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Postmaster, Please return Undeliverable labels to: Country Life in BC 36 Dale Road Enderby, BC V0E 1V4CANADA POSTES POST CANADA Postage paid Port payé Publications Mail Post-Publications 40012122Vol. 110 No. 3The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 MARCH 2024 | Vol. 110 No. 3WEATHER BC vineyards wiped out by freeze event 7 MARKETING Study shows BC farmers markets add value 15 ACCOLADES Berry farmer recognized for achievements 17 PETER MITHAM SURREY – The mandate of the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission now covers the entire province, making it a truly provincial body regulating the marketing of vegetables from Atlin to Yahk, Stewart to Sparwood. The change took effect January 1, and was highlighted in a bulletin released February 2. Prior to this year, the commission’s general orders limited its mandate to areas south of the 53rd parallel. (Quesnel is the benchmark city, sitting astride the coordinates.) “On January 1, 2024, this restriction was removed from the General Orders and the regulated area was expanded to encompass the entire province,” the bulletin stated. “There’s no reason not to,” says BC Veg general manager Andre Solymosi, regarding the larger geographic coverage. “With climate change and the technologies in enclosed structures that can be applied now, we’re thinking you could see more farming happen up there.” However, he says the commission is not currently aware of any commercial producers of regulated crops in northern BC. The commission regulates the sale and distribution of 20 storage crops, greenhouse crops and processing crops. These include all varieties of potatoes, yellow onions, tops-off beets and carrots, and greenhouse tomatoes, An early introduction lays a great foundation for future farmers, as parents and kids alike checked out the equipment at the Pacic Agriculture Show in Abbotsford at the end of January. Strong attendance marked the three-day event, which also saw close to 800 people attend the education sessions at the Lower Mainland Horticultural Conference. See story, page 3. ANNA KLOCHKOBC Veg mandate expands TOM WALKER KAMLOOPS – Proposed changes to the Land Act that will affect how Crown land tenures are administered and the province’s intent to push them through the spring sitting of the Legislature is not sitting well with BC ranchers. In early January, the BC Ministry of Water Land and Resource Stewardship (WLRS) began contacting stakeholders to offer online engagement sessions regarding the proposed amendments. The government says its objective is “a legislative amendment to the Land Act Crownland shakeupFirst Nations to share oversightStart me up!More questions uClimate change uRooted in your community® since 1973www.tlhort.com1-800-661-4559SeedPlant NutritionCrop ProtectionSuppliesService
2 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCto enable agreements with Indigenous Governing Bodies to share decision-making about public land use.” Crown land makes up 95% of BC’s land base. Its management, including the issuance of leases and tenure, is governed by the Land Act. Currently, those decisions are made solely by the provincial government in consultation with First Nations. The amendments would see decision-making shared with First Nations. But what the changes are and how they will be developed is anyone’s guess. There has been neither a formal press release on the consultation nor an intentions paper as with other public consultations. “The engagement session I attended on January 11 left me with far more questions than answers,” says BC Cattlemen’s Association assistant general manager Elaine Stovin. “The government shared a short slide deck that provided no detail on the actual amendments proposed, or how shared decision-making would take place.” Firestorm That lack of information and how it might affect grazing tenures has sparked a firestorm across the ranching community. “This is one of the biggest issues that has woken everybody up, and it’s a hill to die on for us,” says BCCA president Brian Thomas, a rancher in Okanagan Falls. “We have members contacting us constantly, but unfortunately we cannot give them any real information.” The lack of information left Wallachin rancher Andrea Haywood-Farmer at a loss following the January 11 online engagement session. “I was quite surprised by the scope of what was being proposed, particularly as there hadn’t been communication around this piece of legislation specifically,” she says. “It seemed clandestine.” Given the scope and potential impact of the changes, Haywood-Farmer says not explaining the proposed governance structure for decision-making or how stakeholders will be involved “is a recipe for disaster.” Thomas says that is already happening. “Some of the information that is out there isn’t accurate information,” he warns. Despite the fact that WLRS minister Nathan Cullen, spoke with BCCA general manager Kevin Boon by phone on the evening of February 2, and hosted a 90-minute Zoom call with the BCCA executive on February 6, ranchers remain in the dark. “We are not really any further ahead,” says Thomas. “The minister assured us that this would not affect our current tenures and more or less that there would not be u More questions than answers u Climate change, tech drive expansiona First Nations veto, but other than that we don’t have any more details.” Cattlemen say they need concrete information. “Grazing leases are such an integral part of our operations,” says Haywood-Farmer. “A ranch isn’t like a Lego model where you can pull off a piece and it still stands. Our leases and the land that we own all fit together. You can’t just unbolt one piece and still have a functioning ranch and not strand a tremendous amount of investment.” Investment in the industry will grind to halt without clarity on the changes, Stovin says. This includes spending on both infrastructure as well as land, the cornerstone of the ranch industry. “Given the uncertainty this is creating, ranchers will not be making any long-term investments in their operations right now and it will certainly turn away investors from outside the province,” she says. Haywood-Farmer notes a lack of consistency between what WLRS has told stakeholders in engagement sessions and Cullen’s statements in follow-up conversations. “I don’t know if this is just a walk-back by the minister, but it certainly doesn’t build trust and it certainly doesn’t sound like they have thought this through,” she says. There is other evidence the province is rushing the changes through. Its timeline states that legislative amendments will be drafted beginning in early February, weeks before the window for public comment closes on March 31. A bill to amend the Land Act is set to be introduced during the final weeks of the spring legislative session, April 22 to May 16, suggesting prompt passage is intended. Cattlemen have called for a reset. “I told Minister Cullen that the BCCA and our membership are against the amendments and anything pertaining to it, as there was no information on it,” Thomas says. “We stated that it is the wrong approach for the government to be taking and they should cancel it and rethink it.” peppers, cucumbers as well as selected lettuces. All growers, packers, wholesalers and marketing agencies of regulated product must hold a licence from the commission. Processors may only receive product from licensed entities. Of the 15,841 farms in BC enumerated in the 2021 Census of Agriculture, less than 23% are in northern BC. Potatoes are the most commonly reported vegetable crop, with 15 of the province’s 84 self-identified producers located Family Farm Friendly Financial Planning Services.Holistic financial planning for your family farm now and into the future. Patrick’s proven financial and estate planning program provides income, security, and tax minimization to help ensure the most effective decisions are made now, and on an ongoing basis.Please contact me to schedule your complimentary, no-obligation discussion at 604.467.5321 | patrick.obrien@rbc.com References are available.1.877.272.2002 | www.patrick-obrien.ca#200-11980 227th St. Maple Ridge, B.C. V2X 6J2in northern BC. Growers of other vegetables, including melons, number 46 (less than 5% of the provincial total) and producers using some kind of contained growing system number 30 (3% of the provincial total). Increased enforcement The commission has been vocal in stepping up enforcement of its mandate in areas such as greenhouses, which include vertical farms and all manner of controlled environment agriculture. The initiative has resulted in the @countrylifeinbcFollow Us for farm newsFfnbcwslicensing of one vertical farm, with another licence set to be issued in the coming weeks. In another instance, it considered expanding the onion category given the growing number of smaller producers growing and marketing varieties other than yellow onions. Producers, processors and marketers of regulated crops licensed by BC Veg are subject to levies on regulated production, supporting work to ensure an orderly marketing environment that delivers stable and sustainable conditions for all segment of the value chain from field to fork. “Orderly marketing is achieved through the promotion, control and regulation of production, transportation, packing, storage and marketing of vegetables,” BC Veg explains. www.tractorparts4sale.caABBOTSFORD, BC Bus. 604/807-2391 email: tractorparts4sale@shaw.caWe accept Interact, Visa and Mastercard WHITE 2-70 FIELD BOSS, 2WD,CAB, 78HP,NEW RUBBER, HD REAR ARENA LEVELER INCLUDED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,500 JOHN DEERE 410E 4X4 BACKHOE. GOOD CONDITION . . . . . . 32,000 JOHN DEERE 450 DOZER REBUILT ENGINE, NEWER TRACKS & CARRIAGE. 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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 3LMHIA sets sights on new direction as show hives offPETER MITHAM ABBOTSFORD – This year’s success of the province’s largest farm trade show and conference in Abbotsford at the end of January also marks the start of a new direction of the organization that founded it. Strong attendance marked the Lower Mainland Horticultural Conference and Pacic Agriculture Show, with trade show organizer Jim Shepard reporting that attendance was “denitely up” versus last year, when between 5,000 and 6,00 people attended. “The attendance was solid all three days, thanks in part to the week of wet weather that always gives attendance a boost,” he said. Conference participation was also solid, with about 800 registered for three days of sessions covering everything from agritech to hops and mental wellness. While the conference used to be a key event for the Lower Mainland Horticulture Improvement Association, with the registration fee including association membership, the funding agreement with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food has cut the link. It’s also forced LMHIA to become self-sustaining, prompting the association to rebrand itself. “We’ve been challenged to do things in a dierent way, and we’ve been doing some strategic planning,” president Harvie Snow told the association’s annual general meeting on January 26. “We’ve got some exciting challenges ahead of us, and I think the rebrand is going to be positive.” A survey was circulated to stakeholders in the days leading up to the conference, and Snow said LMHIA board members will be “rolling up our sleeves” in the coming months to establish the new direction. The work will be facilitated by new executive director Leisa Yee, who succeeded Sandy Dunn following Dunn’s retirement last fall. Dunn was LMHIA’s executive director for 25-odd years, and her work “really made life easy” for LMHIA and its grower members. Dunn’s work was just one cause for celebration during the week. The conference was preceded as usual by the annual BC Agriculture Council awards gala, which drew a crowd of more than 400 guests to the Clarion Hotel in Abbotsford on January 24 for fellowship, fundraising and celebrating some of BC’s agricultural leaders. Premier David Eby and his BC United counterpart Kevin Falcon, as well as provincial agriculture minister Pam Alexis and Opposition agriculture critic Ian Paton attended as farm leaders from Vancouver Island and the Okanagan were honoured for their contributions. Kelowna school teacher Aaron Veenstra received the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation’s Teacher of the Year Award, for his practice of integrating agriculture in lessons with Grade 6 students at A.S. Matheson Elementary. Vancouver Island dairy farmer Dave Taylor was honoured as Scotiabank Champion of Agriculture for his countless hours of service on provincial and national boards over the past decade, and in particular his diplomacy. “He’s a leader known to encourage and contribute to collaborative eorts in support of producers,” BCAC director and dairy farmer Rebecca Senicar said in presenting the award. One of just ve farmer representatives on the board that revised the National Code of Care for Dairy Cattle for Canada’s 10,000 dairy farmers, a project that will impact the industry for years to come. BC Fruit Growers Association general manager Glen Lucas, who retires in March, was honoured for 35 years of service to the sector with the BCAC Excellence in Agriculture Leadership award. Lucas was “the stability of the industry,” industry members said in a video tribute, noting his steady work to take the industry forward through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and other initiatives. Responding to the award, Lucas said it would not have been possible without the support of his sta and family. One familiar face missing from the proceedings was former Country Life in BC editor David Schmidt, who died in November. BCAC director Niklaus Forstbauer led a toast to Schmidt’s memory, thanking him for everything he did for the industry as an editor, reporter and friend. A silent auction at the event raised nearly $10,000 in support of BC Young Farmers. Aaron Veenstra of A.S. Matheson Elementary in Kelowna received the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation’s Teacher of the Year Award from AITC executive director Pat Tonn for his work to educate students about BC food and its importance to the social and economic fabric of the province. RONDA PAYNETrade show, gala celebrate the best in agricultureYou shouldn’t have to worry about the longevity of your fence and wood infrastructure. 250.295.7911 TF 1 877.797.7678 bill@pwppost.com www.pwppost.com 1821 Crowsnest Hwy. 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Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, that portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with reasonable allowance for signature will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographical error which advertises goods or services at a wrong price, such goods or services need not be sold at the advertised price. Advertising is an offer to sell, and may be withdrawn at any time. All advertising is accepted subject to publisher’s approval. All of Country Life in British Columbia’s content is covered by Canadian copyright law. Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Country Life in British Columbia. Letters are welcome, though they may be edited in the interest of brevity before publication. All errors brought to our attention will be corrected.36 Dale Road, Enderby BC V0E 1V4 . Publication Mail Agreement: 0399159 . GST Reg. No. 86878 7375 . Subscriptions: $2/issue . $18.90/year . $33.60/2 years . $37.80/3 years incl GSTThe agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 Vol.110 No. 3 . MARCH 2024Published monthly by Country Life 2000 Ltd. www.countrylifeinbc.comAccording to The New Penguin English Dictionary (2000), a sceptic is a person with a mistrustful attitude to accepted opinions, and a cynic is a person who doubts the existence of human sincerity or any motive other than self-interest. I must admit to having been, on specic occasions, a little of both. On one such occasion, I received an email contact from someone named Ludmilla who claimed to have seen me at the mall and thought I looked hot. I was sceptical because a) I hardly ever set foot in a mall and b) how would anyone know my email address just from seeing me? Ludmilla expressed a keen desire to hook up with me but she thought it would be best if I sent her $50 for some revealing pictures before we met. She looked forward to hearing from me soon. At rst, it seemed obvious that I had been mistaken for someone else but after repeated entreaties, I began to doubt the sincerity of Ludmilla’s motives and became cynical about the entire encounter. In reality, it took all of 10 seconds to move from sceptical to cynical and hit the delete button. The emails, ever hopeful, continued for months. There are occasions when a little focused scepticism or even cynicism are justied or even inevitable. More broadly employed, they become problematic. Sadly, scepticism and cynicism have become fundamental to politics at almost every level. It is impossible to maintain any productive or even civil interaction between politicians who dismiss one another’s opinions and question their sincerity and motives. The resulting vitriol spills forth and diminishes the prospect of thoughtful and respectful public discourse. Wholesale scepticism and cynicism rule the day, laying waste to goodwill and optimism. The political message can be outright distressing, as espoused by the endlessly repeated mantra, “everything is broken.” Not a specic thing, or two; everything. I have tried to imagine starting a day here on the farm believing everything is broken. My attention goes immediately to the manure spreader, whose failure I fear most of all. Our relationship now spans 35 years, and I can say from experience that any mechanical failing that doesn’t involve the manure spreader is tempered by the knowledge that it could have been so much worse. But how much better could it possibly be if everything is broken? The political messaging is depressing, and so is the quality of any resulting public intercourse. Opinion is written in stone and often expounded with belligerence. Among the opinions expressed to me over the past year was one that espoused the outright execution of a politician. I said it sounded like a bit of ill-considered bravado but was angrily corrected that it was the obvious solution. I asked who might do such a thing? After some reection, the proponent suggested it might be a senior citizen with a terminal illness. I still think it was ill-considered bravado, but it was discouraging to hear it proposed and defended so vehemently. In other conversations, and I use the term reservedly, I was informed of a civil servant who deserved to be jailed, that the conict in Ukraine does not involve Russia but is a hoax perpetrated by the Nazi government of Ukraine to scam money from us. Apparently climate change is also a hoax and forest res are being started by satellites, and everyone who has had a COVID vaccine is going to die. (I agree, it is indeed inevitable that they will all die eventually.) The discouraging similarity in all of these discourses is that they were stated as irrefutable fact conrmed by trusted Internet research. I admit I haven’t seen what is happening in Ukraine with my own eyes or know with absolute certainty satellites aren’t starting forest res. I would like to have a genuine conversation about the COVID vaccine to explain my decision to be vaccinated but apparently my willing vaccination is proof I’ve been duped. I hope that notions of political executions and random jailings are simply juvenile nonsense. I am not yet cynical enough to believe everything is broken, nor so naive as to believe there aren’t real problems that need solutions. Those solutions will require cooperation among all of us. We need to do better, and we need politicians of every stripe to tone down the rhetoric and get on with the job. Bob Collins raises beef cattle and grows produce on his farm in the Alberni Valley.We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.4 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCReconciliation is never a one-way street“Trouble rides a fast horse, forgiveness rides a mule,” quips US cowboy singer Tom Russell, who lived on an acreage in Langley in the early 1970s. There’s more truth than poetry in that, as the province continues to grapple with reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and reconcile itself to what that will entail. Government, known for being slow to change, is prone to act precipitously when convinced it’s in the right. Title to the area known today as British Columbia was claimed at the stroke of a pen, while the negotiation of treaties has taken decades. Now, the restructuring of relationships to reect the four-year-old Declaration Act is also proceeding quickly, sacricing goodwill with ranchers and others that could take years to rebuild. Yet on the ground – quite literally, this being farming – the work of coexistence and mutual respect that’s the fruit of reconciliation has been ongoing for years. Many older ranchers have had good relations with their Indigenous neighbours; many ranch alongside each other, while across the province, intermarriage has led to blood ties stretching back generations and a foundation in shared community for what MLAs in Victoria aspire to eect in law. But the work of reconciliation taking place in the corridors of power shouldn’t undermine what already exists on the ground. Humility, not triumphalism or self-righteousness, is fundamental to true reconciliation. Some say forgiveness isn’t just about freeing the oender but, perhaps more essentially, the person who took oence. Reconciliation frees us from the need for payback, furthering opportunities for all rather than fuelling ongoing grievances. There’s a genuine need for reconciliation in BC, which has largely lacked the treaties that govern the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples east of the Rockies. Unanimous MLA support for the Declaration Act in 2019 was a sign of good faith. The challenge today is keeping the devil out of the details, so that reconciliation allows us to move forward with condence and clarity. The Back 40 BOB COLLINSPublisher Cathy Glover 604-328-3814 . publisher@countrylifeinbc.com Associate Editor Peter Mitham news@countrylifeinbc.com Advertising Sales & Marketing Cathy Glover sales@countrylifeinbc.com Production Designer Tina Rezansoff Cut, paste, repeat, Pete!We need to do better, and we can
