• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Country Life In BC Logo

The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915

  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Headlines
  • Calendar
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

Primary Sidebar

Originally published:

DECEMBER 2022
Vol. 108 Issue 12

Subscribe Now!

Sign up for free weekly FARM NEWS UPDATES


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
Your information will not be
shared or sold ever

Stories In This Edition

Ottawa dishes trade funds

I spy

New money for fruit growers

Regenerative ag tops Ag Days successes

Editorial: A winter’s tale

Back 40: Regenesis: the end of farming as we know it

Viewpoint: The challenges of BC ag industry advocacy

Senate report highlights the need for flood plans

More farms test postive for avian influenza

Ag Briefs: BC Turkey names executive director

Ag Briefs: Province rebrands short course

Ag Briefs: Growers Supply expands

Ag Briefs: Cattleliner accident

Economic outlook challenges farm margins

Farmer markets launch economic impact study

WALI delivers labour update to grapegrowers

Beekeepers abuzz about tech transfer program

New apple varieties may improve profits

UFV grows its berry research capacity

Bayer opens new canola seed production site

Island farmers identify challenges at summit

Consumer demand key to local food production

Comox Valley ag plan undergoes overhaul

Salt Spring Abattoir marks 10th anniversary

Ranchers undertake living lab project

Copper deficiency challenges BC bison productivity

Bison ranchers briefed on emergency protocols

SWBC hires a new program manager

Sidebar: How does certification benefit producers?

Better communcation markted wildfire season

Sidebar: Government extends extreme weather support

Retail partnerships add value to small farms’ production

Research: Researchers barcode bacteria to fight farting cattle

Young butchers make their mark

Farm Story: Shot nerves are the price of success this year

Reduced water use doesn’t hurt cherries

Woodshed: Kenneth explores the old Corbett farm

Family farm finds new markets by diversification

Jude’s Kitchen: Festive flatbreads, dips & spreads

More Headlines

Follow us on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons

1 month 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
... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 6
  • Shares: 2
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Omg 🥹 Jared Huston let’s go pls

1 month ago

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

View Comments
  • Likes: 18
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Easton Roseboom Levi Roseboom🚜

1 month 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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

1 month 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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 0
  • Shares: 2
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

Any other details for FVN and chillTV please? radiodon11@gmail.com

1 month 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.
View Comments
  • Likes: 3
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 1

Comment on Facebook

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.

Subscribe | Advertise

Young butchers make their mark

BC competitors showcase skills on world stage

Taryn Barker was one of two BC competitors at the World Butchers’ Challenge this year. She owns The Little Butcher in Port Moody and is passionate about her trade. RONDA PAYNE

December 1, 2022 byKate Ayers

PORT MOODY – Taryn Barker and Ronnie Keely were two BC representatives on Canada’s first-ever team in the World Butchers’ Challenge this year. Their experiences have inspired each of them to improve professional development opportunities in the province for those new to the sector.

Barker of The Little Butcher in Port Moody had nothing but positive reviews of the competition, which took place in Sacramento, September 3.

Barker’s career started in high school with a customer service job at George’s, a local butcher shop in Langley.

“I worked there for about seven years. I was managing, scheduling and cutting a little bit of meat but not a lot,” Barker says. “My then-boss wanted to open another store and he just asked if I would be interested.”

Following six years of co-ownership, she obtained 100% of the business, rebranded and moved the shop to Newport Village in Port Moody.

Now 33, Barker has owned The Little Butcher for 10 years.

The opportunity to own a butcher shop came up before she was able to go to school for formal training. However, Barker is enrolled in the Industry Training Authority’s meatcutter apprenticeship program, offered in partnership with Thompson Rivers University, with a view to becoming a certified meatcutter in the new year. Up until now she has learned to do by doing through the help of her past employer and textbook study.

In 2018, keen to expand her repertoire, Barker travelled to New Zealand to participate in a butcher competition.

“Their butchering is way more advanced – just the courses, the competition, like everything around butchery – they just have a lot more education and things going on for it,” Barker says.

About five months after she returned to BC, Barker saw posts on Instagram about Canada’s budding butcher team.

She then sent an application to Peter Baarda, the team’s captain. After completing 12 assignments over three months and submitting photos and videos of her creations, in 2019 Barker was chosen to be one of eight team members. The team was supposed to compete in 2020 but the pandemic delayed the event until this September.

During the competition, each team had three and a half hours to transform a side of beef, side of pork, whole lamb and five chickens into a butcher’s case display. The Canadian team had two breakers, two trimmers and two finishers.

“I was one of two finishers, … so we were doing all the garnishes, all the seasonings, getting all the marinades ready, cutting vegetables,” Barker says. “Then we were stuffing, tying and plating the meat and putting it out on the table for display.”

The solo Butcher Apprentice and Young Butcher competitions were also part of the program.

Passion for meat-cutting

Ronnie Keely of family-owned Kam Lake-View Meats Ltd. in Cherry Creek was one of two Canadians to participate in the Young Butcher Challenge.

For this category, the 14 competitors had two and half hours to display a beef top sirloin, half a lamb, two chickens and pork loin with a belly attached, complete with garnishes, labels and cooking instructions.

Keely knew his assignment inside and out and credits his skills and passion for meat cutting to being surrounded by the craft all his life.

“I just kind of grew up working here, [but] I never actually planned on being a butcher. I wanted to be more into the culinary aspect of it,” Keely says. “So, I went and took every course I could in cooking and then last-minute decided to go into the Retail Meat Processing program at TRU and ever since then, haven’t really looked back.”

Since graduating from Thompson Rivers University in 2009, he has worked full time at his family’s business.

He heard about the World Butchers’ Challenge at a BC Meats meeting when he ran into one of his university instructors.

About 15 students enter TRU’s Retail Meat Processing program each year, says the program’s assistant teaching professor Corey Davison. Despite over 90% of graduates staying to work in BC, the province does not have enough butchers nor cut-and-wrap facilities, he adds.

“Not a week goes by where I don’t get approached by some area of BC looking for more avenues for training meat cutters. We have a huge shortage,” Davison says.

“Small-scale farming has quite a demand for meat cutters and a lot of the older generations have retired and they’re having trouble getting someone young to sort of get in there and take over the reins. To sustain the local food movement, it’s pretty vital that we keep producing [butchers] in BC so we can keep BC-raised product on BC tables.”

Competitions and screen time could help attract and retain workers in this trade, Davison says.

“I think capitalizing on sort of the sexiness of the food networks that’s been accomplished with the culinary world,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of misconception about this trade. That it’s like a dirty, bloody, messy job. Yes, the abattoir is one side, but the polished craftsmanship to take an animal and display it in a high-level butchery and make sausages and charcuterie, that is quite a skill.”

Barker and Keely were blown away by the skills, styles and expertise of their teammates and competitors.

Keely hopes that through his participation and experiences, he can encourage more people to enter the trade.

Barker agrees.

“We don’t have a lot of that in BC,” she says of programs and supports for butchers. “So, I really hope we can kind of grow that and push that because we need people to work and you want something exciting for them to look forward to and things that are intriguing.”

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

Salmon Arm abattoir closes

Previous Post: « Christmas trees in demand
Next Post: Generational change in BC potato business »

Copyright © 2023 Country Life in BC · All Rights Reserved