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Originally published:

JUNE 2021
Vol. 107 Issue 6

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Stories In This Edition

Growers hopeful as BC opens

Tender touch

Japanese bettle control pays off

Nursery sales rise as consumers stick close to home

Editorial: Prospering together

Back 40: A mammoth solution to climate change

Viewpoint: Teamwork essential to grow in the new normal

Wind machines in Surrey face blowback

Sidebar: Dispute resolution

BC Veg unveils strategic priorities as it looks ahead

Quick turnaround

Ag Brief: South Asia flight ban strands BC farm workers

Ag Brief: Oliver vintner dies

Ag Brief: Province delivers AITC funding

Letter: Well “registration” misleading

Province’s chicken growers see rebound

Pricing formula on horizon for poultry sector

Snooze and lose

Grain costs put pressure on livestock producers

PST applicable to horse hay sales

BC raspberry growers face global issues

Little cherry disease a big threat to fruit growers

Core knowledge lands Kelowna grower top award

Strategy needed for Crown forage resources

BC abattoir volume up 30% in 2020

Ranchers urged to plan ahead for a changing climate

Cidery ups game with orchard purchase

The milkman makes a comeback on Island

Short season doesn’t stall northern berries

Cariboo-Chilcotin sheep group formed

Viewpoint: Farm insurance crisis threatens landowners

Mushroom harvester enters final testing

Sidebar: BC mushrooms at a glance

Mushrooms add value to cut blocks

Farm Story: Diversity and inclusion extends to tractors

Equipment intentions fall

Hops and CBC-centric hemp come together

Research: Processed foods are convenient but at what cost?

Soil science key for Kootenay farm project

Research sheds light on late blight strains

Woodshed: Deborah keeps divorce news between friends

OK apples at core of social entrepreneurship

Jude’s Kitchen: To the sea in summer

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6 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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Wind machines in Surrey face blowback

Complaint lodged against blueberry farm about noise

Blueberry and fruit farmers depend on wind machines like this to protect their crops, but some neighbours don’t like the noise. FILE PHOTO

June 1, 2021 bySandra Tretick

SURREY – The BC Farm Industry Review Board received a formal noise complaint on April 20 against a blueberry farm in south Surrey.

According to reports in the Peace Arch News, the couple who initiated the complaint had moved to Morgan Creek from Vancouver in March and were kept awake several nights in a row that same month by what sounded like a helicopter going all night long.

It turns out the noise was coming from two Orchard-Rite wind fans that were being used to protect blueberries from radiant frost damage during a late spring cold snap. When the air cools at night, frost accumulates on plant surfaces causing damage to the delicate buds. If severe enough, it can kill the plants outright.

The owners of the family-run farm were approached for an interview but declined to comment to Country Life in BC about the specifics of the noise complaint because all parties have been advised not to speak to media while the matter is under review.

This part of south Surrey is home to a large number of blueberry farms and it isn’t the first time residents have raised issues with local farming practices. The Morgan Creek Homeowners Association lodged a formal complaint against another blueberry farm in the area in 2000 over the use of propane cannons to protect crops from birds. At the time, FIRB felt that education was a critical component in resolving urban/rural land use issues and identified the importance of education for new homeowners as to what it means to live in an active farming area. The complaint was dismissed.

The area is historically rural and the farm at the centre of the current complaint has been in operation since the early 1980s, long before development of Morgan Creek started in 1994. Other residential subdivisions soon followed.

When temperatures drop below -3°C during budding, the plants are damaged. At best, the yield is reduced. At worst, the farmer can lose an entire field. The wind fans causing the uproar were installed in 2005 for protection against such spring frosts.

Not uncommon

Noise complaints against blueberry farms are not uncommon. Propane cannons received a lot of news coverage over the years and numerous complaints to FIRB, resulting in a 2009 report reviewing the use and regulations of propane cannons in the Lower Mainland.

The difference with wind fans is that they typically operate at night, when sounds are already more apparent in the relative quiet, whereas propane cannons operate between dawn and dusk. Added to that, sound carries further on cold nights when they are more likely to be turned on.

Berries are not the only sector to be targeted by noise complaints related to crop protection. A 2018 FIRB decision regarding a noise complaint against Coral Beach Farms Ltd. from Lavington found that helicopters, frost fans, sprayers and blowers are standard industry practices in the Okanagan valley for drying cherries when rains threaten to split ripe fruit. The board noted, “from time to time, significant noise disruption remains and that this is unavoidable” and advised the farm to implement a series of recommendations to reduce the impact of farm-related noise on neighbours.

Once a notice of complaint has been filed, the resolution process kicks in.

“BCFIRB staff work closely with the parties to try and resolve complaints through a dispute resolution process,” says FIRB executive director Kirsten Pedersen, adding that the complaint proceeds to a formal hearing if dispute resolution doesn’t work out. “Prior to that, parties may work with ministry specialists or others to help resolve the complaint.”

FIRB does not have statistics on how many complaints are dealt with informally and doesn’t track the number of official complaints filed by people who recently moved close to a farm.

BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries berry industry specialist Carolyn Teasdale did contact the berry farm following the initial complaint and suggested the equipment be calibrated to start at -2°C as the type of blueberries grown on site can withstand -3° to -4°C at the pink-tip stage. Previously, the farm had been turning on the machines at 0°C.

The BC Blueberry Council also works closely with municipal bylaw enforcement officers and growers to ensure compliance with normal farm practices.

“In the majority of cases, we find growers are neighbour-conscious and do take the necessary precautions to carry out on-farm activities,” says BCBC executive director Anju Gill.

When it comes to the broader issues that arise when development and farmland have to coexist side by side, she takes a more circumspect approach.

“Perhaps the topic of suburban expectations and farming necessities require an intersectional lens to fully understand the complexity of the issue,” she says.

In the aftermath of the story in the local paper, community support for the blueberry farm was so overwhelmingly positive that it spurred a follow-up article focusing on the clash between urban expectations and rural needs.

Most of the more than 300 comments on the newspaper’s Facebook page and website community backed the farm’s use of the wind machines to protect their crops.

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