The Land Act: important context, faulty processGovernment’s consultation process has agriculture and First Nations rattledCOUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 5however, unfounded in most of the province, where the land was never surrendered by Indigenous people nor legally acquired by the government of the day. The result is a legal quagmire we can no longer ignore. It’s also fair to say that as Canadians have learned of the harms done to Indigenous people, we have all felt degrees of trauma, and we all understand the need to establish right relationships so we can move forward together. BC governments have tried in various ways to address the unceded land question; the establishment of the BC Treaty Commission in 1992 is one example. Some Indigenous groups, however, stayed outside that process. In 2019, the NDP government used the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the framework for reconciliation. That November, MLAs unanimously supported enactment of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, known as the Declaration Act. The stated purposes of the Declaration Act are: “to arm the application of UNDRIP to the laws of BC; to contribute to the implementation of UNDRIP; and to support the armation of, and develop relationships with, Indigenous governing bodies” (see [declaration.gov.bc.ca]. Section 7 of the act gives cabinet the right to negotiate an agreement with an Indigenous governing body for one or both of: joint statutory decision making; and the consent of the Indigenous governing body before the exercise of a statutory power of decision. In other words: Indigenous input and consultation in advance of laws being enacted in the legislature. Some say this amounts to a veto. Government representatives and the Indigenous groups in the process (now working together) disagree, pointing out that any jointly negotiated agreements under the Land Act in future “will be subject to the public engagement processes mandated under the Declaration Act [and that] the proposed Land Act amendments … will not grant a ‘veto’ to First Nations governments, and they will not immediately alter the existing land tenure system in British Columbia. Rather, they will make space for the recognition and implementation of First Nations’ unceded governance rights in relation to land and resource development in their territories: … rights which have been largely ignored by colonial governments for the last century and a half.” A passive web posting is completely inadequate to explain the proposal. What is meant by “agreement?” How does the shared decision-making process work? Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands and member of the Tsartlip First Nation Adam Olsen says, “To drop this without a press release, without the A step in BC’s process of reconciliation with First Nations that has seemingly wide-ranging implications quietly appeared on the government engagement website early in the new year, but quickly grabbed headlines at the end of January. Amendments to the Land Act scheduled for introduction in the spring session of the legislature propose sharing decision making on Crown land tenures and management between the province’s Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship – currently the sole authority – and Indigenous governing bodies. There are thousands of Crown tenures in the province; in agriculture, the most common are Crown grazing leases. The BC Cattlemen’s Association is well aware that changes are coming and know, as one rancher says, that they will be “working with new landlords.” Understanding and even agreeing with the reason for something in principle does not, however, automatically dispel concerns and questions about how it will work in practice. Most of the immediate questions are about process and relationships. But we can’t ignore the central substantive matter: the land base. About 95% of British Columbia is referred to as Crown land – that is, owned by the provincial government. This ownership claim is, Viewpoint KATHLEEN GIBSONinformation, without walking people through exactly what’s happening, without reminding people that this was part of a process that we started back in 2019, I think the government has made some missteps. … They owe it to Indigenous leaders to clean that up.” BC United, taking advantage of the confusion, suggests it will rename Crown land “public land” to reect ownership “by all British Columbians.” A February 5 press release says a BC United government “will ensure all land management decisions will be made by provincial representatives elected by the people in the public interest,” meaning the elected legislature alone. This is inappropriate on two counts. First, simply renaming most of the BC land base “public” does not address the fact that the BC government has no legitimate claim to it. It’s still unceded territory. Second, elected representatives of the provincial government cannot properly represent Indigenous peoples, who were on these lands for thousands of years before contact. Indigenous peoples have their own laws, languages and cultures; they belong to their lands, which they never surrendered, and which their laws oblige them to defend. They must be accorded their rights to self-determination and self-governance. The Declaration Act is on the right track. “This has really woken everybody up,” says BC Cattlemen’s president Brian Thomas. He mentions BC Cattlemen’s many eorts on the ground – on wildre, water management and more – and the fact that government seemed to trust its members for implementation. “We thought they were respecting our experience,” he says regretfully, “and then they did this.” This doesn’t mean BC Cattlemen’s opposes reconciliation; to the contrary, its members respect their Indigenous neighbours. “If you have neighbours, you must have good relations,” says Thomas. But government needs to show respect for Crown tenure holders as well, if they are to understand and support the process. Reconciliation is important and necessary in principle, complicated and messy in practice. It will be a tragedy if poor implementation disrupts the Declaration Act and the goodwill shown so far by Indigenous leaders and leaders in agriculture like BC Cattlemen’s. Kathleen Gibson lives and grows food in Lekwungen territory/Victoria, BC. She is a second-generation settler and food systems policy analyst leaning into reconciliation. %PXOUPXO3FBMUZtOE4U7FSOPO#$t0óDFPat | 250.308.0938QBUEVHHBO!SPZBMMFQBHFDBThea | 250.308.5807UIFBNDMBVHIMJO!SPZBMMFQBHFDB6475 COSENS BAY RD, COLDSTREAMwww.FarmRanchResidential.ca “Farmers helping farmers with their real estate needs”Well-established Waterside Winery w/beautiful 5 bed/3 bath home, retail wine shop & patio. 6.5 of 9.14 acres planted to grapes, 4 RV sites, 36x40 shop, pasture. 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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 7Beautiful clusters of wine grapes like these are likely to be few and far between in the Okanagan this summer in the aftermath of a winter freeze that has nipped production in the bud. MYRNA STARK LEADERTOM WALKER KELOWNA – BC vineyards will see little or no grapes this year, according to a report by Vancouver-based consulting rm Cascadia Partners. The report conrms the worst fears of growers and scientists after an Arctic outow descended on the southern Interior in mid-January, describing the projected losses as “catastrophic.” “Preliminary industry-wide estimates are that the crop will produce just 1-3% of typical yields, with the majority of that coming from unaected regions such as the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island,” the report, released February 7, states. “This means that the production of 100% BC grapes and wine is projected to be 97-99% lower than usual in 2024.” Temperatures plunged as low as -30°C in most grape-growing regions of the province and stayed cold for up to 50 hours. “Given the low temperatures and the length of the cold spell, we can assume that nearly all of the grape buds have been killed and there will be very little fruit this year,” says federal research scientist Ben Min Chang. This will have a huge impact on the grape and wine industry. Cascadia calculates that vineyards and wineries will face revenue losses of up to $346 million. A further $99 million in losses is anticipated for industry suppliers, logistics providers and distributors for a total of loss this year approaching $445 million. This is far worse than in neighbouring Washington, where growers say the freeze event will have little eect outside a handful of areas, though the damage could take months to assess. Two townhall meetings for BC growers in early February discussed the outlook. “What we need to consider now is whether there has been trunk damage and how we can get our vineyards back into production,” says Chang. Chang covered methods of assessing bud, cane and trunk damage before the groups discussed options for growers. One solution is to pull the vine and replant, but that is expensive and slow to bear fruit. “If you were to replant this year you would want the vine to grow without fruit through BC vineyards wiped out by freeze eventNo grapes, no wine but growers eye a fresh start Limited options uAcross North America, Little & Large, Local & Long Port to Dealer, Farm to Farm and anything in between.Call or email for freight solutions.Versatile ramp -to- ground capabilityRecommended Transportation Supplier forQuality Pre-Owned Tractors & EquipmentAERWAT AWMP-075 7’5 working width w/trailer . . 8,500 E-ZEE ON 24OO post pounder, trailer kit . . . . . . . . . . 8.500 JAYLOR Mixer Wagon 4575 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,500 KUHN GF 502 tedder, 4-basket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,500 KVERNELAND 2628 mower, 3 pt hitch, 9’2 cut . . . . 12,500 MF 1742 tractor, AWD with cab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27,500 MF 4609 tractor with 931 loader, 2215 Hours . . . . . 49,000 MF 4707 4WD, LDR, LOW HOURS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,000 MF 4708 tractor/loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59,500 MF 6713 tractor, cab, AWD, 207 hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92,500 MCCORMICK X5.40 cab tractor, low hours . . . . . . . 60,000 TURBOMATIC 600 lt sprayer with side cannon . . . . 8,500 VICON fertilizer spreader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500 WALLENSTEIN M130 manure spreader . . . . . . . . . 17,500 WN WL60T articulating loader 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85,000
8 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Limited options to salvage plant stock2025,” explains BC Grapegrowers Association president Sue de Charmoy. “You would get a small crop in ’26 but not be in full production till 2028.” That is assuming growers can obtain virus-free plant stock. “The nurseries I’ve contacted say they have lots of Cabernet Franc and Syrah, but of course we don’t want those,” one grower noted. These varieties are some of the least cold-resistant varieties for BC growing conditions, and only mature in select sites in the province. Viticulturists from Arterra Wines Canada and Quails’ Gate Estate Winery conrmed the lack of available vines. “We have a standing order every year for replacement, so we will receive those, but there isn’t much extra stock lying around,” says Joe Breti, vineyard manager at Quails’ Gate. Growers wondered if the devastating freeze could happen again. “It’s been 30 years since we had an event like this,” de Charmoy pointed out. The practice of burying canes, something that is common in the colder regions of Ontario, was mentioned. “We do have to look at what techniques we can use to survive,” says de Charmoy. Planting the more cold-hardy hybrids that were common in the industry in the 1970s and 1980s before it was seen that European vinifera varieties could thrive in the Okanagan was also mentioned. But even the Marechal Foch that Quail’s Gate is known for was impacted by this year’s event, with signicant losses in its oldest blocks, planted in West Kelowna in 1967. “In our old vines, we lost about 33% of the buds and our newer vines down in Osoyoos are down 25%,” Breti says. “But at least we will have For more information, visit Syngenta.ca, contact our Customer Interaction Centre at 1-87-SYNGENTA (1-877-964-3682), or follow us on Social Media @SyngentaCanadaAlways read and follow label directions. Aprovia®, Inspire Super®, the Alliance Frame, the Purpose Icon and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Other trademarks are property of their respective owners. © 2024 Syngenta.How do you like these apples?Double up your defense against scab and powdery mildew. Aprovia® Top fungicide provides long-lasting, preventative protection, while Inspire Super® fungicide offers two high-performing active ingredients that fit well in your integrated pest management program.juice to make some wine.” Summerland Research and Development Centre researcher Jose Urbez-Torres showed growers how they could renew vines by training shoots from latent buds (suckers) to replace damaged trunks. “This is the best-case scenario,” notes de Charmoy. “You would get 50% crop next year and back to full crop by 2026, without the cost of a full replant.” Cost is a consideration, given that the province has yet to promise any funding. Representatives from Wine Growers BC, the BC Wine Grape Council and the BC Grapegrowers’ Association met with provincial agriculture minister Pam Alexis, tourism minister Lana Popham and their sta on February 7. BCGA says it’s working towards supports for the industry through the next two seasons. “Something that will help the grapegrowers look after their vines this year so that we can work towards a crop next year,” de Charmoy explains. “Minister Alexis heard our concerns, but she would not commit to any details.” Alexis would only say a new budget was due February 22, and that growers’ concerns would be raised during discussions in Ottawa regarding business risk management programs. BC Agriculture Council sta are aware of the fruit and vine sectors’ concerns, and are working to gather information to support a request for a sector-wide recovery package covering all fruit and vegetable growers. The grape industry’s meeting with Alexis and Popham also discussed the Perennial Crop Renewal Program (PCRP) announced last spring, something Wine Growers BC describes as “a welcome step” but “unexpectedly restrictive, limited in scope, and underfunded.” Several speakers spoke of this time as an opportunity, a turning point in the industry. “We need to look for the silver lining,” one grower suggested. “We have a lot of acres that are infected with trunk disease, but we have been reluctant to cut them back. … Now that we are forced to, we will have more success than we would have had in the future, if this event had not happened.” De Charmoy agrees. “This is an opportunity to clean up our vineyards from trunk disease, from viral disease and to really evaluate that we are planting the best varieties for our location … so that in 10 years we are looking at good crops and nice yields,” she says. With les from Peter Mitham Cherries, tender fruits affected The BC Cherry Association says January’s freeze event could “dramatically reduce the 2024 BC cherry crop.” “This is the most challenging season our growers have seen in our lifetime,” says BCCA president Sukhpaul Bal. BCCA says that damage to a large percentage of developing cherry buds occurred not only due to the extreme cold, but also the sudden shift from warm temperatures a week earlier. “Cherry trees had no time to develop the necessary winter hardiness, and fruit buds were unable to cope with the sudden drop in temperature in such a short period of time,” the association said in a news release. Cherry trees suered damage from the 2021 heat dome that saw temperatures in some orchards reach 47° C, but losses this year will be magnitudes larger and have a long-reaching impact. “It is too early to say what the impact will be on crops in 2025 and beyond, but it is certainly possible that trees in the worst-hit areas have suered long-lasting damage with a recovery that could take years,” says Bal. Other soft fruits were also hit. “It was too cold for both my peach and apricot trees and they will have no fruit this year,” says Molly Thurston, an organic grower in Lake Country. It’s a similar story in Creston. While the area did not experience the level of cold the Okanagan did in 2022, they did not escape this January. Temperatures fell to –27°C over three days, January 10-13. The rapid drop, as well as the level of cold, will aect soft fruits and grapes. —Tom Walker
