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Originally published:

DECEMBER 2024
Vol. 110 Issue 12

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Stories In This Edition

Heading home

Avian flu response keeping pace

Popham back as ag minister

Farm equipment sales down, but not out

Winter harvest

Editorial: Goodwill wanted

Back 40: The election’s over. Now what?

Viewpoint: BC orchard sector needs more than sales

Court decision a bowl of cherries for Canada

Ag Briefs: Sturko leads apple marketing commission consultations

Ag Briefs: New BC field vegetable specialist

Ag Briefs: Slash smoke challenge planned

Ag Briefs: Mushroom farm fined

Island farmers fish for water solutions

Economic summit makes case to buy local

Cow-op urges community to buy local

Demand for milk, lower input costs good for dairy

Replant program begins accepting applications

Researchers explore ways to detect Cherry X

Trade imblance baffles honey producers

Pilot addresses gap in distribution infrastructure

Rotational grzing field day tracks progress

Cool spring challenges high-heat corn

Sidebar: It’s not all about the yield

Panel celebrates waste reduction strategies

Global sales blossom from native berry

Farm Story: Why hibernate in such a friendly valley?

Timely rains support Christmas tree supply

Sidebar: BCCTA AGM opportunity for knowledge transfer

On-farm research doesn’t have to be complicated

Woodshed: Some manners would go a long way with Delta

Young rancher honoured for leadership

Jude’s Kitchen: Much to celebrate in December

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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BC Cattlemen’s Association members gathered in Cranbrook for their 97th AGM last week. BCCA president Werner Stump welcomed upwards of 300 ranchers as he signalled a change in tone with the association’s approach to government. “We are going to be a lot more blunt in our dealings with government as we fight for our livelihood,” Stump told his audience. The North American herd size remains down, and calf prices are expected to stay strong, says Brenna Grant from Canfax. “We could see $5.50 -$5.70 this fall for a 5(00) weight calves.” Duncan and Jane Barnett and family from Barnett Land and Livestock in 150 Mile House received the Ranch Sustainability Award, which recognized their riparian management and community involvement. From left to right, Clayton Loewen with Jane, Duncan and Lindsay Barnett.

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Congratulations!!!

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Congratulations Duncan and Jane Trott Barnett Well deserved recognition

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

Congratulations Duncan and Jane!!

Congratulations Jane and Ducan! Sandra Andresen Hawkins

Congratulations Jane & Duncan 🥳

Congratulation Duncan & Jane!!

Congratulations Jane Trott Barnett and Duncan!!!

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1 month ago

Grapegrower Colleen Ingram, who was recognized earlier this year as the 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association. “Given the devastation we have had over the last three years, I feel like this award should be given to the entire industry,” she says. Her story appears in the June edition of Country Life in BC, and we've also posted to our website.

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Industry champion named BC’s best grape grower

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KELOWNA – Colleen Ingram’s enthusiasm for collaboration within the BC wine industry is so great that when she was named 2024 Grower of the Year by the BC Grapegrowers Association, she wanted to sh...
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3 months ago

From orchard manager to government specialist and now executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association, Adrian Arts brings a rare blend of hands-on farming experience and organizational leadership to an industry poised for renewal. His appointment comes at a pivotal moment for BC fruit growers, with Arts expressing enthusiasm about continuing the momentum built by his predecessor and working alongside a board that signals a generational shift in agricultural advocacy.

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Arts leads BCFGA forward

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A combination of organizational management and practical farming experience has primed the new executive director of the BC Fruit Growers Association to lead the industry forward.
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A public consultation is now underway on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board. Key issues for dairy producers include transportation costs, rules governing shipments and limitations on supporting processing initiatives. Stakeholders have until May 31 to comment.

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Milk board undertakes review

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A public consultation on the powers and duties of the BC Milk Marketing Board is underway as part of a triennial review required by the British Columbia Milk Marketing Board Regulation.
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BC orchard sector needs more than sales

Commercial success is good, but is consumer engagement the price?

December 2, 2024 byPeter Mitham

VIEWPOINT:

Participants in the Canadian Farm Writers Federation conference in Nova Scotia this fall were given a genuine taste of the province when they toured Scotian Gold Co-op in the storied Annapolis Valley. SweeTango, a club variety apple that’s been a boon for local growers, was among the standouts as the busload of writers heard how the co-op has adapted for a new generation of growers and consumers.

