cover story Industry stalwart
Bates family has a long history of dedication, both on and off the farm. By Judie Steeves
K
en Bates and his three brothers have deep roots in Ladner’s rich soil.
The Bates brothers come
from a long line of Delta farmers, and they still raise dairy cows, and grow potatoes and blueberries on some of the same land their forefathers farmed. The heritage Stanley Allen
Bates home on 34B Avenue, or Parmiter Road, in Delta was home to Stanley Allen and Frances, who were both children of farming families who settled in the area in the early 1900s. All four of their sons—Ken,
JUDIE STEEVES
Jack, Bill and George—have continued in their footsteps, both on-farm and in being involved in their community. Ken Bates figures there are 116
Ken Bates with a photo of his grandparents, who began farming in the Ladner area about a century ago.
years of local farming heritage on his mother’s side and 103 years on his father’s, and he still grows on the same land. His grandfather Ray Bates first acquired the Parmiter Road farm in 1924 or so, Ken says, growing hay and grain and raising dairy cows. In fact, he was a charter member of the Fraser Valley Milk Producers in 1917. On his mother’s side, his great- grandfather, William James Brandrith, was a horticulturist who was instrumental in establishing apple orchards in the Okanagan. The family had 100 acres in Delta,
but much of it was expropriated in 1969 for the Roberts Bank Superport backup lands, so the family purchased the Kettle’s Farm, which was in grains, peas and potatoes. They also leased back their own farm, which they continued to work, modernizing the dairy in the 1970s
and renovating the historic buildings. (It was later purchased back by the family). In the early 1980s, adjacent land
was bought and there are now 106 acres there, with 35 in blueberries, plus about 300 acres they rent in the same area where potatoes, grains and peas are grown. The first blueberries were planted
in 1989 on land that was used for cannery crops prior to that. The idea was to diversify into more-intensive agriculture, into a crop that didn’t have to be planted every year, explains Bates. Although the initial investment was bigger, the returns per acre are better. At first just 15 or 20 acres were planted to blueberries, with 15 acres more planted in 1997. The Bates’ blueberries were the
first significant acreage to go in around Delta, except for a few acres here and there. That year, three local farmers put
blueberries in, and others followed suit in successive years, Bates recalls. In all today, they grow blueberries
on about 80 acres, including the Bluejay, 1316-A, Duke, Reka and Northland varieties. Bates is happy with both production and fruit quality of all the varieties, though he admits each has its good and bad points. All are machine-picked and processed through Berryhill Foods Inc. No fresh market berries are sold, although they used to sell some fresh. Since one of the brothers has 35 beehives, pollination assistance for the blueberries is available within the family, he notes. The Bates are a founding family of
B.C. Fresh, which markets and distributes the produce of about 50 farm families in the Fraser Valley. As well, Ken Bates is a past- president of the Delta Farmers’ Institute, the Delta Agricultural Society and spent six years on the board of the B.C. Blueberry Council.
British Columbia Berry Grower • Summer 2013 5
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