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 9Apple industry eyes orderly marketing planApril vote recommended on government-backed proposalThem apples! BC apple growers are leaning toward the formation of an apple marketing commission, according to a summary report following info sessions held throughout the Okanagan in January. MYRNA STARK LEADERTOM WALKER KELOWNA – Apple growers could decide whether or not a marketing commission will be developed for their sector as early as April, following a series of public meetings in January. More than 200 growers attended information sessions held January 8-10 in Vernon, Kelowna, Summerland, Oliver and Cawston as well as online, and a summary report of the discussions has been prepared. “The project management committee accepted the report on February 13, and this completes the rst phase of the work,” says Glen Lucas, general manager of the BC Fruit Growers Association. “I’m pleased with how many participants we had, 203 altogether, which I believe is about two-thirds of the apple grower community.” The report notes that there is agreement on a need for change, but not necessarily how to do it. “Both growers and packers agree that something needs to change, or the BC apple industry will get worse,” the report says. “There is signicant support from the majority of growers and some of the packers to move forward with a deeper analysis of an apple marketing commission and how it could benet the apple industry.” The primary source of opposition to the proposal is from independent packers, who are concerned about the possible enforcement powers of a marketing commission and the potential restrictions on their operations. However, all sides agree the industry needs an eective strategy to hold its own against retailers and imports. “There is a general consensus that the BC apple brand was strong in the past but no longer has the same market impact as there is no generic marketing for BC apples,” the report says. “There is also a general consensus that the BC apple industry needs a mechanism to deal with the power of retailers and US imports.” A marketing commission could implement an import levy and the organizational structure to apply for government funding, in particular to undertake local, regional and national marketing campaigns. Growers like the concepts of quality standards and enforcement, as well as the transparency that a marketing association would bring. The downsides include more rules and regulations. Many growers also question whether a commission would be able to achieve the desired outcomes, particularly the ability to impact retail buying practices and directly improve grower returns. “Each meeting was dierent,” Lucas notes. “The discussions evolved in dierent ways, but it was clear that the growers were informed and had opinions about the proposal. There were some who are strongly opposed, and some who are strongly in favour, but most are kind of in the middle.” A good deal of questions remain. The structure and powers of a commission have yet to be dened, not to mention its operating budget and the levy registered growers would have to pay to support it. “It’s clear that there needs to be more information and more discussion to help growers make a decision,” Lucas says. “That is one of the recommendations of the report.” In accepting the report, the project management committee appointed and funded by the province as part of its tree fruit stabilization initiative (its membership is not disclosed), recommended that answers to the outstanding questions be communicated to growers and packers, and that further meetings be held prior to moving forward with a vote on the commission proposal in April. BCFGA will lead the rest of the process, Lucas says. “The BCFGA board has approved a budget to facilitate the next steps.” he says. “That includes the hiring of consultants to continue to inform growers and to develop a grower registry and oversee a vote if there is one.” Lucas says it’s important to note that the BCFGA is advocating for growers, not the commission. “What the growers decide either way for me is a win, as long as they have the right information to make an informed and independent decision,” he says. Although he retires March 1, Lucas has promised to see BCFGA’s work on the commission proposal through to a grower vote. Tree Fruit Growers: Join or Renew your 2024 BCFGA MembershipAt the BCFGA, our mission is to· Advocate for the interest of growers· Foster collaboration within the industry· Promote sustainable practices to ensure the continued success of fruit farming in BC Together, our collective voice is strong.1. LMIA Application Assistance2. Valuable Information: via weekly newsletters, Ag publication subscriptions, Tree Fruit Production Guide, seasonal farm labour information, extension advice, spray schedules, and more.3. Member Support: • Monetary incentives for programs like EFP completion ($250) and COR/ Worker Safety ($250-$500). • Discounts & Partnerships like the TFW Housing Building Permit application discount, and Crop Tracker digitized Spray Records & GAP modules (free for members)Representing Growers Since 1889.1.800.619.9022 info@bcfga.com www.bcfga.com 880 Vaughan Avenue, Kelowna, BCMEMBERSHIPMEMBER INCENTIVESeasy scanQR link
10 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCView over 100 listings of farm properties at www.bcfarmandranch.comBC FARM & RANCH REALTY CORP.Buying or Selling a Farm or Acreage?GORD HOUWELING Cell: 604/793-8660GREG WALTON Cell: 604/864-1610Toll free 1-888-852-AGRI Call BC’s First and Only Real Estate Office committed 100% to Agriculture!PROFESSIONAL SERVICESBC Tree Fruits members vote down hostile motionsThe special meeting was called to challenge the legitimacy of a number of board members who had been acclaimed at the co-op’s annual general meeting in 2022 and announce as sitting members at the meeting’s adjournment. The second matter of contention was the right for the board to negotiate and complete asset sales without approval of a full membership vote. The timing of nominations for new board directors as well as reporting on their qualications was also in disagreement. This led to a procedural dispute citing Roberts Rules of Order as well as BC Tree Fruits own bylaws, with the co-op spending more than $100,000 in lawyer fees to defend its move. During the February 5 meeting, motions to remove directors garnered an average of 56% in favour, underscoring the level of discontent with the board and the method by which they were appointed. While it has been past practice to seek approval of the full membership for any sale of co-op property, the practice is not entrenched in the co-op’s bylaws. A resolution requiring that sales be approved at a general meeting received only 55% approval. Likewise, changes to the timing of nominations and a requirement that candidate information as well as the Expert farm taxation adviceApproved consultants for Government funding throughBC Farm Business Advisory Services ProgramEnderby 250-838-7337Armstrong 250-546-8665 |t1VSDIBTFBOETBMFPGGBSNTt5SBOTGFSPGGBSNTUPDIJMESFOt(PWFSONFOUTVCTJEZQSPHSBNTt1SFQBSBUJPOPGGBSNUBYSFUVSOTt6TFPG$BQJUBM(BJOT&YFNQUJPOT$ISJT)FOEFSTPO$1"$"-PSFO)VUUPO$1"$"5PMM 'SFF1-888-818-FARM |www.farmtax.comRossworn HendersonLLPChartered Professional Accountants - Tax Consultantsartered Professional Accountants - Tax ConsultanCALL FOR AN ESTIMATE LARRY 604.209.5523 TROY 604.209.5524 TRI-WAY FARMS LASER LEVELLING LTD.IMPROVED DRAINAGE UNIFORM GERMINATION UNIFORM IRRIGATION FAST, ACCURATE SURVEYING INCREASE CROP YIELDS We service all of Southern BCnominations committee’s rationale for the nomination, be reported to the sitting board as well as the members before an election also failed to gain support. Grower dissatisfaction with the co-op’s management has been stoked by the consolidation of packing operations in Oliver, announced in August 2022, and the sale of assets in Lake Country in Kelowna. Co-op members claimed that the co-op did not adequately consult them prior to announcing the consolidation plans, maintaining that it intended to build a new state-of-the-art plant on Old Vernon Road in Kelowna. The co-op’s CEO at the time, Warren Saranchan, took growers’ concerns to heart, pledging greater transparency. The co-op’s new Oliver packing facility upgrade is now about 70% complete. While interim CEO and CFO Doug Pankiw, calls it a “bridge to the future,” that bridge has a few rotten planks. The co-op’s ability to follow through on nancial commitments also came into question in mid-January when it announced it would not be able to pay the usual rst advance payment to growers. After much pushback from members, the payment was delivered on time. The co-op’s nancial challenges have been exacerbated by it handling less than half the apples it did ve years ago. Apple volume was reported at just over 122 million pounds for the 2018 crop; by 2022 that had dropped to 58.3 million pounds. The average price paid to growers has improved from 13.23 cents a pound in 2020 to 27.95 cents a pound in 2022 but it remains below the cost of production. Production costs averaged 35 cents a pound in 2022 and have increased signicantly on account of ination since then. Saranchan stepped down as CEO in August last year, but continues to have a consulting role. A permanent replacement has not been named. BC Tree Fruits declined to be interviewed for this story. —Tom Walker Farmers lead protest in Duncan A convoy of about 30 tractors, trailers, and other farm equipment converged on the Cowichan Valley Regional District oces in Duncan, February 7, to voice opposition to ooding the historic Dinsdale Farm as part of the Cowichan Estuary restoration project. “It was very peaceful. They organized themselves extremely well and didn't create any problem in town,” says Land Keepers Society director and protest organizer Jack McLeod. “The general public was very much in support, which surprised a lot of people.” The rally coincided with a meeting of CVRD’s electoral area services committee, whose agenda included a request from the Nature Trust of BC to remove dikes and ood the 100-acre farm in Cowichan Bay. Since the property lies within the Agricultural Land Reserve, CVRD’s backing was needed prior to a non-farm use application being forwarded to the Agricultural Land Commission, which advised the Nature Trust and local government in December that the dikes cannot be removed without ALC approval. The meeting ultimately decided to advance the Nature Trust’s application to the ALC, pleasing the Land Keepers, which says plans for the Cowichan Estuary project to date have occurred behind closed doors rather than in consultation with the public. “If they're going to change anything to do with agricultural land, they have to make an application,” McLeod says. “And that's what we achieved at this meeting. … It will be left to the land commission to decide if they can change this land use and remove the dikes.” The Nature Trust welcomed CVRD’s decision. It claims the Cowichan Estuary Restoration project “places signicant emphasis on incorporating Indigenous food systems so that these lands continue to be farmed, providing culturally signicant foods and medicine plants to Cowichan Tribes while contributing to the overall food security of the region.” About 550 farmers from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island have written to the ALC asking that the land be protected. A timeline for a decision has not been set. — Kate Ayers A fresh challenge to the BC Tree Fruits Co-operative board has been voted down. A special general meeting in Penticton on February 5 saw 70% of the co-op’s voting members reject motions that aimed to unseat ve of the co-op board’s 10 members and change the decision-making process regarding property sales. The motions didn’t garner the two-thirds majority required to pass. “With the meeting now behind us, the board of directors can focus fully on the future, working closely with management and the membership to continue with the facility improvement and consolidation plans rst announced in August of 2022,” co-op chair Robert Stewart said in a press release. Ag Briefs PETER MITHAM
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 11BC FIRB strategic plan aims to clarify roleDocument guides long-term mission, supports public trustBC FIRB's new strategic plan will help the public better understand its role in the farm sector and food system, says board chair Peter Donkers. FACEBOOK / PETER DONKERSPETER MITHAM VICTORIA – The first major strategic plan in 20 years for the BC Farm Industry Review Board promises to break down misunderstandings and clarify its role in supervising the farm sector. “It is to a large extent a communications tool for FIRB,” says BC FIRB chair Peter Donkers, who took the helm of the organization in 2017. “FIRB is either the most misunderstood or least understood [government-appointed tribunal], depending on your perspective.” The nine-member board has mandates under the province’s Natural Products Marketing (BC) Act, the Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act, and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Its work includes supervising the province’s marketing boards and commissions, hearing appeals and resolving disputes related to regulated products, farm practices and animal seizures. Donkers quips that agriculture – according to its legal counsel – is the “most litigious sector” in the economy. “There are more appeals that happen in agriculture than, from their practice, in most other parts of the provincial economy,” says Donkers, recalling how some meetings seven years ago were marked by shouting and tears. “We’ve tried to create a FIRB that is more approachable, and is actually interested in solving problems than in articulating edict.” While the work largely takes place behind the scenes, it has public implications ranging from the price of chicken to the kinds of activities permitted on farms at the rural-urban interface. “[This] plan gives us that opportunity to describe a vision, describe objectives and goals that relate to the community we serve and gives us measureable goalposts,” Donkers says. “We wanted to produce a document that not just describes FIRB’s role in terms of the legislation that enables us to do what we do, but also the interplay of the relationship between all the supply chain.” The three-year plan outlines three strategic priorities, including supporting good governance at commodity boards and commissions, helping to future-proof the agriculture sector and reviewing and improving board processes and policies to support effective dispute resolution. Reassurance The plan should reassure producers that the province has their back when it comes to the right to farm and orderly marketing, says vegetable grower Neil Turner, a BC FIRB director and partner in Courtenay’s Amara Farm. BC FIRB’s supervisory role doesn’t have an impact on him because his production isn’t regulated by the BC Vegetable Marketing Commission, but BC FIRB’s oversight of the Right to Farm Act is critical. “I need to know that there’s a fair process out there from the province to protect my interest to grow crops,” he says. The document also helps keeps him, as a director, as well as staff, accountable. “I see it as a contract internally for our team and our organization to set goals and keep ourselves true to those goals,” he says. The plan includes several examples of BC FIRB’s work, including its supervisory review of BC Veg following allegations of bad faith and malfeasance. The review made several recommendations that ensured continued public trust and confidence in the integrity of BC's regulated marketing system and the vegetable sector in particular. More recently, BC FIRB has been active in an ongoing review of chicken pricing to ensure greater supply chain stability and accountability and establish long-term pricing options that work for hatching egg producers, growers and processors. The proposed pricing formula recently made headlines when Restaurants Canada as well as the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers spoke out against the impact on food costs. “They kind of thrust FIRB into the spotlight,” says Donkers, who says the strategic plan offers a clear understanding of its role in disputes over pricing in the supply managed sectors. “The strategic plan is timely,” he says. “The body that ultimately bears the responsibility as a supervisor, you now know what their processes look like and how to engage with it.” Preventing Injuries | Minimizing ImpactEncouraging Worker Health & WellbeingReturn to Work Injury ManagementReturn to Work Injury ManagementEmployers and Employees - Duty to Cooperate.Contact your AgSafe representative to build aneffective RTW/RAW program.Contact@AgSafeBC.ca1 (877) 533-1789(604) 881-6078 SCAN HERE!Have Questions?Connect with AgSafe!
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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 13Two Interior farms face abuse claimsAllegations renew calls for better migrant worker protectionsForeign workers play a critical role on BC farms, but recent abuse allegations are fuelling claims for better protections. FILE / MYRNA STARK LEADERwww.hlaattachments.com 1-866-567-4162 KELLY SINOSKI ASHCROFT – The BC Human Rights Tribunal will hear a case involving three temporary foreign workers from Guatemala who claim they were sexually abused, exploited and humiliated while working at Desert Hills Ranch in Ashcroft. The ruling comes at the same time as a sexual abuse investigation of a Mexican worker in the Oliver wine industry and a class-action lawsuit by farm workers in Ontario, underscoring increasing calls by migrant advocates to strengthen protections for seasonal farm workers. About 16,000 permits were issued in BC to seasonal farm workers in 2022. “Treating anyone this way is terrible. We have zero tolerance for this kind of thing,” says Reg Ens, general manager of the Western Agriculture Labour Initiative (WALI), of the Ashcroft case. “If alleged issues are conrmed, it’s not acceptable.” The Guatemalan workers took their case to the Human Rights Tribunal in 2020, saying they were discriminated against by ranch manager David Porter based on their race, colour, place of origin and sex in violation of s. 13 of BC’s Human Rights Code. Porter, who denies the allegations, sought to defer the case pending the outcome of criminal proceedings. Crown subsequently decided in January that no charges will be laid against Porter because there was not enough evidence for likelihood of a conviction, says Daniel McLaughlin, communications counsel for the BC Prosecution Service. However, tribunal vice-chair Devyn Cousineau ruled in January that the police investigation was already more than three years old and any further delays would prejudice the complainants. Even if charges had been laid, she says, that would not address the allegations of discrimination. “At this stage, I can see little purpose to be served by a deferral,” Cousineau says. “Given the unfortunate delays at the Tribunal, it is reasonable to expect that any hearing is at least a year away, if not more. It is fair and reasonable for the parties to continue moving the Tribunal’s process.” The three complaints will be heard together despite being led individually, as Cousineau notes the complainants are temporary foreign workers – “a uniquely vulnerable group who have diculty vindicating their rights.” The case follows a class-action lawsuit against the federal government that claims closed work permits – or “tied employment” – violate workers’ human rights, eectively making workers property of their employer. Canada imposes tied employment by requiring foreign workers to work for a single employer. Most foreign workers live on the farms where they work. If they quit, they are sent home. A recent report, The Status of Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada 2023: Special Health & Safety Report, by United Food and Commercial Workers Canada, described the current system as a “contemporary form of slavery” that leaves migrant workers vulnerable to ongoing abuse and exploitation. In 2019, the federal government created an open visa for migrant workers who can prove they are Workers fear reprisal uHelping you grow your business. you ours.Irrigation Pipe|Traveling Gun/Hose ReelsPivots| Pumps|Power UnitsTALK TO BR OC K 250.319.3044or email beyedynamic@gmail.comAvailable NowFire suppression systems, pumps, protection for farms 2 - 1/4 mile Used Valley 2015 -low hours clean, USED:IMMATICFTs5SED(OSE2EELSsFTINFTIN($0%sFTUSEDSTEELPIPEINALLSIZESh.EWv0IERCE0IVOTS4,0IVOTSLEASEAVAILABLEs.EW(OSE2EELS2-"RAND)DRIOs$IESEL0UMPS%NDCENTRIFUGALPUMPS3UBMERSIBLEPUMPSs&REQDRIVESs0UMPSTATIONS
14 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Workers fear reprisalexperiencing abuse, allowing workers to nd new employment and not be tied to their original employer. Amy Cohen, a professor of anthropology at Okanagan College and co-founder of Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture (RAMA), says while this is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough as many workers can’t apply for it without losing their accommodation. The fear of reprisal means many migrants will not make a fuss. “For the ones who do decide to stay, it’s challenging,” Cohen says. Cohen was pleased to see the Guatemalan workers pursue their case against Desert Hills, noting the process is lengthy and not always successful. She supported five women in cases alleging sexual abuse by their boss or manager and “in none of these cases did Crown feel there was enough evidence to go forward. It was his word against hers.” “The fact they filed a human rights complaint was amazing,” she says. Cohen says she would like all seasonal farm workers to have open work permits, as well as a place to live and money for groceries while they wait for an application to be heard. Ens says there should be more follow-up with migrants once they start working. Canada provides foreign workers with information on their legal rights, he says, but many are often overwhelmed with the information. “All of sudden, you’re expected to know it all. One of the things we can do better is how do you make information immediately available and then follow up with information later, so it sinks in,” Ens says. Worker survey WALI plans to survey workers on what’s important to them, while reminding employers of the rules and best practices through webinars and education. “The bottom line is (foreign workers) are here to make money. They want lots of hours – that’s their drive for being away from their families,” says Ens. “We’re trying to find out from them what they’re looking for and educate employers – these are some of the things that will improve the quality of life for your workers while they’re here and make their time in Canada more enjoyable.” Spring AuctionApril 4thConsign & RegisterTo Bid!Beekmanauctions.comThe Best way to Buy & Sell FarmRelated Items!Chilliwack, B.C.Good equipment, good friends, good times: There was plenty of laughter alongside the serious business on the trade show oor in January as farmers gathered at Tradex in Abbotsford for the Pacic Agriculture Show. Stormy weather made for good attendance as participants checked out the latest developments in the eld. RONDA PAYNEGood times!
