, clearer communication to facilitate co-ordination of resources among government, landowners and rural residents could have been better.

“A lot of those people on the land – ranchers, some of the loggers and some of the First Nations – chose to stay and fight,” explains Boon. “The wildfire service didn’t know how to handle it; they didn’t know what to do with them other than bring in enforcement.”

However, once there was a co-ordination system in the form of premises ID and permits, there was a framework for managing the situation and valuing the contributions locals were bringing to the fire suppression efforts.

The report highlights the need to do more in this regard, and Boon welcomes it.

“This is the big strategic shift in what these recommendations are,” he says. “Using those people on the land as an asset rather than a liability.”

Boon says he’s aware of changes that have already been taking place in advance of the 2018 wildfire season. The province has said 19 of the report’s recommendations are now implemented, with the remainder to be addressed in a comprehensive forest and flood action plan by October 31.

Meanwhile, local governments such as Surrey are taking steps to acquire properties deemed no longer viable in view of natural disasters, reflecting recommendation 105 in the report.

Snapshot of recommendations

Key recommendations of interest to agriculture in the review of the province’s handling of flooding and wildfire in 2017 include:

  • Review and assess the decision-making process related to evacuation alerts and orders. The process should consider exempting highway corridors and include provisions to recognize ranching or farming operations located in evacuation areas.
  • BC should enhance integration across government and among governments to foster better collaboration among land-based decision-makers and promote joint forest/grassland management and wildfire preparedness.
  • Provide prescribed fire training and extend the provincial certification program to non-agency personnel, including all support positions within agencies, and evaluate the applicability of the Parks Canada burn planning course and US RX-310 Fire Effects course.
  • Increase the number of basic firefighters by providing open access to S-100 training for all natural resource sector staff, industry, First Nations, communities, ranchers and other tenure holders.
  • Establish fire as a management objective in the Forest and Range Practices Act and other applicable legislation and regulation to encourage fire as a part of land management.
  • Create mechanisms to encourage fire prevention activities such as thinning, bio-mass utilization, targeted grazing and alternate species and densities.
  • BC should expeditiously determine the condition, vulnerability and effectiveness of the province’s 500 km of dikes with the assistance of leading-edge technology and expertise.
  • Create a bridging program to aid people during recovery in meeting their needs from the land, such as traditional food gathering, haying and grazing for livestock, and access to guiding areas while restoration is underway.
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