October 2016 • Country Life in BC PLONK WINE
vineyards that had pulled out their hybrid grapes
(remember “plonk” wine?) that would not stand up to post- NAFTA competition from American vinifera wineries. “We leased 500 acres of land for just over what they were paying in taxes and we grew corn on it for our silage,” recalls Bill. “We had to pull out the wires and posts so we could get equipment in to work the land.”
“This is the best climate for finishing beef in Canada,” he points out. “The warm winters support a high feed efficiency and the dry air keeps the animal’s feet dry.”
By 2000, they had built up an Angus brand to supply the Pacific Northwest, with some 7500 cows in the pens. “We were shipping animals back and forth across the border. At one point, 60% of our cattle were from the US. We would finish them here and ship them back to the states to be slaughtered. We
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were grading 95% choice with the genetics we were using.” But BSE struck in 2003 and overnight the border closed. “We lost $2 million in two weeks,” recalls Bill. “Some of our loaded trucks were at the border and we had to bring them all back.”
Prices went from $1.20 to 25 cents a pound.
Cows sent to Alberta
“We had these fat cows we were holding on to, hoping the border would open again. The local abattoir was taking 20 a week but with 2,000 cows sitting here, that’s a lot of weeks. We sent them to Alberta.”
“We had to sell some of our land,” Bill recalls. They planted the vineyard and leased some of the land to wineries. “The return on grapes has gone up steadily, but not for beef,” Bill says. They rebuilt the
“Okanagan’s Finest” brand that was sold locally, finished
In the tradition of retirement from the cattle sector, Bill Freding’s Southern Plus Feedlot was host to a well-attended dispersal auction at the yard south of Oliver, September 10. (Tom Walker photo)
about 1,000 head, and kept three to four thousand over the winter, but it was never the same. Their ability to grow feed was curtailed when the local First Nation built a race track on land they had
previously leased.
“The area is going to miss our payroll. We employed at least 12 people over the winter months,” Bill points out.
“I think there is a niche Agvocates aim to increase trust in farmers by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – A farmer’s job is not just to feed the world but to tell and teach the world what he does, says Abbotsford chicken and berry grower Ravi Bathe, the past president of the BC Chicken Growers Association. His family grows about 750,000 chickens annually and has 150 acres of
raspberries and blueberries in this province and another 225 acres of berries just across the US border in Whatcom County.
“This is our livelihood and there’s too much at stake for us not to be involved,” Bathe says in explaining why he is an “agvocate.” He defines that as someone willing to represent farming to the
general public and engage them in discussion of it. Initiated by Farm Credit Canada, the program’s goal is to retain and even increase public trust in farmers and is supported by most national and regional agricultural organizations. “There’s a lot of
misconceptions out there and we need to do a lot more to tell everyone the true story,” Bathe says, insisting being an agvocate is very easy to do. “Most people want to talk to a farmer. Most would rather hear from us than have someone else tell them what we do.”
He says there are countless opportunities for farmers to be agvocates – such as talking to the waitress serving them in a restaurant or the shopper
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next to them in a supermarket.
“If I see raspberries in someone’s cart, I could tell them the variety they have and why it’s good. They leave having more confidence in the product,” he explains. Bathe’s involvement in the Chicken Squad movie trailer is a highlight of his own agvocacy. He recalls watching
the trailer in a theatre and having the person next to him ask “was that you?” Another time he was walking down the street when a stranger across the road yelled out, “Hey! Chicken squad!”
Both examples show the Chicken Squad campaign is “reaching people and they’re remembering it.”
market in BC for a locally- finished specialty product, such as hormone and anti- biotic free,” he says. “There’s a segment out there that wants to buy it, but you would have to have land.”
The feedlot lands will be completely reclaimed and Mission Hill will plant more grapes. But the cattle legacy will remain for a while longer yet.
“We are composting the bedding and manure mix left behind by the cattle and selling it to the vineyards,” he says with an ironic chuckle. “It will add organic matter to the sandy soils.”
He’s moving on to ten acres of land north of Oliver. “I’ll still put up some hay until I get tired of it,” Bill says.
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