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 15Study shows BC farmers markets add valueBCAFM, UNBC conduct economic impact researchFarmers markets are the sole source of income for Forstbauer Family Natural Food Farm in Chilliwack, which means a recent study showing growing market trafc is good news. FACEBOOK / FORSTBAUER FAMILY NATURAL FOOD FARMProudly certifying Producers and Processorswithin BC and Alberta.FVOPA provides year round certification services compliant with the Canadian Organic Standards (CAN/CGSB) and in accordance with the BC Certified Organic ISO 17065 recognized program. Products may be sold Canada-wide and in international markets. FVOPA ensures an efficient, professional certification process for all farm, processing and handling operations. Inspectors are lOlA trained and qualified making FVOPA a leading Certification Agency.Message 604-607-1655Email: admin@fvopa.cawww.fvopa.caPhone 604-789-7586P.O. Box 18591Delta, BC V4K 4V7Phone: 778-434-3070 202-4841 Delta Street admin@fvopa.ca Delta, BC V4K 2T9 www.fvopa.ca Proudly certifying Organic Operators across Canada Fraser Valley Organic Producers Association (FVOPA) offers organic certication services for producers, processors, packaging and labelling contractors, distributors, and various organic service providers. We pride ourselves on exceptional customer service and we welcome new members year-round. FVOPA certies to the Canadian Organic Standards and to the Canada Organic Regime (COR). Certied products may bear the Canada Organic logo and be marketed Canada-wide and internationally. KATE AYERS VANCOUVER – A farmers market is much more than a place to buy food, serving as a social hub, tourism destination and economic driver with signicant community benets, a new study shows. “What this study does is really bring a lot of data and credibility,” says BC Association of Farmers Markets executive director Heather O’Hara. “It's really compelling to people who already believe in farmers markets, but it's also really compelling to those who are maybe discounting or not seeing farmers markets as the legitimate economic development engines that they are.” The 2023 study examined 70 BCAFM members, which is double the number of markets that participated in a 2012 study and represents 51% of the province’s 137 markets. The broader scope was thanks in part to support from the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, in addition to a special allocation in BCAFM’s own budget funded from revenues. “We wanted to go big because we could; we had some money to invest,” O’Hara says. “We know how important this study is and we wanted to reach as many markets as we could. So, we embarked on that.” The study was conducted in partnership with University of Northern British Columbia associate professor David Connell, who also led two previous studies in 2006 and 2012. The research team began recruiting farmers markets in winter and spring 2023, gathered data between June and August, and analyzed the data through October. Connell developed the report with BCAFM sta in November 2023. The results showed growth and more growth. “The operative word to describe everything is more. More direct sales, more visitors, more tourists, more shoppers, more markets, bigger markets, more vendors, more indirect sales to adjacent businesses who neighbour farmers markets,” O’Hara says. “We've only seen a trajectory of more since 2006 to 2012, similarly 2012 to 2023.” The aggregated data shows $155 million in direct sales and $233 million in annual economic impact across the province. Farmers markets see nearly ve million visitors every year and 3.7 million of those visitors are shoppers. On average, each shopper spends $42.50 at a farmers market. In addition, farmers markets bring business to adjacent businesses. “Where a farmers market bumps up against other businesses outside of the market, they're responsible for generating about $118 million of direct sales to those neighbouring businesses,” O’Hara says. “It's a pretty big deal in terms of drawing people to an area.” About 17% of the annual visitors to farmers markets and their surrounding communities are tourists. Also, the study showed that the BC Farmers Market Nutrition Coupon Program provides nearly $4 million worth of fresh BC-farmed food to low-income families. While direct sales were not broken down by vendor type, anecdotally, O’Hara estimates that over 50% of farmers market vendors are primary producers and prepared food, which equates to around 2,000 farmers who use markets for direct-to-consumer sales. Sole source of income At Forstbauer Family Natural Food Farm in Chilliwack, farmers markets are the sole source of the family’s income. “We sell almost everything at farmers markets now. We used to sell to stores and to wholesalers but moved away from that and now we're doing all farmers markets,” says farm co-owner Niklaus Forstbauer. Forstbauer, along with his wife Lindsey, father, and siblings’ families participate in ve markets throughout the year: Trout Lake, West End, Riley Park, Coquitlam and Port Moody. 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16 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Solid investmentCohortWholesale.comTechnical and sales support provided byCrack the cherry cracking code!Lalstim Osmo • Minimizes yield losses caused by rain-induced splitting• Works quickly and provides protection for several weeks• Excellent tank-mix partnerAlways read and follow label directions. Lalstim Osmo is a registered trademark of Lallemand Plant Care. Copyright ©2023 Lallemand Plant Care. CRACK THE C DElallemandplantcare.com cattle and poultry to provide food for local communities. The Forstbauers appreciate the market atmosphere and the opportunity to build relationships with their customers. “It has a big impact on a community like Coquitlam because people are meeting the person who grows their food, and they are able to get that much closer to understanding how food is grown, how we do things and what kind of people we are,” Lindsey Forstbauer says. The family also enjoys interacting with other farmers on a weekly basis to share stories and tips and tricks. Overall, this study points to the value of farmers markets and that perhaps, in fact, bigger is better, so these community mainstays are a solid investment. “[The study] makes a case for municipalities, government (and) other kinds of decision-makers to invest in these farmers markets because of the power of impact they bring, whether it be economic impact, community social hub, tourism destination, free and family entertainment, community building,” O’Hara says. Such investments could include dedicated equipment and infrastructure and useable market space at cost or for free. Another signicant improvement could be budgets for paid and dedicated market sta. “This study is demonstrating that that is a good place to put your money to help pay for the operations of these markets, which are bringing so much value to your community and region,” O’Hara says. Lindsey Forstbauer agrees that consistent space as well as ample parking and accessible transit nearby would help farmers markets and their vendors. Increase footprint The study calls for increasing the footprint of farmers markets instead of limiting it, to benet businesses and ultimately support food security. “We want to shorten food supply chains. We want to sustain our food and farmlands because these are the people that feed us, and especially in crisis, especially with climate change,” O’Hara says. “With pandemics and other kinds of challenges, local food, which is grown and sold through farmers markets, is really important. We need to support more local direct food sales channels, not fewer.” BCAFM sta have shared the study results with member markets and provided them with tools and resources to use the information for their individual contexts. The results are also scheduled for presentation and discussion at the BCAFM annual general meeting and conference in North Vancouver at the beginning of March. For more information about the study and its results, visit [bcfarmersmarket.org]. YOURHelping YouHelping YouSignSign up today forfor freeupy eeWEEKLY FARM NEWS UPDATESNatalie Forstbauer, recently returned to the Fraser Valley from Saskatchewan where she ran a small organic farm, was among the attendees at the Pacic Agriculture Show, chatting up Ronda Payne and Ann Collins in the Country Life in BC booth and exploring green shoots in the local industry. ANNA KLOCHKOStory tellers
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 17Parm Bains was accompanied by his wife Satwinder when he received the UBC Alumni Award of Distinction in November. EDWARD CHANG / V. SARAN KATE AYERS ABBOTSFORD – Westberry Farms didn’t become one of the province’s top blueberry growing, packing and shipping operations by accident. The passion, hard work and foresight of Parmjit Bains and his wife Satwinder have resulted in a globally recognized business and multiple awards for industry leadership, the latest being the UBC Alumni Award of Distinction. In 1989, the couple bought a 40-acre blueberry farm in the Fraser Valley with a dream of living the rural lifestyle and raising a family on a farm. “Going back to my high school days, my cousin had a large 500-acre vegetable farm that was in Cloverdale, which is part of Surrey now,” Bains says. “I used to work there in the summertime and just fell in love with the land and the production side of things and decided that I would love to go into the farming industry.” As a result, Bains studied agriculture at UBC, majoring in crop protection and horticulture. He graduated in 1979 and joined the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food. His rst private sector job was with the East Chilliwack Fruit Growers Co-operative Association. The co-op had just built a state-of-the-art juice plant on site, Bains says, and bought what was then Westdale Foods (now BC Frozen Foods). “I was hired as a manager of eld operations,” Bains says. “I used to provide technical advisory services and did the crop procurement, so we were buying raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and vegetables. I got to know a lot of the farmers and the elds in the valley and of the three [berry] crops when we got started, we chose blueberries.” Bains partially attributes this move to luck because in the late 1990s, antioxidants became all the rage. This gave blueberries “a health halo around them,” he says. Bains focused on growing at rst, but it wasn’t long before he began to diversify. The North American Free Trade Agreement came into eect in January 1994, which resulted in the closure of many national packing houses in the Fraser Valley, Bains says. “Once NAFTA came in, they weren't able to compete with their counterparts in the US on the berries and the processed fruits and vegetables,” he says. “The blueberry industry was just getting going at that time and it created an opportunity for grower packinghouses to be set up and that's how we came about. There's about 15 to 20 grower packinghouses like ours that handle blueberries doing primary processing.” A packing facility was built at the farm and Westberry Farms was formed in 1997. However, a packinghouse needs to draw from at least 1,000 acres of blueberries to be viable. There are about 700 blueberry growers in the valley, Bains says, some with 10, 15, 20, maybe 40 acres. In total, Bains manages about 300 acres and takes in product from 50 other growers in the area. Westberry Farms now draws from over 1,200 acres of grower-owned family farms. The processing plant allows product to be sold as fresh and frozen domestically as far east as Ontario and as far aeld as Japan. “Our strongest overseas market is Japan, followed by Korea and other South Asian countries,” Bains says. To remain a leader in the blueberry sector requires business sense, innovation and sound growing practices. “On the packing side of it, we brought in colour and soft sorter equipment,” Bains says. “No individual can pick out all the greens and the reds, and so we needed advanced technology, and we brought that in.” On the eld side, Bains and his growers use mechanical harvesters, which help with Berry farmer recognized for achievements Blueberry farmer Parmjit Bains has spent his career in agricultureA good role model uDonna Jager, REALTOR®Personal Real Estate Corporationdonnajager@royallepage.ca1085 Alpine View Place, Qualicum, BC2.5 Acre Country Estate with Stunning Mountain Views and Sunsets2021 beautifully appointed custom built 3,225 sq.ft 5 bed, 4 bath rancher with a bonus room. Fully set up for horses.2740 Northwest Bay Road, Nanoose Bay, BCImpeccable 21+ Acres, perfectly appointed Equestrian property in the heart of highly desirable Nanoose Bay.7522 Island Highway North, Merville, BCWOW! Outstanding value for this 130 Acre farm with 2 homes + income producing blueberry patch and farm status.6175 Drinkwater Road, Port Alberni, BC Premier Equestrian Property100 x 200 Steel constructed covered riding arena 4 bed main home has a 1 bed in-law-suite + a charming and immaculate tiny home & gorgeous self contained 1 bed suite. MLS# 945195MLS# 951035MLS# 948036MLS# 952561250.228.1270Parksville-Qualicum Beach RealtySpecializing in Farms, Acreages & Equestrian Properties on Vancouver Island. $1,939,999$2,400,000$1,999,000$2,200,000I live it,,I love it,,I know it.
18 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu A good role model another opportunity, including freeze-dried or sugar-infused-dried, he adds. Input costs continue to pose challenges for producers, including the cost of land, fungicides and fertilizers as well as labour, Bains says. For the upcoming season, Bains remains positive. “Last year, of my 35 years, was the most unusual. We had some of the heaviest of blossoms, especially with Dukes, and when it came time to put out the bees for pollination the weather turned on us,” he says. “We didn't get the pollination that we were expecting. And so, the valley production, it dropped by 40%.” Overall the winter thus far has been mild, but Bains hopes January’s cold snap didn’t damage buds in the early-maturing varieties. “We're hoping for a good moderate crop, if not a bumper crop,” Bains says. labour shortages. Westberry has also transitioned from overhead to drip irrigation, and employs integrated pest management to control bugs. Giving back Bains’s leadership in the blueberry sector and willingness to advance BC’s agri-food sector has seen him chair for many organizations and groups, including the BC Blueberry Council and US Highbush Blueberry Council (the only non-American to hold this position). He’s currently in his tenth year as chair of the advisory board of the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems. “It’s the who's who of the food sector and the farming side,” he says, “and I enjoy the feedback that we're able to give to Rickey [Yada] and his sta.” Yada is the faculty’s dean and the person who recruited Bains for the role after hearing him speak at a 2015 conference in Chilliwack. “He’s been a great faculty advisory board chair,” Yada says of Bains. “He brings credibility to the faculty because he’s lived the life, he knows the faculty, and he’s been in various leadership positions within the blueberry industry. He’s been very insightful that way. We are very proud that he is an alumnus of this faculty and for all that he has done for the industry and as a graduate showing leadership and being a good role model.” Bains has also provided guidance on UBC’s new Food and Beverage Innovation Centre, which focuses on food processing. In addition, Bains has contributed signicantly to Canadian and Indian educational links at the University of Fraser Valley, where Satwinder is an associate professor in the School of Culture, Media and Society. He supported the establishment of the Centre for India-Canadian Studies at UFV (now known as the South Asian Studies Institute); the Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma College in Chandigarh, India; and the BC Regional Innovation Chair in Canada-India Business and Economic Development at UFV. As a result of his work in the sector, for the university and the non-prot sector, Bains was recognized with the prestigious UBC Alumni Award of Distinction. “I'm very touched and honoured by the award. It came as a surprise to me and to be recognized for the work one does in the public and the private sectors,” Bains says. “You feel good.” The blueberry sector expressed its appreciation for Bains’s work, too. “The BC Blueberry Council extends its congratulations to Parm for this remarkable accomplishment. Parm has been an active participant in the council since the 1990s, contributing in various capacities and notably serving as the chair of the board of directors,” says council executive director Anju Gill. “Known for his forward-thinking approach, Parm is always accessible, oering valuable insights and guidance based on his extensive experience.” Looking ahead, Bains sees ample opportunities and challenges in the blueberry sector. The breeding program supported by the blueberry council and ministry endeavours to develop new varieties better suited for mechanical harvesting, which will help growers in the fresh market, Bains says. Value-added products are PETER MITHAM VICTORIA – It’s been four years since the retirement of the province’s long-time greenhouse and nursery specialist Dave Woodske. Woodske retired in early 2020, just as COVID was about to shut down life as we knew it. Now, Karina Sakalauskas has been appointed as provincial ornamental greenhouse and nursery specialist. Woodske’s role was initially combined with that of provincial eld vegetable specialist Susan Smith. Smith saw her role as that of a liaison with the sector, something protected crops needed as much as eld crops, especially when dealing with trade issues and regulatory issues. However, the needs and challenges of eld crops and contained agriculture systems are dierent, and the ministry continued to hear from the industry about the need for an industry specialist following her appointment. Sakalauskas is a solid pick for the role. She joined the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 2017 as acting berry specialist. She also worked as provincial hazelnut specialist, and served briey as interim organic sector specialist. Perhaps most signicant to her current role, Sakalauskas ran her own greenhouse in Argentina prior to emigrating to Canada and is familiar with the sector’s needs. Nursery specialist appointed Financing programs are subject to change at any time.VICTORIA 250.474.3301 4377C Metchosin Rd. 30 mins from Victoria &15 mins from Hwy#1 in Metchosin.@tractortimeequipmenttractortime.com0%FOR 84 MONTHSFINANCINGAVAILABLE0%@handlersequipmentABBOTSFORD 604.850.3601 339 Sumas WayHOUSTON 250.845.3333 2990 Highway Crescenthandlersequipment.comPrice includes 71hp Cab Tractor with Loader.Mahindra 6075 $77,500
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 19Blueberries top pick amid strong demandPremiumization, consolidation on tap for competitive market Blueberries are in high demand globally, and that’s pushing growers to be more competitive as regions compete for a piece of the action. RONDA PAYNE / FILE PHOTOEinbock Tillage Equipment For Organic FarmingEconomical Reliable Low Maintenance Safe and Proven Order now for guaranteed next season delivery.Tine Weeders Row Crop CultivatorsRotary Hoes Camera GuidanceSystemsOrder now forguaranteed next season delivery.DELTA Drain Tile CleanersImproves Drainage & Conditions SoilEmail us today at: info@reimersfarmservices.comFOR BAGGED or BULK ORDERSDarren Jansen Owner604.794.3701organicfeeds@gmail.comwww.canadianorganicfeeds.comCertified by Pro-Cert Organic Systems Ltd.PETER MITHAM ABBOTSFORD – Blueberries are the star of the show when it comes to berries, with strong demand for both fresh and frozen product and room for premiumization as demand grows for higher quality options. “Blueberries have become a true global industry, whereas strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, particularly in the fresh market, that will remain a more regional market,” David Magaña, senior analyst, horticulture, with the international agricultural lender Rabobank told growers attending the all-berry session at the Lower Mainland Horticulture Conference in Abbotsford, January 26. Magaña’s market outlook gave short shrift to berries other than blueberries, which are the fastest-growing berry in the freezer case and a top choice among consumers seeking fresh fruit on account of their health and avour attributes as well as convenience. “North America, particularly the US, will remain the largest destination market for fresh and frozen blueberries in the next few seasons,” says Magaña, noting that Canada is the largest shipper of fresh blueberries to the US. “The popularity of this super-fruit continues to attract new consumers.” Globally, Rabobank expects exports to exceed a million tonnes by 2026, but there are shifts ahead thanks to a tough season in Peru as a result of El Niño. The low-chill varieties that dominate Peru’s plantings were hit hard last season, resulting in a delayed harvest and lower yields, which are expected to continue through the coming season. Weather woes in North America mean the domestic industry hasn’t been able to ll the gap. Oregon, for example, has seen lower yields due to weather-related conditions. (Similar challenges have aected Fraser Valley growers, but didn’t warrant a mention in Magaña’s presentation.) Blueberry availability in the US was down 60% year on year as imports from Peru lagged and domestic production fell short. Yet prices were up by an average of 120% during the season, testifying to strong consumer demand. “Some weeks, prices were 200% higher than the corresponding week in the previous season,” Magaña reports. “That’s a testament that demand is quite strong.” Demand for frozen fruit is a case in point, thanks to what Magaña called “the smoothie eect.” “Many consumers are utilizing frozen berries for their smoothies,” he said. “We can expect that to be strong, resilient, for the frozen market.” Rabobank expects growers in North America to invest in more ecient production systems, new cultivars and – in some cases – both, to meet consumer demand and, according to Magaña, “remain competitive in an environment that demands higher quality standards.” However, similar trends are playing out globally, underscoring the ght for market share and margin. Chile, for example, is seeing growers exit the fresh sector due to overlap with production from Peru. Some have focused on frozen, while others have dropped blueberries altogether. “It’s been getting too complicated to compete,” Magaña says. This is where innovation is playing a role. Pointing to Peru, where growth has been driven by proprietary varieties that now account for 60% of plantings, Magaña says growers elsewhere will soon be embracing more ecient and productive plants, creating more sustainable businesses, environmentally as well as nancially. Premiumization is also in play as producers seek to dierentiate themselves in the marketplace. Size, rmness, avour and branding are all opportunities. “The possibility to have a super-premium blueberry is in the realm of possibility,” Magaña says. “We expect that blueberry premiumization will continue in the next few years.” Finally, consolidation is likely as the market – particulary – in Latin America, matures. Peru is seeing larger companies manage exports, while Chile and Mexico are seeing consolidation at the grower level. Mexico has done well to give smaller growers opportunities to supply export markets, with the average farm in the country about 12.5 acres, but this isn’t viable for the long-term. “Consolidation is likely in the next few years as the industry becomes more competitive,” Magaña says. “Eciencies have to take place.”