But if SweeTango was the star of the show, it’s just one of many varieties grown in the province. The annual crop estimates Fruit and Vegetable Growers Canada run indicate that Nova Scotia grows all but two of the 19 commercial varieties tracked.

Moreover, fully 10% of the 2.4 million bushels of apples Nova Scotia will harvest this year aren’t among the top commercial varieties. This points to a commercial production more diverse than anywhere else in Canada.

Ontario, the largest apple-growing region in Canada with a 2024 harvest pegged at 8.8 million bushels, concentrates on just 13 of the top commercial varieties.

Meanwhile, BC is dependent on Ambrosia and Gala, which account for more than two-thirds of the 3.8 million bushels we produce. Nine varieties make up a third, while others account for less than half a percent of the crop.

The focus on just two varieties was bred of innovation, with the province allocating tens of millions of dollars to support orchard renewal with high-value varieties since 1991. A new round of funding last year required industry to conduct market assessments to identify the varieties most likely to deliver returns.

While such studies chart a forward path, Nova Scotia shows that the future is often accessed through our roots. The historic diversity of the province’s orchards has given local growers a starting point, not a sunset clause. While many varieties may not be suitable for supermarkets, they create a sense of place – one that grocers celebrate on a seasonal basis, securing hometown street cred with consumers. A revolving selection of apples from Jersey Macs and Paula Red to Gravenstein and Cortland offer flavours rarely found outside the region.

This year has seen the demise of the BC Tree Fruits Co-op, a company intertwined with the history of BC. Originally the brand under which the various co-operative packinghouses marketed their fruit, it became the natural banner under which BC’s four major co-operative packinghouses merged in 2008.

Yet as the co-ops came together, the industry was fragmenting. Growers set up their own independent packinghouses, and consumers were opting for cheaper imports at the big grocers as local became less well-defined.

And even if consumers bought local, the embrace of the major commercial varieties thanks to the replant push meant they were seldom buying something that couldn’t be grown elsewhere.

Ambrosia was the exception, and its promise was a path to financial stability for growers. Restricted production made it a reliable option, levies funded marketing and research that supported sales, and people genuinely liked it.

Yet the numbers show that BC may have put too many apples in one basket. Pinning your fortunes on commercial success isn’t wrong, but sales hinge on more than market penetration. Consumers will support local, but often as not it requires giving them a sense of ownership, allowing them to jealously savour something special and advocate for it with others.

So what’s BC’s path forward?

The marketing commission under discussion for the past several years could provide a structure, but it’s the intangible ingredients that guarantee success.

These include a recognizable, flagship brand. The goodwill BC Tree enjoyed made it very much an extension of the grower community, and of BC as a whole. But with growing competition from independent packers at home and abroad, it became one of many brands serving a market with no historical ties to the iconic leaf logo. Which domestic tree fruit brand today has anything like the resonance or recognition the BC leaf enjoyed?

There’s also a need to identify key varieties that can be successful here, something the province’s industry stabilization plan recommends. But it also means finding what may not do well elsewhere, allowing the industry to claim something no one else can.

Ambrosia used to be like this. I remember proudly taking it home to family, before it was widely grown, and excitedly telling a vendor selling the variety at a market in northern Italy that I, too, was from BC.

Salish and Nicola, with their distinctly BC names, have the potential to generate the same enthusiasm, but they’ve never been promoted to the same degree.

Aurora Golden Gala is another missed opportunity. Handling issues saw it quietly ushered off the retail stage almost as quickly as it arrived.

But what if we cultivated – both literally, and in the marketplace – such unique and hidden BC gems? Consistent with the forward-looking and innovative nature of BC’s orchard sector, they speak to the spirit of discovery in the field and on the table as well as any of the rarer, now-heritage varieties largely limited to sales at farmers markets and roadside stands.

The diversity of our crop has been lost in the push for financial viability. But the persistence of lesser-known varieties in Nova Scotia reminds us that we may have lost the potential to attract consumers seeking unique items in an increasingly homogenous world.

That’s a loss not just for consumers, but our farmers and agricultural heritage, too.

Peter Mitham is associate editor of Country Life in BC and a former contributor to Good Fruit Grower.

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