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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MAY 2017 New pricing formula for chickens on hold ABBOTSFORD – The BC
Chicken Marketing Board has delayed implementation of its proposed new pricing formula for another period.
Ag Briefs EDITED BY TAMARA LEIGH
At the beginning of March,
the BCCMB presented its proposal to the Pricing and Production Advisory Committee for comment with the express intent of implementing it in period A-143 beginning April 16. However, neither the
growers nor the processors responded to the proposal in the three weeks they were given.
“So we held another
meeting, told them how we would apply it and then we started to get some discussion,” says BCCMB chair Robin Smith. The board now expects to implement the new formula in period A-144, beginning June 11. “This is much too important
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a decision to make without a thorough discussion with industry,” Smith says, adding, “I think the industry was relieved we’re going to have further discussions.” The Farm Industry Review Board imposed the current pricing formula on the industry after previous pricing
formulas regularly resulted in appeals from either growers or processors, sometimes both. Smith hopes the additional discussion will lead to both sides accepting the new formula without resorting to an appeal. “You don’t solve problems
by going to an appeal,” he notes.
David Schmidt
Etsell leaves blueberries ABBOTSFORD – A decade
of promoting BC blueberries to the world has come to an end for Debbie Etsell, who stepped down as executive director of the BC Blueberry Council on March 31. Etsell led efforts to broaden blueberries’ access to markets in Asia and helped expand the appetite for the fruit – dubbed “Nature’s Candy” – at home. “The council would not be
where it is today were it not for Debbie’s dedication, hard work and passion for the BC blueberry industry,” the council said in a statement announcing the change.
Etsell plans to keep busy
working with her family’s farming operation in Abbotsford. These efforts include leading market development for Singletree Estate Winery, which opened in 2015. The day the council announced her departure, she told Country Life in BC she was enjoying a chance to once again work alongside her husband, poultry farmer Garnet Etsell, as well as her children and grandchildren. Anju Gill, the council’s assistant executive director, will serve as acting executive director on an interim basis. Peter Mitham
Workers plead guilty CHILLIWACK – Three former
employees of Chilliwack Cattle Sales Ltd. have plead guilty to charges of animal cruelty during their tenure at the farm. Travis Keefer, Chris Vandyke and Jamie Visser were among seven employees charged with abusing dairy cattle at the Chilliwack dairy following a sting operation by the activist group Mercy for Animals in 2014. Mercy for Animals covertly
recorded video footage of workers abusing animals in contravention of farm rules, leading to a public outcry and on-farm improvements in staff training. Keefer, Vandyke and Visser
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each faced three charges of animal cruelty. The pleas follow the
December 2016 sentencing of Chilliwack Cattle Sales Ltd., in the person of president Ken Kooyman and Wesley Kooyman, a company director directly responsible for the 2,800-head herd at the time workers were filmed allegedly abusing cattle. BC Provincial Court Judge
Robert Gunnell sentenced Wesley Kooyman and Chilliwack Cattle Sales to pay fines and victim surcharges totaling $345,000. In addition, Wesley Kooyman was prohibited from serving as a director or officer of Chilliwack Cattle Sales or caring for the farm’s cattle save feeding them with supervision for one year. Gunnell said in December that he wanted to send a clear message that animal abuse is both reprehensible and unacceptable.
Sentencing of Keefer,
Vandyke and Visser will occur in May. A 12-day trial for the
remaining four men is scheduled to begin May 29. Peter Mitham
Vancouver boots chickens off city farms VANCOUVER – Backyard
hens are okay, but Vancouver wants a small-scale chicken farmer off one of the city’s few patches of farmland. Under an archaic 1989
agreement with the province, Vancouver bylaws trump the BC Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act which governs properties within the province’s Agricultural Land Reserve. Vancouver allowed
backyard flocks of no more than four hens (cock-a- doodling roosters are banned)
in 2010, meaning that small- scale egg farmer Robin Friesen has to remove the 90 birds she keeps on a half acre in the city’s bucolic
Southlands neighbourhood along the Fraser River. Friesen was to remove her
flock by April 12, but is fighting the order. She argues that it’s counter to Vancouver’s well-known support of urban farming and the city’s Greenest City Action Plan, which commits the city to being “a global leader in urban food systems” by 2020. Peter Mitham
Livestock tag reader funding VICTORIA – The federal and
provincial governments have announced a new Livestock Tag Reader Rebate Program to help small ranches and livestock farms in BC meet upcoming national traceability requirements. The program will cover 70% of the costs of equipment, up to $3,500, that beef, pork, sheep, goat and venison producers will need to adhere to federal traceability protocols. Up to $100,000 of program funding will be available to small producers in 2017-18. Eligible equipment includes verified readers for radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which are applied to an animal's ear, as well as the installation of related software and training for hand-held or panel readers. Program applicants must
be BC livestock producers that are registered in the BC Premises Identification Program with annual farm receipts less than $30,000. Funding is available on a first- come, first-served basis until February 15, 2018. See [
http://bit.ly/2lXy8jW] for details.
Tom Walker
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