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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 21Creston beekeepers Amanda Goodman Lee and Jeff Lee, centre, took home top honours at the North American Honey Bee Expo in January with the help of a specialized honey creamer from Quebec's family-run Creampal Equipment, represented by brothers Sébastien, left, and Joel Laberge, right. JEFF LEEServing the Okanagan and Fraser Valley We’ve been proudly family owned and operated since opening in 1976. And with two blending plants, we’re one of BC’s largest distributors of granular, liquid and foliar fertilizers. Our buying power and proximity to the Fraser Valley makes us the logical choice for truckload shipments. OKANAGAN FERTILIZER LTD 1-800-361-4600 or 250-838-6414 23.85 Acres | $2,470,000 25.61 Acre Blueberry Farm | $2,150,000595 Acre Ranch 5 titles | $3,500,000 34.8 Acre Cranberry Farm | $3,750,0002689 Sutherland Road, Agassiz, BC4184 Humphrey Rd, Agassiz, BC5770 Spring Lake Rd, 100 Mile, BC 8450 Gibson Rd, Chilliwack, BCLEADER IN AGRICULTURAL SALES IN THE FRASER VALLEY WITH OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE4323 Humphrey Rd, Agassiz, BC 92.95 Acre Blueberry Farm | $4,675,000T 604 793 8138 | bryanvanhoepen.com |SOLDVANESSA FARNSWORTH CRESTON – The year is o to a roaring start for Kootenay beekeepers Amanda Goodman Lee and Je Lee. Facing sti competition at the prestigious American Beekeeping Federation’s (APF’s) 2024 American Honey Show in New Orleans in January, their honey took home top prize in several categories including Best of Show. A week earlier, one of their creamed honeys placed rst in its category at the highly competitive North American Honey Bee Expo’s Honey Show in Louisville, Kentucky. “We had a really good January. It was a great way to start the year, that’s for sure,” says Goodman Lee, whose Best of Show honey went on to fetch more than $800 per jar at an auction to benet APF programming. A jar of that honey normally sells for closer to $15. The couple has come a long way since rst taking up beekeeping as a hobby while living in New Westminster. It wasn’t long before they realized they wanted more from beekeeping than a casual way to spend their leisure time and they started Honey Bee Zen Apiaries in 2012. “Making the choice to get into beekeeping started as a lifestyle choice and ended up as a business opportunity,” says Lee. By 2017, the business had outgrown its New Westminster location and when the opportunity arrived to purchase Swan Valley Honey in Creston, they leapt at it. “We came over and looked at it for a few hours and literally fell in love with the place,” Lee says. Swan Valley Honey had several things going for it: an established roster of commercial clients, an extensive network of established bee yards and a relatively ecient honey house for processing. “It had the three legs that were necessary to make the business work and we bought it outright,” Lee says. “And then immediately we went through some downturns.” Early setbacks There were issues surrounding production facilities and breakdowns, but by far the biggest challenge came in 2018 when an infestation of varroa mites resulted in the couple losing close to 90% of the 400 colonies they had at the time. “That just about nished us. We had to rebuild with about 40 colonies and we had to buy a bunch of packages,” Lee says, referring to the small, specially built boxes of bees used to start new hives. “It took a lot of money to do that.” Six years down the road, he can be philosophical about those early challenges. “The reality is, when we talk about the problems beekeepers have, about winter mortality, it has everything to do with a complex relationship of beekeeper behaviour, weather patterns, these mites and diseases,“ Lee says. Some other challenges the growing business faced are enviable, including the times when they haven’t been able to produce enough honey to meet high demand. When that happens, they bring in honey from other producers they know and trust, changing the labels on their jars to clearly reect this. “We say to our commercial customers, if you don’t want to buy this honey because you’d rather wait for our [own] to come back into season, we understand,” Lee says. “The reason why our company is doing really well is because we have a level of integrity and transparency that’s key. We believe that you don’t lie to your customers. You don’t try to fool them.” Because Swan Valley Honey has been in the kitchens of Kootenay residents for more than 50 years, the Lees decided to keep that branding for their liquid honey line. Every other honey they produce, including their creamed and varietal honeys, are marketed under the Honey Bee Zen brand. “Swan Valley Honey had such a deep penetration and support amongst Kootenay residents that it made no sense for us to change the name to Honey Bee Zen,” Lee says. Awards generate buzz for BC beekeepersA jar of Best of Show honey sold for $800 at charity auctionStrong demand u
22 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Strong demand supports growth plans for award-winning beekeepersDLEAMC.COM Abbotsford Surrey Kelowna Kamloops Vernon Dawson CreekSCAN FOR DETAILSNOW’S THEBEST TIMETO GET AKUBOTA BX23SWith time has come success. During the rst year of production at their Creston location, Honey Bee Zen Apiaries generated four barrels of honey totaling 2,500 pounds. Now they produce between 40 and 80 barrels (25,000 to 50,000 pounds) annually of their Kootenay wildower honey alone, while maintaining 300 to 500 large production colonies and about 400 smaller nucleus colonies that they use to replace overwintering losses in their production hives and sell to customers. “Our goal over the next two years is to move to 1,000 production hives,” Lee says. The severe freeze in January didn’t signicantly impact their larger production hives but it did hit their smaller nucleus colonies hard. “I think they were probably just too small,” Goodman Lee says. “When you have such a long period of cold, the bees can’t generate enough heat to ll that box and keep it warm.” In addition to honey, the company produces salves, lip balms, beeswax candles and tinctures that use a resin-like compound called propolis that’s collected from its hives. “We try to use as many products from the hive as we can,” Goodman Lee says. “It’s a great add-on to our business.” While January and February are typically quiet months for the company, the recent award wins and ensuing media coverage have had a major impact on business. “I’m doing deliveries and I’m going in and the shelves are empty [of our products]. That’s a wonderful problem to have and we’re like hamsters on a wheel running to catch up with ourselves,” says Goodman Lee. “We even had to upgrade our website because it couldn’t handle the volume of trac going to it.” Honey Bee Zen Apiaries sells honey on site, at farmers markets and through its website but its business model focuses on supplying commercial clients, and the recent attention has drawn inquiries from across Canada. Because their honey house has been certied by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Lees can ship their honey across Canada and internationally. Whether or not the recent surge in interest translates into ongoing demand is an open question. “Is it going to taper o and we’ll go back to a normal level of sales or is this escalating our business?” Goodman Lee wonders. “It’s a hard position to be in as a small business.” Lee agrees. “We aren’t afraid to hire people and we’re not afraid to take calculated risks because I don’t think you can grow a farm business without understanding what the risks are and being willing to take it on,” he says. Amanda Goodman Lee tends to her hives amid the stunning vista of the Creston Valley. JEFF LEE
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 23DREAM. GROW. THRIVE.You have a visionWe can help you achieve itIf you’re a farmer under 40, we have the financing and resources to help move your business forward.Learn more at fcc.ca/YoungFarmerRONDA PAYNE ABBOTSFORD – A new strawberry variety is just around the corner for Fraser Valley growers as work continues on new raspberries that will thrive in local conditions. The numbered strawberry variety BC 10-2-1 is on track for release next year, breeder and geneticist Michael Dossett of BC Berry Cultivar Development Inc. told growers attending the Lower Mainland Horticulture Conference at the end of January. The as-yet-unnamed variety has some great qualities, including strong winter survival rates. Yields correlate closely to the fresh-market mainstay Albion, with fruit of comparable size and Brix during eld trials in both BC and Quebec. But Dossett says growers shouldn’t pin their hopes on it. “BC 10-2-1 will be a nice complement to Albion, but I don’t see it as a replacement in our region,” he said. In 2023, six new day-neutral varieties were selected for ongoing work but they’re likely to be parents of future varieties rather than candidates for release themselves. There were 10 new successful crosses, seedlings of which will be planted in 2024. The past year also saw a new yield trial established for BC selections at the Clearbrook research site in Abbotsford. Machine-harvestability In raspberries, the focus is on developing varieties that give BC growers a leg up in the global marketplace and enhance protability. “There’s a really big emphasis on machine-harvestability,” Dossett says. “If [the berry] doesn’t release well [from the stem] and look nice in the tray, we’re not interested.” Raspberry breeding program activities include collecting data from all stages of variety development with an eye to identifying valuable traits and genetic markers. Dossett is particularly looking at rmness, berry size, yield and quality. The focus is primarily on the processing industry and varieties with root rot resistance, aphid resistance and bushy dwarf virus resistance. Promising candidates also undergo instant quick freeze trials. “There’s reasons to be excited about what we are seeing in the breeding program at all stages,” Dossett says. Of particular interest is variety BC 10-71-27. “It’s something that we’ve been looking at for a number of years,” Dossett says. “It’s an early season berry. The big question mark that I’ve had on this one is, is the yield going to be what we want?” End of season yield results are comparable to Chemainus. While the colour of the berry holds up in storage, it may be too light for some processed applications. Variety 10-79-33 has always had a strong yield in trials and is a mid to late-season berry that goes on a bit longer than Meeker. The downside is a somewhat light colour, vulnerability to root rot and questionable machine harvestability. A newer raspberry, set to be fast-tracked, is BC 1653.7. It’s an early season berry which continues to have strong yields. “We’re quite excited about the potential of that for the future,” Dossett says. Fruit of BC 1653.7 is larger than Chemainus and it machine-harvests well in trials to date. Another fast-tracked berry is BC 1855.11, which has exceptional fruit quality. The two growers with this variety in eld trials have asked for more plants. “It’s among the rmest raspberries I’ve ever seen,” says Dossett. “It machine-picks beautifully. It just ies o the plant.” A third berry being fast-tracked is BC 1855.14, a sibling of BC 1855.11. It’s nearly as rm as 1855.11, grows vigorously and is slightly larger than Chemainus. Promising developments in berry breedingNew strawberry set for release in 2025BC 10-2-1, left, is set to be released next year, but it likely won’t replace Albion, right, as a fresh-market mainstay. RONDA PAYNE
24 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCVANESSA FARNSWORTH PENTICTON – For producers daunted by the prospect of applying for a Farmgate meat processing licence, the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association (SSMPA) is ready to help. “We’ve been working really hard on this stu and trying to reduce some barriers for all of us along the way,” says SSMPA executive director Julia Smith, speaking at Organic BC’s annual conference in Penticton last November. Smith co-founded the non-prot to assist farmers and ranchers who raise meat outside the conventional system and share a frustration over being unable to grow their businesses due to a lack of processing capacity in the province. “We thought rather than us all crying in our beer, maybe we should get together, buy a pitcher, and get a little bit organized to advocate for the whole industry,” she says. Farmgate licensing came into eect in October 2021 with the aim of providing small-scale meat producers with increased options for slaughtering their animals. And yet the very producers the regulations are intended to help can nd themselves stressing out when they try to wrap their heads around what they need to do to comply with the regulations. “It's like everything is written to discourage you. Just be brave. Don't be discouraged. Don't let them scare you,” Smith says. “If you read the Code of Practice [for Farmgate and Farmgate Plus Licences] carefully, you need to watch for the dierence between ‘should’ and ‘must.’ A lot of people get turned o because it sounds like you need to build a building but you don't.” Bogging down in just those sorts of details is exactly what causes some producers to walk away from applying for a Farmgate licence. SSMPA president Tristan Banwell, manager of Spray Creek Ranch near Lillooet, is familiar with the struggle and has sage advice for those grappling with the regulations. “The best approach is to ask yourself what the intention of something is and to know that everybody is dierent,” says Banwell, who raises cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry. “You have to advocate for yourself or you can join SSMPA and we’ll help you. We can say, ‘Oh, so-and-so over here did it like this and that passed muster.’ A lot of times the solution is pretty simple once you gure out what the intent is.” There are two classes of Farmgate licences. The basic Farmgate licence allows producers to slaughter their own animals and restricts sales to the farmgate and farmers markets located within a producer’s regional district or within 50 kilometres of their farm. It also limits licensees to slaughtering ve animal units (5,000 pounds) of live weight per compliance year. A Farmgate Plus licence, on the other hand, allows licensees to slaughter their own livestock as well as animals for other licensed producers, to sell their meat throughout the province through a variety of means and to slaughter up to 25 animal units (25,000 pounds) of live weight per compliance year. For Smith, the choice of licences is clear. “Don't even bother with the basic Farmgate licence. Just get a Farmgate Plus. It's hardly any more work,” she says. “You can do 25 animal units a year. You can have sales at farmgate, farmers markets, retail outlets and restaurants and you can sell to your local butcher shop or anywhere in BC.” A Farmgate licence also helps guard against a range of issues that can have a negative impact on the province’s small-scale meat producers, including limited or no access to slaughter facilities, abattoirs that are too busy when their services are needed or those that strand producers when they suddenly shut down. “It builds a little more resiliency into your business. Having a Farmgate [licence], you’ve got options for when things go sideways,” Smith says, adding that she is always available to assist SSMPA members. Help takes stress out of Farmgate meat licencesSmall-scale growers educated on slaughter licensing options JULIA SMITHcountrylifeinbc.comThe agricultural news source in BC since 1915.more.brandt.ca/john-deereFor more information, visit:Lower FinancingGet as low as 0% nancing for 84 months on riding lawn equipment and compact utility tractors.Bigger SavingsGet up to $650 o on top of 0% nancing on 1025R and 2 Series compact tractors!More SupportIf ever you need support, nobody springs into action like we do. On the phone or in the mud!Say hello to fresh savings on the Deere gear you need at Brandt Agriculture! Oers melt away April 30, 2024.Some restrictions apply. See dealer for details. Oers end April 30, 2024.SPRING A DEAL!
