12 BIRDS keep coming This is exactly why they’ve concentrated on the
area’s remaining farm properties, which are tightly managed to ensure peak performance in the Lower Mainland’s competitive business environment. “We’re not able to keep up with the impact,” DeBoer says.
Set-asides not enough
Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust has worked with farmers to develop set-asides that provide birds with alternative forage. However, as natural foraging options diminish, demand for alternatives increases – both the set-asides as well as the forage farmers plant for their cattle. The set-asides are funded by the trust in partnership with farmers, but demands on the program mean support from other landholders is needed. “We’re trying to put more birds on less acres and
we’re at the breaking point,” DeBoer says. “There’s no value that comes back to the farmer.” The costs farmers face are many. The set-aside scheme is one, but there are also direct costs. Sodden fields limit access, delaying reseeding
and, ultimately, harvesting. While local conditions allow up to five cuts a year, the initial cut typically provides dairies with up to 40% of their forage needs. Any shortfall is made up with purchases from Alberta and Washington, which take money out of the local farm economy. While current prices are in the range of $250 a ton, two years ago the price was double that. The costs quickly add up. An analysis by agrologist Gerry De Groot of
Dairy Crop Solutions Inc. in Abbotsford pegs the costs in lost yield at more than $582 an acre. Reseeding costs, exclusive of time and labour, run $64 an acre. While it’s possible to change the forage mix to something less palatable to the birds, or annual grasses that die each winter, these aren’t necessarily as nourishing for the cattle. De Groot says changing up the mix risks shifting
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waterfowl populations to others areas, either towards Abbotsford – where swan populations are on the increase – or Vancouver Island, where growers in the Comox Valley have see the population of trumpeter swans triple since the early 1990s. Growers on Vancouver Island met in November to discuss how agriculture and birds could co-exist, but most sides agree that, short of controlling the population of waterfowl, farmers need adequate compensation for crop losses if they’re to remain viable.
Another 800 acres The issue is one Delta Farmers Institute members
are highlighting as development continues apace. Plans to replace the Massey tunnel with a 10- lane bridge and billions in funding for port development announced in the recent federal budget – in part to support a federal goal of $75 billion in agri-food exports by 2025 – will continue to make Delta a prime place for large-scale industrial development. Metro Vancouver’ latest study indicates a further 800 acres are designated for industrial use in Delta; already, hundreds of acres of Tsawwassen First Nations land is being ripped up, further encouraging waterfowl to relocate to active farms. Recognizing that some measure of development is inevitable to accommodate and support the region’s growth, DFI members struck an agreement that secured approximately $50 million worth of benefits to mitigate the various effects of the South Fraser Perimeter Road. The institute would like to see the same thing happen whenever development removes farmland from production, not only in Delta but across the province. The mitigation package wouldn’t be a separate agreement with each farm as currently happens, but a collective response that reflects the sector-wide impacts of development.
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MAY 2017 “When development comes in on agricultural
land, there should be an assessment done,” DeBoer says. “The formula that we come up with here could be used across the province.” This could include access measures such as
overpasses, drainage and irrigation improvements, and support for alternative forage production that offset the impact of major projects. Hard work won a settlement when the South Fraser Perimeter Road went in and, further back, the province set up the Columbia Basin Trust to support rural communities impacted by the Columbia River treaty. (Fruit and potato growers are still seeking compensation for the impact on their sectors, however.) This isn’t the first time DFI members have pushed for a mitigation program. DeBoer and seven other farmers wrote the
province in September 2007 to voice concerns about the effect development was having on local farms. It encouraged the establishment of a self- sustaining wildlife compensation fund to address the competing needs of farmers and wildlife. “The [Tsawwassen First Nation treaty], expansion of the port, railway expansion – there needs to be mitigation funds, monies taken from those groups…. so that the community’s agriculture gets enhanced,” DeBoer told Country Life in BC at the time.
The province’s agriculture minister of the day,
Pat Bell, replied with appreciation for the concerns but said the loss of agricultural land is occasionally necessary. He expressed hope that growers, “would agree that government has taken significant steps in addressing these issues.”
Not going away
A decade later, the concerns haven’t gone away, and DeBoer says government needs to step up if it values the $300 million contribution agriculture makes to the local economy, as well as the environmental goods and services it provides. Sixty years ago, there were 165 dairy farms in Delta. Today, there are approximately eight. “If we decide to let things go the way they are, the outcome won’t be good,” DeBoer says.
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