Collaboration is the key
Berry resource centre at UFV has no staff but continues to provide valuable services to the industry. By Judie Steeves
T
om Baumann is passionate about growing food. “When you produce something you can eat yourself you feel good about yourself. It’s quite an accomplishment when you can produce food,” says Baumann, who heads up the Pacific Berry Resource Centre established in 2011 at the University of the Fraser Valley.
He also operates his own nursery and a consulting company called Expert Agriculture Team, which helps growers deal with issues around insurance, crop insurance and legal actions.
Baumann’s background is in farming, and says he first drove a tractor when he was seven years old, and began to farm on his own land after he joined the Fraser Valley faculty in 1992, focusing on berries.
The berry resource centre is run by an industry advisory committee, with research committee members from each berry industry commodity group: the B.C. Blueberry Council, Raspberry Industry Development Council and the Fraser Valley Strawberry Growers’ Association. The university charges a 10 per cent administration fee and the centre has no staff, but it has undertaken a number of research projects for industry. Baumann says that includes data collection on new variety yields for the blueberry industry, with grants totalling $90,000 from the Investment Agriculture Foundation, BCBC, and in-kind contributions.
JUDIE STEEVES
Field evaluations of Draper, Liberty and Aurora are underway and the centre’s research will determine the best management practices to help growers grow the best quality berries possible to compete on an increasingly global market.
New plantings of young plants are being established under a Memorandum of Understanding with SMK Farm and Herbal Research in Surrey, a private crop research and incubation centre.
As well, research is ongoing into the use of plant growth regulators to control vigour and firmness, to assist in fruit set and ripening in all berries, with funds from the federal Developing Innovative Agri-Products (DIAP) program. For raspberries, the centre is coordinating research into yield decline, following on preliminary work done in 2011. The project is being undertaken in collaboration with the provincial agriculture ministry and other researchers. It involves trying to identify and characterize physical and biological factors in the decline of raspberries. Baumann says they are hopeful of coming up with a tentative outcome this year, and have identified several disease factors, including soil nutrient levels.
Tom Baumann, director of the Pacific Berry Resource Centre, which is based at the University of the Fraser Valley’s Chilliwack and Abbotsford campuses.
“It seems to be a combination of pest and disease, so we’re looking at the importance of each factor to yields.” He noted that in the Fraser Valley there is an over- abundance of phosphorus, likely from the use of manures, which may be a factor.
As well, a two-year project is underway to grow raspberry plants from tissue cultures and strawberries from runners using soil-less plugs, and comparing their progress with regular dormant bare-root young plants; and spring versus fall planting.
At present, there are no nurseries producing strawberry or raspberry plants in B.C., although this is changing, with PRT Nurseries using the new process. They now have grown-in-B.C. plants available for sale in B.C. Blueberries are still available from local nurseries, noted Baumann.
Updates on all the research were presented at the Lower Mainland Horticultural Improvement Association annual growers’ short course in January.
The centre’s goals are to provide research and education to the berry industry while fostering collaboration between
British Columbia Berry Grower • Spring 2013 13
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