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 25Small farm poultry producers on Vancouver Island are about to have more processing options. With support through a Small Food Processor Scale-Up grant, Marsden Meadows Farm in Courtenay has been able to upgrade their processing capabilities. MYRNA STARK LEADERKATE AYERS COURTENAY – After nearly ve years in the making, Christine Mooney is excited to be nally putting the nishing touches on her federally inspected poultry abattoir, thanks to her perseverance and Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC’s Small Food Processor Scale-Up grant. In fall 2023, Mooney was making the best of her small space and Farmgate Plus licence to help poultry producers with their processing needs in the Comox Valley. The grant’s $150,000 boost will support facility expansion and an upgrade to a federally inspected abattoir, signicantly increasing capacity. “Getting this grant made all the dierence. There's no way I would have been able to aord to do all of this on top of what I've already spent out of pocket getting to this point,” Mooney says. “It's exciting. I'm hoping to allow all the people that stopped raising poultry to start again and be excited for it and have something that is easily accessible for everyone.” Along with six sta members, Mooney will operate a semi-automated processing line two days a week to start, with the goal of processing 500 birds a day. The funding wasn’t quite enough to facilitate cut-and-wrap oerings as well, but Duane Zimmerman of Single Tree Meat Processing, a fully licensed and government-inspected provider in the valley, provides these services. When the new and improved abattoir is up and running in May, Mooney hopes to hire a oor manager so that she can continue working as a nurse and balance her two near-full-time jobs. While momentum is building in the right direction, Mooney worked long and hard to get to this point and faced many hurdles along the way in pursuit of helping local poultry producers stay viable. Mooney submitted her rst abattoir proposal to the Comox Valley Regional District in late 2019 and the following three years were lled with contradictory information and neighbour pushback. “It was hard. It was a lot of roadblocks, a lot of two steps forward, ve steps backwards, two more steps forward, one step backwards,” she says. “No one was really straight-forward with their answers.” Having spent 15 years developing her dream farm in the Comox Valley, Mooney needed to nd a new location that met the regional district’s and Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s regulations if she wanted to keep her aspirations of running an abattoir alive. “We looked at probably about 80 dierent farms between Campbell River and Nanaimo,” Mooney says. “We needed certain setbacks from waterways and lot lines. I wanted it to be on city water as well water requires testing that is expensive. I also needed three-phase electrical, plus a house that would t our family on the same property.” Also, the property needed to be in the Agricultural Land Reserve and the Agricultural Land Commission needed to grant permission for building permits, zoning and bringing in ll for the abattoir. “The regional districts have exclusions on every type of property and an abattoir is not allowed on any property except ALR,” Mooney says. Fortunately, after an arduous process, Mooney found a suitable property and received approvals 200 days “Serving and Supporting the Community Together”PROVINCIALLY INSPECTED ABATTOIR B.C. #34ALL SIZES MARKET GOATS & LAMBS604.465.4752 (Ext 105)FAX 604.465.4744 ashiq@meadowvalleymeats.comNew abattoir offers lifeline to local farmersMarsden Meadows Farm fills processing gapafter initiating the process. However, banks and insurance companies didn’t want anything to do with the venture. “Financing for an abattoir was almost impossible,” Mooney says. Despite working with a bank for over ve months to secure funding for the construction of a new abattoir, nothing was approved. So, Mooney pivoted to the Farmgate Plus licence, nanced everything out of pocket and the regional district eventually allowed her to use a building on the property that they had previously claimed was inadequate. She found a European insurance company to cover her business. Process too difficult “It shouldn't be this hard,” says Small-Scale Meat Producers Association executive director Julia Smith. “It's great that they’re making [scale-up] funding available, but that whole process needs to be easier. … The people who need it the most do not Special support u
26 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Special support neededLET’S MAKEIT TO 100%info@cleanfarms.ca@cleanfarmsWhen recycling ag containers, every one countsGreat job recycling your empty pesticide and fertilizer jugs, drums and totes. Every one you recycle counts toward a more sustainable agricultural community and environment. Thank you.2024 COLLECTION SITES OPEN APRIL 1.Ask your ag retailer for an ag collection bag, fill it with rinsed, empty jugs and return jugs, drums and totes to a collection site for recycling. Details at cleanfarms.caNEW! Return empty seed, pesticide and inoculant bags for environmentally safe management.Find a collection location near you at cleanfarms.cahave time to navigate the quagmire of funding paperwork. You shouldn't have to be a superhero to get it done.” Smith would like to see specialized support available through industry associations, including SSMPA, the BC Cattlemen’s Association and BC Sheep Federation to guide people through the funding application process. Part of the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s budget could enable producer groups to have that support role on sta, she adds. “Rather than the producer having to reinvent the wheel and learn how to write grants and keep track of all of the reporting requirements, wouldn't it be great if there were people available to support them?” Smith asks. Mooney rst opened the doors of her abattoir in November 2023 but quickly met her 25,000 lb quota with the Farmgate Plus licence because of the high demand in the area. “I turned so many farms away last year. I just couldn't accommodate them with my quota,” Mooney says. Lost income Following the closure of The Cluck Stops Here in Whiskey Creek in 2020 and increased pressure on Paradise Meadows Poultry in Black Creek, many local producers decided to stop raising birds altogether. “We lost just over three years of income from selling poultry and we lost a lot of our customers,” says Courtenay’s Maplesprings Farm owner Karen Eigler. Not being able to raise poultry resulted in the loss of over $15,000 during that time. “It hurt us nancially. I had just retired, and we planned on farm income,” she adds. Eigler and her husband John used to raise upwards of 625 turkeys and roaster chickens a year. The lack of available processing meant the couple didn’t raise any birds in 2021 and 2022. They raised a few birds for themselves in 2023. The prospect of Mooney’s new facility has been a game-changer. “It’s such an open-arm welcome. It’s lling the void,” John Eigler says. Prior to 2021, they made a three-hour round-trip on back-to-back days during the processing period to get their poultry done. Mooney’s facility is a convenient 10-minute drive away. “Farming is in our blood. My husband was born and raised on this farm, and when we got going on it and people really liked our food, we felt really good about it and we were selling out all the time,” Karen Eigler says. “We can’t say how much we are thrilled that Christine is up and running in the valley. We wish her a very prosperous and successful business.” The abattoir has been closed since mid-December for renovations, but Mooney has already booked in several thousand chickens for the spring. She also looks forward to boosting her own poultry numbers to about 600 chickens and 150 turkeys this year now that she has secure processing available on site. “It's some forward momentum at a time when we really need it,” Smith says of Mooney’s ability to wade through the bureaucracy and get her abattoir in place. “There are consumers that want to buy these products, but we've all been getting so discouraged lately. To see Christine stick with this and achieve this … in spite of the adversity that she's had to overcome. She’s been able to move the industry forward a little bit.” BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food staff gave Pacic Agriculture Show visitors an up-close look at some of the pests plaguing Lower Mainland growers, educating them about what it takes to produce high-quality, healthy food in a changing climate. MYRNA STARK LEADER
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 27Cattle spark fencing debate Ranchers see need for increased fencing, signageDon’t fence me in! An inux of new landowners in BC’s cattle country is raising the alarm about free-roaming cattle and the risks they pose to drivers. KELLY SINOSKI29 Black Angus 2-year-old Bulls10 Yearling Angus Heifer Bulls2024SATURDAYApril 2712PM Noonat the farm Prince George, BCMarch & April calving females for sale now.ANGUS BULLSOn O昀erKELLY SINOSKI WILLIAMS LAKE – Cariboo Regional District directors are calling for cattle-crossing signs and highway fencing to help provide newcomers with rural etiquette around cows. The move comes after directors say they have received several complaints from residents – many of whom have moved to the Cariboo from urban areas – about cattle on the roads and open lands. “There’s still a general lack of awareness out there,” says Electoral Area D director Steve Forseth, who represents McLeese Lake/Williams Lake North. “Several directors are getting complaints that ‘Oh, cows are on the road. What are you going to do about that?’ Our answer is ‘That is on you as a property owner to persuade cows to go somewhere else.’” The BC Land Management Act of 1897 requires property owners to put up their own fences to keep cattle out rather than the other way around. For instance, if a person buys property next to Crown land – range owned by the public in BC and used for grazing, recreation or industry – it’s up to them to fence their land. The same goes for properties that front BC highways. On major highways, such as Hwy 24, livestock owners are responsible for containing their livestock o the highway right of way with regular fence maintenance, according to the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. But Electoral Area director Eric de Vries, who is responsible for Hwy 24, says in many sections along the highway, there are property owners without livestock who can’t aord to put up a fence or don’t want one. This gives cattle roaming down from the backcountry onto the unfenced property free access to the highway with potentially disastrous consequences. De Vries says he has witnessed herds of up to 20 cattle on the highway and drivers skidding to a stop. Similar concerns have been raised about Hwy 26 near Wells. “Does it really need a fatality before we do something?” de Vries says. “The situation has come to a point where one rancher has said ‘I’m done. I’m going to sell.’” Permission first BC Cattlemen’s Association general manager Kevin Boon says his organization has been pushing the province to revise the fencing program for at least 15 years. BC Cattlemen’s does the fencing program for the BC government, he says, but it must ask permission from landowners before they can x or build a fence on the highway in front of their home. “Many times, we’ve tried to build a fence and they say, ‘we don’t want a fence there, it’s ugly,’” Boon says. “It’s become an issue for us. Good fences make good neighbours, and we haven’t got laws to support that.” The association’s eorts come as the province seeks to amend the Land Act to enable shared decision-making about public land use with Indigenous governments. Boon says he’s not sure yet what this will mean for ranchers who have leases and licences on Crown land. Still, he says it’s important that residents know the rules. BC Cattlemen’s encourages realtors to advise potential property owners moving next to a rural ranch or farm about fencing requirements – something the CRD directors also support. “They need full disclosure about this fencing,” Boon says. “This is part of the aspect of living in the country and wanting to enjoy rural living. You have to understand you’re not in town, and abide by the rural standards and rural laws.” Forseth says the CRD directors plan to discuss the options at a future meeting but expects they will push for highway fencing as well as cattle-crossing signs in the Cariboo. The signs, like those for moose and deer, are already in place around BC, on roads near Kamloops and between Chase and Falkland. Boon says they should be required for the entire province. “I’m surprised they’re not there,” he says of the Cariboo. Forseth has already put up a sign at the Tyee Lake forestry campsite, reminding people to slow down, be mindful of open range area and not to spook the cattle. “Unfortunately, what we’ve seen is some people just gun it,” he says. “That has really frustrated a lot of ranchers in the Central Cariboo area. You wouldn’t do that to a deer or bear so don’t do that to our livestock, which is our livelihood.” 1.800.282.7856 Now is the time to over-seed those worn out hay elds and pastures. Discover this nitrogen xing cover crop & forage, and what makes Frosty such a unique legume.Find out more at terraseco.comLow hard seed counts allows for quick establishment.
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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 29Thistles require innovative managementControlling the prickly weed a challenge with benefitsCanada thistle can spread up to 5.5 metres in a season and organic control options require time and commitment to be successful, say experts. FILEwww.tubeline.ca 1.888.856.6613@TubelineMFGFind us onTL360BF8000The TL360 high speed individual wrapper, is designed to wrap on the move. The TL360 allows operators to pick up and carry another bale while one is still in the chamber. The BF8000 SL is equipped with a loading arm and has a bale capacity of 2,500 lbs. The Bale Feeder can carry two bales, one on the table and one on the loading arm maximizing each trip to the field.Visit us online for complete listing of features and options.TOM WALKER VERNON – The Canada thistle is an invasive species that has a signicant impact on agriculture. Native to Europe and introduced to North America in the 1600s, Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) is the species most frequently declared noxious across North America. It can crowd out forage grasses and reduce pasture and range productivity. “Managing noxious weeds such as the Canada thistle is a top obstacle for organic farmers,” says Patrick Carr, an associate professor at Montana State University, who discussed thistles during an online weed management seminar Organic BC hosted on January 15. Canada thistle spreads up to 5.5 metres a season through deep roots and dense seed production. While it is not without food value, it is not preferred by livestock due to its prickly leaves and coarse stems. Systemic herbicides can control Canada thistle but they’re not an option for organic farmers. Three experts reviewed their research on integrated weed management strategies for controlling thistles, including tillage, rotational plantings, spring fallow and intensive grazing. Carr shared his work testing dierent rotational plantings that were applied over three years and evaluated with a spring wheat crop in year four. “We found that plantings of alfalfa were the most eective in suppressing thistles, and when we grew a spring red wheat crop the following year, we had good yield," he said. The key, Carr says, is to be sure that the alfalfa is well seeded and produces a strong crop. The second most eective practice was to leave the plot fallow for two years and till the soil throughout the growing season. Anne Weil, an agronomist formerly with the Centre of Expertise and Transfer in Organic and Local Agriculture (CETAB+) in Quebec, spoke about suppression of Canada thistle, sow thistle and coltsfoot. Weil says that Quebec farmers traditionally controlled these weeds in the same way Carr’s team has. “We would have one year of fallow with intensive tillage to exhaust the weeds or we would plant alfalfa for three years,” she explains. “But farmers don’t like that approach as they lose money from not growing higher paying crops.” Weil worked to nd a way BCHA President Kym Jim 403-358-8935 BCHA Secretary Janice Tapp 250-699-6466 www.bchereford.ca Timing important uProducer Check-o Supports Beef Industry Projects.www.cattlefund.net 1.877.688.2333www.cattlefund.net 1.877.688.2333
30 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Timing important for weedsPRE-OWNED EQUIPMENT CLAAS AXION 930 MFD Tractor, Consignment Unit . . . . . . . Call CASE IH FARMALL 95A MFD Rops Tractor with Loader . . . . . Call CLAAS JAG 870 SP Forage Harvester 10’ pickup & 6row cornhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Call for more details/Pricing CLAAS ORBIS 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Call for Details CLAAS 750 Tedder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just in | Call for Price www.caliberequipment.ca MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8-5 604-864-2273 860 RIVERSIDE ROAD ABBOTSFORD Unstoppable. For more than 50 years.CLAAS 880 Center Delivery Rotary Rake . . Just in | Call for Price CLAAS 970 SP Forage Harvester 10’ Pickup & 10Row Cornhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Call for more details/Pricing KUBOTA DMC8536T Mid Pivot Mower Conditioner . . . $31,900 KUHN GF7802THA Tedder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18,700 MCHALE R6878 Center Delivery Rotary Rake . . . Call for Price NH T4.75 Tractor ROPS MFD with Loader . . . . . . . . . . . . $47,500chisel at a depth of 5-10 cm. with wide sweeps that overlap,” Weil says. “And you must be sure that you cut the stems. A disc might oat over the stems or the rhizomes, and if they are not cut, it doesn’t work.” High-precision mechanical weeding tools are the best solution, Weil says. “The latest technology allows you to weed within an inch to an inch and a half from the plant, and backed by GPS and cameras you can keep control of the thistle without using the spring fallow,” she says. Weil backs Carr’s use of a robust alfalfa crop, adding that some pre-tillage is important. “You have to be sure to slow down the thistles before the hay or it will not work,” she says. “Two years of hay rotation is not bad but for us, three years with three cuts per year, you really get rid of the weeds.” “The crop that follows the fallow tillage needs to be a competitive crop,” Weil maintains. “But if it is not, and you are able to till the crop, that will compensate.” Weil believes that a spring fallow and tillage followed by an intense cover crop to provide nitrogen for the following year’s planting could work in areas not suitable for alfalfa. Silver lining According to Percy Folkard, a grazier in the Thompson-Nicola and instructor with the TRU Sustainable Ranching program, weeds have a silver lining. “Weeds do have good forage value,” Folkard says. “I can rent areas of marginal land and with electric fencing and tight rotations, I am able to train cattle to eat weeds and still nish them for good avour.” The key, Folkard says, is not allowing the cattle to choose. In a large pasture, cattle can select what they want to eat and they will leave the weeds. Instead, he limits his animals – perhaps 60 to 100 head – to an eighth or a quarter hectare. “I might need to move them two or even three times a day in the height of growing season, but with water and salt, they can knock back a weed patch in two hours,” he says. Timing remains important. “Up until pre-bud stage in July, there is good nutrition in the thistles,” Folkard says. “But after they head out and seed, the stalks become tough and it’s a poor time for livestock to eat them.” Folkard says that the number of thistles post a remarkable drop over time. “I am able to supress them, not eliminate them, but at the same time gain food value for my animals,” he says. to control weeds while maintaining cash ow for growers. She centered on extensive spring fallow. Seeding was intentionally delayed, and during the fallow period the soil was aggressively tilled two or three times to suppress weeds. Timing and type of tillage are important, Weil explains. “You have to attack the plant when its reserves are minimal, before it starts to elongate, and that would be before the eight-leaf stage,” she says. The interval between tillage is also important. “If you don’t give the plant enough time to begin to regrow and use its reserves, the second destruction comes for nothing. But if you leave it too long, the plant can build up more reserves as it does not die back,” she says. And the tillage must be thorough. “You must use a harrow or Grasslands Conservation Society board chair Bob Haywood-Farmer presented long-time board member and society magazine editor Agnes Jackson with a special award for her years of service during the society’s “Loving the Grasslands” fundraiser, February 1, in Kamloops. “I don’t think there is anyone more dedicated to grasslands than Agnes,” says Haywood-Farmer. TOM WALKERJob well done!
