NANAIMO – There are few events as diverse as the Certified Organic Associations of BC (COABC) conference each year. Large and small-scale farmers spanning the spectrum of different crops, livestock, regions and experience, they are connected by a commitment to organic production systems. With the theme of ‘Relationships in Transition: Land, Livestock, Waterways and Community,’ …
Mother Nature packs a wallop
CHILLIWACK – Collapsed barns and greenhouses, missed milk shipments and broken trees: the early February storm which blanketed the Lower Mainland with snow and freezing rain left a trail of destruction in its wake. The eastern Fraser Valley was hardest hit. BC Ministry of Agriculture provincial dairy technologist Roger Pannett has also been Environment Canada’s …
Richmond exempts agri-tourism from rental ban
City wants better definitions on basis for limits on housing size, use RICHMOND – Richmond is banning short-term rentals in the city but agri-tourism operations are exempt – for now. City councillors voted January 9 to ban short-term rentals in response to a growing number of public complaints, which increased four-fold from 26 in 2015 …
Chilliwack dairy fined for allowing “culture of abuse”
CHILLIWACK – The first installments towards $345,000 in fines and surcharges levied in a headline-grabbing case of animal abuse on a Fraser Valley dairy farm were paid last month, with the dairy farmers at the case’s heart pledging to ensure the situation never repeats itself. BC Provincial Court judge Robert Gunnell accepted the guilty pleas …
Help wanted
VANCOUVER – Demand for farm workers will hit 45,000 by 2025, up from approximately 43,300 in 2014, and while the increase doesn’t sound like a lot, an older, diminishing farm work force means there are a lot fewer people available than there was once was. A recent report from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council …
Dairy vs eggs in outstanding young farmer competition
ABBOTSFORD – After graduating from high school, Gary Baars hung up a shingle as TNT Agri-Services, offering “relief milking and much more.” On January 11, that “much more” made the now 33-year-old Chilliwack dairyman, hay salesman and cattle dealer and his wife, Marie (26), the BC & Yukon Outstanding Young Farmers for 2017. In 2006, …