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Country Life in BC • October 2016 End of an era as Okanagan feedlot packs it in by TOM WALKER
OLIVER – As you come up to Southern Plus Feedlots on the Oliver east bench, heat loving red grapes line one side of the road. Across the way, few signs remain of the once thriving feedlot. Instead of the sounds of cattle, you hear the loud crack of an air gun that scares away grape-stealing starlings. That gunshot announces the end of a cattle industry institution in the Okanagan. Southern Plus Feedlots shipped its last animals in July and an auction in early September sold every last piece of equipment, the barn, the hay in that barn and even the cement blocks that made up the silage pit. “This is the best pocket of grape growing land in BC,” says long time owner Bill Freding. He says the Black Sage bench is perfect for the Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah varieties he grows in his 50 acre vineyard.
Bill has sold his feedlot and vineyard to wine industry giant Mission Hill.
“When I heard that Chinese investors were looking to buy vineyards in the South Okanagan, I knew it was a good time to sell,” he quips. But that wasn’t always the case.
When Bill and his wife, Darlene, bought the land and feedlot from the receiver in 1988, it was with the intention of building a cattle feeding business. Interest rates were coming off record highs, the grape industry in the Okanagan was in shambles, the exisitng feedlot was in receivership and Bill had a ranching background, a degree in agriculture economics and animal nutrition.
“I was born into the cattle business,” Bill points out. “My great grandfather was John Fall Allison, one of the first ranchers in this neck of the woods.”
Now that the last of the cattle operation has been dispersed by auction, Bill Freding is finally ready to retire. For decades, he and wife Darlene have been an institution in cattle circles in the South Okanagan, owning and operating Southern Plus Feedlot that, during its heyday, had upwards of 7500 head in its pens. (Tom Walker photo)
He started ranching in 1976 after university and following several years of leasing land, he and Darlene had bought a ranch in the Cariboo. Bill was working for the Farm Credit Review Board and his wife was cooking in logging camps so they could afford to finance the ranch.
“We sold out in the Cariboo and got this place for 20 cents on the dollar.”
It had been operating as the Southern Interior Beef Corporation – a failed effort of a group of about 20 ranchers who had put up money and received government support to get the industry going in the Okanagan.
Bill built a successful feedlot, leasing former Please see “PLONK” page 31
“We provide safe, quality food to the consumer. We can be honest
and transparent because there’s nothing to hide.”
Ravi Bathe, Agvocate Poultry and Berry Producer
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