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 31Pruning should focus on needs of the bushTom Stewart, production manager for the Pacic Northwest with Driscoll’s, demonstrating his pruning techniques to growers at Driediger Farms in Langley on February 1. RONDA PAYNEGreenhouse Ground CoverGreenhouse FilmProtection NetsMulch Film Landscaping FabricsShade Nets Bale WrapsBunker CoversSilage BagsTwine & Net WrapsHay TarpsForage & Grain Seed1.800.663.6022office@silagrow.com5121 - 46 Ave S.E. Salmon Arm, BCPick Up & Delivery Only 112-18860 24 Ave. Surrey, BCVisit our website for informative content and detailedproduct descriptions.silagrow.comRONDA PAYNE LANGLEY – Pruning blueberry plants is all about balance. In young plants, that means balancing vegetative growth with root growth. In fruiting bushes, it’s about balancing vegetative growth with yield and berry quality. “You want to try to maximize your canopy growth,” says Lisa Wasko DeVetter, who leads the state-wide small fruit horticulture program at Washington State University in Mount Vernon, Washington. “We all do it a little dierent. I’m always thinking, what are the rst good cuts I can make to improve the bush?” Wasko DeVetter proceeded to show a cluster of growers her approach to pruning a bush in a eld of Duke blueberries planted in 2021 at Driediger Farms in Langley, on February 1. Nearby, Tom Stewart, production manager for the Pacic Northwest with Driscoll’s, was demonstrating his pruning techniques to another group of growers. “It’s not the end of the world if canopies cross over a little bit,” he says, demonstrating that diversity in pruning techniques is not necessarily a bad thing. Most important, pruning must reect the needs of the plant. Stewart said mature plants require separation to ensure proper air ow through the plants, something pruning that keeps the crown narrow with more upright branches facilitates. Pruning isn’t so much about shaping the bush as it is about creating a more ecient plant with the right kinds of growth. “I would take this one down to three or four canes,” Stewart says of a Calypso bush planted last year. “Cut the other [whips or branches] down to the crown. You can really make these young plants just look like stubs. They will grow lots more back.” When the plant is young, removing more canes to ensure the plant’s energy is focused in the roots as well as three to four remaining canes is important. Selecting and continuing with four to six canes is the standard for pruning upright branches once the plant matures. The canes with the largest diameter will produce the largest fruit. Wasko DeVetter added that humic acid can be a helpful amendment that stimulates more root growth in plants up to about three years old. As a fertilizer, humic acid isn’t the be-all and end-all for young blueberries, but it can be especially helpful in sub-optimal soils. Suwinder Kaur Jassal and her husband Baaz Singh Jassal own B&J Farms in Abbotsford with 2.5 acres of Duke and were among the 40 growers who attended the workshop. “I came just to see how I’m pruning the right way or wrong way,” she says. “I guess I’m doing okay.” Jassal and her husband do the pruning on their own. They’d hired the job out once in the past and the bushes were taken back so far there was no fruit that summer. She The finer points of cutting back blueberries to grow forwardprefers to manage the task on her own now. “Would you take that one out?” she asks Stewart, who agrees with her suggestion to cut o a branch sticking into the alley between rows of bushes. Jassal explains that the need to keep the bush crowns narrow is about ecient picking – both by machine and by hand. If branches extend out from the Blueberry pruning uVAN DER WAL EQUIPMENT (1989) LTD. 23390 RIVER ROAD, MAPLE RIDGE, BC V2W 1B6 604/463-3681 | vanderwaleq.com Compact design, low centre of gravity, tight turning radius and powerful performance. Hoftracs effortlessly fulfil any work task and work quickly, flexibly and safely — a Hoftrac is simply always ready for use. The multifunctional 1390 Hoftrac
32 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Blueberry pruning needs to consider machine harvestingOur John Deere 6R Tractors are among thesmartest tractors ever built, featuring a widevariety of John Deere Precision Ag Technologies.Connected TechnologyBigger, Faster and Clearer More Accuracy and Long-Term RepeatabilityPLUSDisplayG5™StarFire ReceiverSeamless Streaming of your Farm Data™JDLinkModemPrecision Ag Essentials Package with Display, Receiver & Modem Limited Time Sale Price $5,999Nanaimo | Chilliwack | Langley | Kamloops | Kelowna | Prince George | 1.877.553.3373Scan here to learn more aboutPrecision Ag Technologies orvisit us online at www.pce.ca*Pricing is for a limited time only. Please see your sales representative for details. crown and are more horizontal than vertical, the weight of the berries will pull the branch down and make it harder on pickers who would have to stoop lower. Those weighted branches may also leave berries resting on the mulch around the plants, which is undesirable, she says. Additionally, as branches extend into the alley, they create resistance for the catching plates on mechanical harvesters. The plates can’t get close enough to the plant and berries subsequently fall through the wider gap onto the ground. “You want to get rid of the stu that’s growing out into the centre and break o the weak laterals that aren’t going to give you good fruit,” conrms Wasko DeVetter. Wasko DeVetter adds that it’s important to remove any twiggy branches as these will limit plant growth and sap fruit production energy without providing returns. Duke in particular tends to produce a number of twiggy dead-end branches, but taking each one o uses up labour, so growers must know the best methods for their varieties and teach those to pruners if not doing the work themselves. Wasko DeVetter says a plant can shift without annual pruning and some plants are more susceptible to changing their orientation than others. While she’s been involved in berries for a number of years and is very aware of pruning practices, February’s event was her rst pruning workshop. Wasko DeVetter is succeeding Bernadine Strik, long considered Oregon’s berry goddess. Strik retired in 2021 and passed away in May 2023 after 34 years as a professor at Oregon State University and berry crop research program leader. Strik led the way in grower education that changed the industry. She suggested that annual pruning, always in the winter, made for better crops. Too little pruning would lead to small fruit and limited growth, while too much would result in large but fewer berries. She believed pruning too lightly was often where growers erred rather than over-pruning. “You can certainly do more and try to make it perfect,” Wasko DeVetter says. “You can spend a lot of time on a bush, but focus on the most important things.” She says it’s wise to cut low, less productive branches in order to encourage more upright growth. A general rule of thumb is to take about 30% of a mature fruiting plant’s branches in annual pruning to encourage root, shoot and fruit growth. Pruning also helps ensure fruit set and seed set. Removing the tip of fruiting branches can help increase fruit size. Leaving too many buds can delay fruit maturity and stretch yields over a longer season. Lisa Wasko DeVetter says pruning needs to address the needs of the bush to address the needs of the grower. RONDA PAYNE
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 33Farm & Rural ResidentialProperties in the Peace Country are our specialtyAnne H. ClaytonMBA, P App AACI, RIAppraiserJudi LeemingBHE, P App CRAAppraiser250.782.1088info@aspengrovepropertyservices.ca www.aspengrovepropertyservices.caKATHLEEN GIBSON and RONDA PAYNE DUNCAN – More than 60 vendors came together at Cowichan Exhibition Park for the Islands Agriculture Show in Duncan, February 2-3, where presentations tackled challenging topics like Indigenous agriculture, on-farm meat processing and climate-friendly cattle. “Overall feedback was terric,” says Cowichan Exhibition Park executive director Shari Paterson. “There were many new vendors from the mainland.” An opening reception the rst day featured a number of speakers, including 17-year-old Janel van Dongen of Nanoose Bay and winner of the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture competition. She reprised her award-winning talk, “A Future Painted with Light,” about how targeted cattle grazing can be a benet to climate change. Van Dongen challenged her listeners to consider how cattle grazing reduces underbrush and grasses that may fuel wildres. She also described how strategic grazing can create new growth and facilitate carbon sequestration. Her father, Peter van Dongen, was a founding director of the show in 2011 and attended in his role as business development manager with MNP. “I was really impressed by this year’s show,” he says. “After a few tough years through the pandemic, attendance was back up and the show had a really positive energy. The buzz on the tradeshow oor reminded me of the early years of the show. It was fantastic.” One of the ongoing conversations at the show was about preserving farmland in the Cowichan Estuary that’s in danger of being ooded. The Land Keepers Leadership Society, which has been busy raising awareness of the threat posed by the Cowichan Estuary Restoration Project, had a booth at the show to connect directly with farmers. “This is a great place to talk to farmers and share this issue with them,” says Land Keepers founder Jack McLeod. “We’ve had some good conversations here.” Agnes McMaster brought a small screech owl to the Islands show brings community togetherConversations, education sessions tackle tough topicsJaclyn Kilkenny, assistant tasting room manager at Unsworth Vineyards in Mill Bay, serves up just one of the local options on offer during the opening reception at the Islands Ag Show in Duncan, February 2. RONDA PAYNEeective irrigation and water management. Preventing burnout and on-farm meat processing also featured. John Buchanan of Parry Bay Sheep Farm in Metchosin discussed the provincially inspected abattoir he outside display set up by The Raptors. She was happy to point out many of the traits of the observant owl. “The males are actually smaller than the females,” she says. “And they don’t spend a lot of time ying.” In the two conference rooms, topics ranged from building healthy soils to USED EQUIPMENT KUBOTA K76249H 76” SKIDSTEER SNOWBLOWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,500 KUBOTA AP-SC2572, 72” SKID CUTTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,500 JD XUV560E 4S GATOR 2019, 4 SEATER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,500 NH 1033 BALE WAGON, 105 BALES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,500 NH 1036 BALE WAGON, 70 BALES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,500 SHAVER #10 POST DRIVER, SKIDSTEER MOUNT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,500 USED TRACTORS KUBOTA T2380 2017, 48” DECK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,500 TORO 328D 48” MOWERS, 2,900 HRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000 KUB F2880 2006, 1,411HRS, 60” REAR DISCHARGE . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,500 KUB M5-111HDCC24, 2021, TRACW/ M32 LDR, 35HRS . . . . . . 115,000 KUB GF1800-4W, 2010, 1,100HRS, NEW 60” MOWER DECK . . . . . 16,900 NEW INVENTORY KUBOTA RAKES, TEDDERS, MOWERS, POWER HARROWS - CALL! RAIN-FLO MULCH LAYERS, MULCH LIFTERS & TRANSPLANTERS, IN-STOCK OMH PROSCREEN, TOPSOIL SCREENERS. 68”, 78” AND 108” MODELS CONSTRUCTION KUB SVL75-2HWC 2016, CAB, HYD CPLR, 2,000HRS . . . . . . . . . . 63,500 KUB SSV65P 2021, CAB, HYD CPLR, 130HRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64,850 KUB SVL75-2 CAB, HYD CPLR, STD FLOW 1,100HRS . . . . . . . . . . . 71,500 KUB SVL95 2020, CAB, HIGH FLOW, 225hrs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99,375 CASE 420CT, 2007, TRACK LOADER, ROPS, 1,750HRS . . . . . . . . . . 45,000 CAT 289D 2019, TRACK LOADER, CAB, 1621 HRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74,750 TORO TX1000 2017, MINI TRACK LOADER, 300HRS . . . . . . . . . . . 29,500 TORO 22473 TRENCHER, 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,500 KUB KX080-42 2019, HYD Q/A, 2 BKTS, THUMB, 590HRS . . . . . . 145,000 WACKER NEUSON RD12 2021, 67 HRS, DRUM ROLLER . . . . . . . 22,500 Islands show u
34| MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCu Islands showExciting drama in the root house this week. I drove over my phone with 2,000 pounds of potatoes on a pallet jack. I was pushing away and felt some resistance on the front wheels. Assuming it was just the usual dirt chunk, I backed up and took a good, successful run at it. Such a deep feeling of disappointment rolled over me as I beheld the crystalized remains of my phone. I have no idea how it ended up on the oor. I certainly did not place it there. It was destroyed. Maybe I am growing up a little, though, because I didn’t feel quite as though the world was coming to an immediate end, which has always been my go-to emotion whenever tragedy has befallen my phone. Perhaps I’ve gained perspective in middle age and lost the piercing, desperate edge. I picked up the pieces and carried on sorting potatoes, morosely and stoically facing a phone-free day. Doubt it. Piercing, desperate edge was the name of the game as I realized that an incomplete contact list had been migrated to the replacement device I feverishly organized for myself mere minutes later – even though the precious SIM card miraculously escaped pulverization, and I had even retrieved the correct password for a long-forgotten email account that forms the basis for my entire online life. Frankly, I now feel desperately out of touch, suspect I am losing it, and have lost all perspective in terms of the world ending. However, the time has come to draw a line under the incident and move on. I am in the root house a lot these days. I am not one of those farmers who takes the winter o. I used to be, but in trying to avoid the selling of potatoes in the heat waves of summer, I have instead lled up the winter days with winter selling. It’s all part of the plan, but I do secretly hanker ever so slightly for an indoor-focussed winter lifestyle that features a little less in the way of sorting potatoes and more in the way of couches and books. Spring will be here before I know it and I’ll been needing more lazy time to guarantee top performance. Which is why I am really alarmed at all the green grass now popping up where there ought to be feet of snow. This week, the snowpack absorbed countless millimetres of rain and duly melted: the 18 inches of snow on the elds became 18 inches of lake. To add to the excitement, this occurred all the way up the mountains and into the alpine, and that water came downhill fast, resulting in very high rivers and plenty of localized ooding. The rain stopped about an hour short of causing a full ood. I am not even kidding. Now we are left with green grass, bare elds and the March-like feeling that, as the ground thaws, everything exists in a state of suspension in mud. I write about this every March. Don’t cut corners on the driveway and the yard unless you want to sink to the running boards in mud. Don’t try to walk over the elds unless you want to lose your boots. Et cetera. So, there. I’ve written some March things. If it was really March, of course, the garlic and nettles would start showing up. I could go have a look and report on that, but I’d have to cross the elds. Perhaps I prefer not to know. Perhaps. In fact, let’s put a hold on pointing out any further signs of spring, shall we? I do appreciate the certain pleasure of a warmish sun on my sallow, tear-stained, winter cheeks, but I don’t trust it. I can just imagine hauling out all the spring feelings and then boom: four feet of snow could fall overnight. I mean, let’s get real. Anna Helmer farms with her family in Pemberton and is very thankful for the opportunity. Spring is calling, but my phone is in piecesFarm Story ANNA HELMERoperates. It processes about 40 lambs and 20 pigs a week. He noted that regular costs of plant setup, cleanup and deliveries to osite cut-and-wrap make processing small volumes inecient. BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food enforcement ocer Brent Smith described requirements for on-farm slaughter licences. There are 96 Farmgate Plus and seven Farmgate licensees in BC. Each is inspected annually. Smith’s mantra is, “get it safe, get it cooled, get it to market.” Cammy Lockwood, co-owner of Lockwood Farms in Cobble Hill, shared her story of growing the operation from a small-lot permit to 6,000 laying hens today. The Lockwoods entered and won their category in the BC Egg Marketing Board’s small-lot quota draw in 2015. They grew the farm to the point where she says “we knew we could make this our real job,” nding eciencies, especially with better equipment, along the way. Saturday’s keynote from Jared Williams (Qwustenuxun), an Indigenous cultural educator, was well received. However, when Williams referred to the Cowichan estuary’s high values for Indigenous food, such as sturgeon and camas, there was a question from the audience about the value to be lost due to removal of productive farmland. “Especially here on the Island, agriculture is a tight-knit industry and there's a real sense of community at the show,” says Peter van Dongen. BAUMALIGHT.COMAdair Sales & Marketing Company Inc. | 306-773-0996 | info@adairreps.comMFG OF MINI SKID STEERS AND A VARIETY OF ATTACHMENTS INCLUDINGTREE SPADES | TREE SAWS & SHEARS | BOOM MOWERS | PTO POWER PACKSBRUSH MULCHERS | ROTARY BRUSH CUTTERS | PTO GENERATORS | AUGER DRIVES | FLAIL MOWERSTREE PULLERS | FELLER BUNCHERS | EXCAVATOR ADAPTERS | SCREW SPLITTERS | TRENCHERS | STUMP GRINDERSLocate A Dealer Online
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 35Forecasting will improve with AI technologyBig data driving improvements in weather forecastsWill those dark clouds hit the stand of grain in the foreground? With better weather forecasts, farmers will have better tools to gauge the possibility. FILEMYRNA STARK LEADER ABBOTSFORD – Producers can’t control the weather, but they absolutely need the most accurate forecasts to determine the right times to plant, spray, harvest and so on. “Farmers need condence in the forecast to do their work,” agricultural meteorologist Andy Nadler of Peak HydroMet Solutions in Campbell River told producers attending the Lower Mainland Horticultural Conference at the end of January. Weather modelling isn’t an exact science but Nadler expects short-term weather forecasts to become more accurate within two to ve years as articial intelligence advances. In the meantime, Nadler encourages producers to use a few dierent tools to check weather forecasts. While advances in computer modelling over the past few decades have delivered improved three, ve and 10-day forecasting, Nadler says shorter-term weather reports may be more valuable to growers. Precipitation forecasts and modelling the duration of cold snaps like the one accompanying the Arctic outow in January are examples. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s weather forecasts may be among the best-known in Canada, but there are many other trusted weather prediction organizations in the world. “All forecasts are pretty good, but you need to nd the ones that work for you,” says Nadler, showing how Environment and Climate Change Canada’s models only forecast weather for larger regions without the level of detail needed to understand incoming conditions for a specic farm property. Weather site options To help producers out, Nadler suggested a few options he likes. Windy.com, a free app, allows users to drill down to a very specic location and see hourly predictions each day. Windy combines ve of the international weather models mentioned above to make predictions. It also shows the nearest weather station to a specic location, res, and wind speed and direction by the hour, a bonus for spray application. The site MeteoBlue.com includes agricultural tools and provides daily forecasts, rating the accuracy of the prediction. Farmwest.com shows information like evapotranspiration, moisture decit and previous year’s moisture. Additionally, Nadler says Google is working on an AI-based forecasting tool called GraphCast for medium-range forecasting. Rather than traditional numerical weather models, it uses a machine learning-based approach. It’s said that GraphCast predicts weather up to 10 days in the future with greater speed and accuracy than today’s leading forecast models. No matter what forecast tool farmers prefer, Nadler suggests farmers compare several if they want increased certainty that predictions or measures are accurate. “They need to be away from things like water bodies and buildings which can impact readings and also away from equipment paths to prevent them being damaged,” said Nadler. “You’re likely looking at $1,000 and up for a good one.” Nadler says 25 new on-farm weather stations have been installed in the Okanagan since 2018 as part of the provincially funded BC Decision Aid System. Some producers are also purchasing their own stations. If producers allow, their privately owned machines can also feed data into larger network systems, which is helpful. What is your T-Sum Time?
36 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCBreakfast gives Delta time to do her researchbeen anything between Vernon and I, and I have no intention of going down that road now.” “Oh, I’m not worried. If you were interested, you’d be welcome to him. You might mention that the kids are wondering where he is.” ttt Back at the general store, Cam had taken over so Lois could attend her weekly book club get-together. Junkyard Frank decided to stay a while longer and bend his ear. “You know, Cameron, it’s getting hard to scare up anyone to have a cup of coee with around here anymore.” “I hear you, Frank. There’s not a lot of the old crowd left and the new folks all drive into town for cappuccinos and lattes these days.” “Ever think about putting one of those capacheemo machines in here? Maybe one of them jumbo TVs?” “I think this place is a little out-of-date for all that, and you might have noticed the folks running it are getting a little long in the tooth.” Frank glanced around the store. Cam was right. It hadn’t changed very much over all the years Frank could remember it, except it didn’t carry much in the way of dry goods or staples anymore, and all the new folks bought their seeds and feed and such at the garden centre in town where they could collect Air Miles. Cat litter was the only thing you could buy by the sacksful anymore. Snacks and soft drinks took up more space than the rest of it put together now and Cam and Lois had been running it longer than anyone else he could recall from years past. It dawned on him the day would come when they would retire. “You’re not thinking of quitting are you?” asked Frank. “To be honest, we have given it some thought, and there’s been some interest from somebody looking to buy it.” “Who’s going to buy it?” There was a note of panic in Frank’s voice. “It wouldn’t be the same without you and Lois.” “There’s just somebody asking about it. There’s no deal in the works yet.” Frank fell silent and tried to imagine life without his morning coee with Cam and Lois and about what might become of the general store if one of those city folks got hold of it. He was interrupted by the tinkle bell over the front door. Kenneth Henderson walked into the store and Frank’s mind instantly turned to other matters. ... to be continued Thousands of BC farmers and ranchers turn to Country Life in BC every month to nd out what (and who!) is making news in BC agriculture and how it may affect their farms and agri-businesses! www.countrylifeinbc.com/subscribeCREDIT CARD # _________________________________________________________________ EXP _____________ CVV _____________ o NEW o RENEWAL | o ONE YEAR ($18.90) oT WO YEARS ($33.60) o THREE YEARS ($37.80) Your Name ____________________________________________________________________________________________ City ________________________________________________ Postal Code _______________________________________ Phone _________________________ Email _______________________________________________________________ MAIL TO: 36 DALE RD, ENDERBY, BC V0E 1V4 subscriptions@ countrylifeinbc.com Please send a _______ year gift subscription to ______________________________________________________________ Farm Name ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________________________________________________ City _________________________________________________ Postal Code ________ ______________________________ Phone _________________________ Email _______________________________________________________________ When we left o last time, a tall, dark and handsome stranger had come into the general store on a mission. He told Lois he was looking for Delta Fording and wondered if Lois could point him in the right direction. Rural Redemption, Part 168, continues ... Delta gave Vernon Jones a quick once-over. He looked tired, there was a two-day growth of stubble on his cheeks, and his clothes were rumpled. “You look tired, Vern. Where are you staying? “I kind of got my wires crossed and ended up spending the night at the ferry terminal. I folded the seat back and slept in the truck.” “Had anything for breakfast?” asked Delta. Vern shook his head. “You better come in then. There’s coee on and I’ll x you a couple of eggs. We can have a talk.” Vern said he’d like that. Delta poured coee and turned the stove on. “You said Ricky told you I was here? I’m surprised he even knew.” “He didn’t tell me exactly. I asked him where you were. He got the address from his lawyer, but it was just general delivery, so I had to stop at the store and track you down,” said Vern. “Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. You’ve been divorced for three weeks; you got my whereabouts from Rick, and you’ve come all this way: for what exactly?” “To see you. You must know how I feel about you. I know I’ve caught your eye before. More than once. Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking about me, too.” “Well, you’re right about that, and I was thinking about every time you looked my way. You and all the rest of those tomcats leering at me over the rim of your high-ball glasses. Me and every other woman in the room. And I was thinking how that made all of us feel, being eyed up and down by every man in the room but the one you’re married to. Do y’all think we’d be attered by that?” “It wasn’t like that, Delta.” “No, Vern, that’s exactly what it was like. I know Ricky started eying Penny up the day she got there. The only surprise was one of you other big shot oil men didn’t get hold of her rst. Here’s your breakfast. I’m going to the barn to turn the horses out. I’ll be back in 15 minutes.” Delta turned the horses out, then scrolled down her phone contacts until she came to Linda Jones. Her call was answered by a tentative hello. “Linda, is that you sugar?” “Delta? Hi, it’s not your name on the phone.” “Ah, Poindexter. That’s my real name. I’m not using Fording anymore.” “Good for you. I’m just about nished using Jones, too.” “So I hear,” said Delta. “You’ve been talking to Ricky then, I suppose?” “Rick and I aren’t on speaking terms anymore; it was Vern who told me.” “When did you talk to Vern? He’s been missing-in-action for the past week and the kids are getting worried.” “I spoke to Vern ve minutes ago. He’s not missing. He turned up on my front porch half an hour ago.” “Why did he come all the way out there?” “I’m trying to gure that out. That’s why I called. He says y’all got a divorce three weeks ago.” “Not quite. We agreed to a trial separation, and he moved out three weeks ago. We’re supposed to be going to counselling but he hasn’t showed up yet.” “So, are you thinking this is some kind of mid-life crisis thing?” “I don’t know and he won’t say. Is a mid-life crisis supposed to last for ve years? I just got emotionally exhausted and needed a break. Has he said anything about coming home?” “He’s only been here for half an hour. I’m calling from the barn. He’s up in the house having some breakfast. He said he wants to have a talk and I’m trying to get the lay of the land rst.” There was a short silence before Linda spoke. “Oh my God! He’s hitting on you, isn’t he?” “No, not exactly.” “Well, I’m betting he didn’t come all that way just to drop in and say hello. You know he used to have a crush on you?” “I remember him giving me the slow-eyed once-over a few times but that always seemed to be coming from all directions anyhow.” “Didn’t it, though? You were all he could talk about for nearly a year. Then it was Gwen Stickley, and then it was Penny. He gave up on me completely after Penny and Rick got together and you left.” “You don’t have anything to worry about. There’s never Woodshed Chronicles BOB COLLINS
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 37New honeybee program in works for CaribooNature centre director plans to share her passion for beesMegan Taylor got into beekeeping by accident. SUBMITTEDKELLY SINOSKI WILLIAMS LAKE – Megan Taylor wants to tell everyone about the birds and the bees. Taylor is the new executive director at Scout Island Nature Centre in Williams Lake, which features marsh, island and lake environments and is a premier location for nature appreciation and education. A stopover point for hundreds of species of birds, it’s a bird-watcher’s paradise during the spring and fall migrations. A certied entomologist who specialized in honeybee genetics and reproduction, Taylor, 44, hopes to establish a small honeybee program. The centre has an observation hive, which she would like to reopen as an educational classroom for both youth and adults to study honeybees and perhaps start their own colonies. “In my mind, I would like to have classes come through, talk about the bees and why they are good for the environment,” says Taylor, a member of the Central Cariboo Beekeepers’ Association. “Every time I open a hive, I see something I’ve never seen before, something slightly dierent. I just love that.” Taylor grew up in Ontario and has always loved nature, especially insects, and science. She didn’t realize she could take her love of bugs and science and put them together. “I was like ‘wait a minute, you can be a scientist and study insects?’ That basically turned the switch on,” she says. She completed her master’s degree on the cryopreservation and long-term storage of honeybee semen under Ernesto Guzman at the University of Guelph. She was almost starting from ground zero, compared with the equine and bovine industry, which was at least 40 years ahead of the buzz when it came to breeding and articial insemination. “I had never worked with honeybees but the more I did work with them, I was like ‘holy cow, these are really interesting,’” she said. “What they do is so amazing – just the way they organize themselves and the evolution of them.” A hive consists of three levels of hierarchy – the queen, drones and worker bees – and each has its own role to play. The queen lays the eggs and regulates the hive; the drones (males) mate with virgin queens; and the worker bees (females) do everything else, from cleaning and nursing to food and water foraging and defending the hive. That spring during her studies was the rst time she got her hands on the bees. “The learning curve was so steep because not only are you learning the science and physiology of the organism, but you’ve got to learn to be a beekeeper,” she says. Taylor then earned a PhD from Washington State University, specializing in the genetics of Old and New World honeybee populations. The research found the Old World, including Europe, Africa and Asia, had greater genetic diversity. Honeybees were rst introduced to North America in the 1850s with the advent of the steamship. In 1922, the discovery of tracheal mites stopped bee shipments from overseas. As a result, breeding was limited to the same genetic pool for decades, despite there being 27 subspecies of honeybees. Then the varroa mite was introduced, decimating the population. Taylor spent several years in New Zealand working in private industry as a breeding program director and says she would love to see honeybees thrive in nature. She and her partner Don – a large animal vet in Williams Lake – just returned to Canada in 2022. Her goal is similar to that of the BC Honey Producers Association, which has hosted webinars on providing local stock to the industry. “What would be really important is to try to not breed a one-size-ts-all bee but breed bees for the local regions of where they are going to be,” she said. “There’s that ne balance. It’s like giving bees tools in their genetic tool kit to be able to survive this crazy world.” Matsqui Ag-Repair Abbotsford, BCNorth Valley EquipmentArmstrong, BCNorthline Equipment Pouce Coupe, BCHuber Equipment Prince George, BCSmithers, BCVisit your local KUHN Hay & Forage dealer today!Invest in Quality®www.kuhn.comSR 100 GII SERIES SPEEDRAKE® | Wheel Rakes15'10" – 23'4" working widths • 8-, 10- & 12-wheel modelsSIMPLICITY. VERSATILITY. QUALITY.Adjust windrow widths independently to match crop pickup widths Fast, easy switching between transport Rear wheels raise last for cleaner windrow ends Superior terrain following without the
38 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCWhether or not you pay attention to global trends, such as the fact that Peach Fuzz is the colour for 2024, you may be interested to know that the current food trend is a move toward less-processed foods, from ‘ultra-processed’ foods. There are three main categories: • Unprocessed or minimally-processed foods that are real and whole; • Processed foods which are slightly altered foods that are not changed in a way that is detrimental to good health; and • Ultra-processed foods which go through multiple processes such as extrusion, molding or milling and which contain many added ingredients, and which are highly manipulated. In the latter category are soft drinks, chips, candy, ice cream, sweetened cereals, packaged soups, frozen meat pieces deep-fried with a coating, hotdogs and pre-packaged meals. Clearly, these are not the healthiest foods. In the processed food category are cheese, tofu, canned beans or fish and simple bread: convenient packaged food that you can use to build nutritious meals. Unprocessed foods include vegetables, grains, legumes, fruits, nuts, meats, Food trend points to healthier eatingChicken and vegetables with rice is a fresh alternative to ultra-processed foods. JUDIE STEEVESJude’s Kitchen JUDIE STEEVESCHICKEN & VEGETABLES WITH RICE3-4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs drizzle of olive oil 1 onion 1 celery rib 1 garlic clove 2 plum tomatoes 1 tbsp. (15 ml) chili powder 1 c. (250 ml) brown rice 1 c. (250 ml) chicken stock 1/2 red pepper 1/2 green pepper 1 minced jalapeno 2 c. (500 ml) spinach handful of fresh parsley salt and pepper, to taste • Cut chicken into bite-sized chunks. • Chop onions, celery, tomatoes and mince garlic. • Drizzle a little olive oil in a casserole, pot or deep frypan with a tight-tting lid, set over medium heat. • Add onions and stir for a few minutes. Push to the sides and add chicken pieces to brown briey, adding minced garlic near the end and then celery. • Chop spinach (you may use chopped frozen spinach) and peppers, mincing the jalapeño. • Add chopped tomatoes, the peppers and spinach, brown rice and warm chicken stock and bring the mixture to bubbling. Put a tight-tting lid on it and turn the heat down to the lowest setting. • Leave it without peeking for 40-45 minutes or so. • Mince fresh parsley to garnish the dish when it’s served. • Serves 2-4. seafood, herbs, spices, eggs and milk. These are the building blocks to a healthy diet. Healthy cooking can be very simple and its preparation does not need to be time-consuming. However, preparing a good healthy meal like a stew or casserole can take longer to cook while you relax – once you take a few easy steps to prepare the ingredients. A return to home-cooking could tip the balance from so very many people consuming less-healthy food to a more healthy community overall. At the same time, we should turn to the purchase of more local food, which tends to be tastier, healthier and contributes to the local economy as well. Read labels. Look for fewer ingredients, less fat, sugar and salt, and contents you can pronounce. We could also improve our mental health and that of our families and friends, by sitting down together for a healthy meal and talking about our day/week together on a regular basis. Just think: there are so many benefits to making a small change in your food preparation and eating habits and then there’s the satisfaction of serving meals you have prepared from scratch, for those you love! Somehow, it seems appropriate to begin this new journey with the spring equinox, March 20, when the days and nights are equal, and the days begin to get longer. In agriculture and gardening, that means produce begins its best growth period so it’s a great time to focus on eating fresh, local, whole food. This is basic and wholesome: a substitute for prepared meals which may contain all sorts of ingredients that have been ultra-processed. I used whole grain rice, not pre-cooked or white. These ingredients are almost entirely unprocessed or minimally processed foods: real, whole foods. If there’s extra, this is great reheated, too.BEEF & BEER STEW2 lb. (1 kg) beef strips or cubes our, salt and pepper skim of oil 1-2 large onion(s), sliced 1-4 cloves of garlic, crushed 4-6 carrots 2 ribs celery 12 mushrooms, whole 1 1/2 c. (355 ml) beer 1 tsp. (5 ml) brown sugar • Dredge stewing beef in our seasoned with salt and pepper, to taste. • Slice onions, crush garlic, chop up carrots, celery and mushrooms, if large. • Heat enough oil over medium heat, to just coat the bottom of a dutch oven or heavy pot, and saute onions until limp, but not brown. • Remove onions and add enough oil to thinly cover the bottom of the pot, and brown the beef. • Return onions to the pot, along with minced or crushed garlic and vegetables. • Stir in beer and sugar. • Bring it back to bubbling, then reduce to lowest heat, cover and simmer for two hours or so, or put it into a 325° F oven for the same time. • Or, you can cook it in your favourite counter-top appliance according to its directions. • Serves 6-8. This is a favourite recipe which appeared in one of my rst food columns more than 25 years ago. It’s still simple, yet delicious, and can be prepared on the stovetop, in the oven or in one of the many new kitchen appliances.
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC MARCH 2024 | 49TRACTORS/EQUIPMENTWANTEDREAL ESTATEFOR SALEFOR SALEHAYHAYBERRIESIRRIGATIONFor Tissue Culture Derived Plants of New Varieties of Haskaps, Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Saskatoon Berries and Sour Cherries, Please Contact:DISEASE FREE PLANTING STOCK OF NEW BERRY CROPS 4290 Wallace Hill Road, Kelowna, BC, V1W 4B6info@agriforestbiotech.com250.764.2224www.agriforestbiotech.com NEW POLYETHYLENE TANKS of all shapes & sizes for septic and water storage. Ideal for irrigation, hydropon-ics, washdown, lazy wells, rain water, truck box, fertizilizer mixing & spray-ing. Call 1-800-661-4473 for closest distributor. Manufactured in Delta by Premier Plastics premierplastics.com DON GILOWSKI 250-260-0828 Royal LePage Downtown Realty Ltd BUYING OR SELLING OKANAGAN FARM, RANCH OR ACREAGE? COURTENAY HEREFORDS. Cattle for Sale: yearling bulls and bred heifers. John 250/334-3252 or Johnny 250-218-2537.PYESTERDAY’S TRADITION - TODAY’S TECHNOLOGYMANAGERS Phil Brown 250-293-6857 Catherine Brown 250-293-6858 ccr.princeton@gmail.com www.coppercreekranch.com PRINCETON, BC Raising registered polled & horned Herefords & F1s. BREEDING BULLS FOR SALE.LIVESTOCKLIVESTOCKDeBOER’S USED TRACTORS & EQUIPMENT GRINDROD, BCJD 3155 4WD CAB 265 LDR 105 PTO HP $42,000 JD 6300 4WD OPEN PLATFORM W/640 LDR 36,000 JD 1630 W/LDR 15,000 MF 165 DSL W/LDR, CANOPY 9,000 JD 1630 W/LDR 16,000 ED DEBOER 250/838-7362 cell 250/833-6699 CURT DEBOER 250/838-9612 cell 250/804-6147CUSTOM BALING 3x4 BIG SQUARES SILAGE BALING/WRAPPING ED DEBOER 250/833-6699 CURT DEBOER 250/804-6147EDVENTURE HAY SALES ENDERBY<dX`c1ZcXjj`Ô\[j7Zflekipc`]\`eYZ%ZfdfiZXcc1-'+%*)/%*/(+C@E<8;J1),nfi[jfic\jj#d`e`dld(*gclj>JK#\XZ_X[[`k`feXcnfi[`j%),;@JGC8P8;J1),gclj>JKg\iZfclde`eZ_M[WYY[fjcW`ehYh[Z_jYWhZi$8l^ljk@jjl\;\X[c`e\1Alcp).#)')' EQUIPMENT DISPERSAL • 3PT HOOF TRIM CHUTE, hyd tilt, $1,600 • NH 520 manure spreader, c/w end gate, rear pan & top beater, side extensions, mint condition, $13,750 • FIRESTONE radial 8000, 460/85R38 (18.4/R38) 70% tread, $950 • LOEWEN BOX SCRAPER, 3 pt, with rubber, like new, $800 • JD CLAMP-ON DUALS 18.4-38, $2,500 TONY 604-850-4718Craig Elachie ShorthornsGrant & Barbara Smith | Balmoral Farms 250.835.0133 craigelachieshorthorns@gmail.com 1802 Tappen-Notch Hill Rd Tappen BC V0E 2X3RINIER EL 140 IN-ROW TILLER SN 17859 $8,500 Call 778-241-1665 AVAILABLE NOW Fire suppression systems, pumps, protection for farms, 2 - 1/4 mile Used Valley 2015, low hours clean, 1 - used Zimmatic 1,600 ft , Used Hose reels, 2,000 ft 12 in 25,000ft 10 in HDPE, 10,000 ft used steel pipe in all sizes. 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CARL 604-825-9108 ourgoodearth@live.com LIVESTOCKDEAN SPADY, Presidentspadylivestock@gmail.comGARY WOOD, Vice Presidentsemiahmooshorthorns@shaw.caAPRIL DEADLINE MARCH 23BOOK YOUR MARKETPLACE AD BY MARCH 23Need a cutting disc for a VICON KM hay mower; triangle shape. 604-530-2907.QUALITY ST CROIX HAIR SHEEP FOUNDATION FLOCK FOR SALE 25 PUREBRED ST.CROIX EWES 3 ST. CROIX COMPATIBLE RAMS Optimal UTD health, of closed disease-free flock, clean ‘golden’ genetics. Ideal conformation. Largest, longest and tallest of the hair breeds, great foragers, naturally parasite resistant, year-round breeding, excellent maternal instinct, easy lambing, prolific producers (240% lambing average) of lambs and milk. Impressive advantages! Also available, 2 purebred WHITE DORPER EWES and compatible ram for option to cross breed for Royal White commercial market lambs (premium, lean meat having no gamey/ramey taste.) 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40 | MARCH 2024 COUNTRY LIFE IN BCAVENUE MACHINERYAbbotsford • 604-864-2665Kelowna • 250-769-8700Vernon • 250-545-3355DOUGLAS LAKE EQUIPMENTDawson Creek • 250-782-5281Kamloops • 250-851-2044Surrey • 604-576-7506GERARD'S EQUIPMENT LTD.Oliver • 250-498-2524HUBER FARM EQUIPMENTPrince George • 250-560-5431Smithers • 250-847-3610ISLAND TRACTORCourtenay • 250-334-0801Duncan • 250-746-1755KEMLEE EQUIP LTDCranbrook • 250-489-5337Creston • 250-428-2254kubota.ca || SCAN TO FIND ADDITIONALKUBOTA DEALERSGETTING IT DONEIN B.C.Kubota has extended its services to better serve British Columbia farmers. With the establishment of our new head office and distribution centre, we have taken our operations to the next level. Our dedicated field teams ensure that your farm equipment operates at its best. Whether you require assistance with new equipment, parts, or technical support, Kubota Agriculture Solutions is fully prepared to meet your needs.VISIT YOUR LOCAL KUBOTA DEALER TODAY. BRITISH COLUMBIAKUBOTA DEALERS