AUGUST 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
19 Alfalfa winterkill puts chill on Nechako Valley exports
20,000 acres lost, pushing farmers to liquidate assets Stories by TAMARA LEIGH
VANDERHOOF – A wet fall and a lack of snow cover has resulted in winterkill of more than 20,000 acres of alfalfa in the Nechako Valley. The issue became
apparent to forage growers this spring when the alfalfa simply failed to appear. Acreage that the year prior had produced three to four tonnes per acre of export- quality alfalfa came up weeds.
“So as much as the conditions were really wet last year, the fields were abundant and everybody was excited about even the new seedings,” says Denise Dowswell of Little Valley Farms near Vanderhoof. “It looked like it was really well established and we would be in good shape this year, but where it should have been producing, it was just dead and we had to spray it out.” Dowswell farms cattle and
forage with her father, Ken Fawcett. They run about 500 cow-calf pairs, putting up feed for their livestock and growing alfalfa for export. This year they’ve lost just over 1,800 acres of alfalfa. What wasn’t killed completely came in patchy and full of weeds. “When the hay plants came in, it was another way of diversifying so we put a lot of expense into going into the alfalfa export market,” she says, referring to two hay compression plants built in the last five years that export to China.
“It felt like it was possible to get land back into production. We’ve been adding about 500 acres per year into rotation and getting things back into shape. We survived through the BSE crisis in 2003 but 14 years later, it’s pretty devastating to be hit this hard,” adds Dowswell. Little Valley Farms is not
alone. At least 70 farm families have been affected by the winterkill in an area that stretches from Vanderhoof to Fraser Lake. Most farms had already incurred costs fertilizing the fields before they realized the crop wasn’t coming. “This year we had just over 1,100 acres of alfalfa that was wiped out,” says Brian Kochel, who farms with his family near Fort Fraser. “The alfalfa fields are just stink weed and dandelions. We were going to pasture it but we’re just going to spray it. We had planned to seed another 340-acre field, but we just ran out of money.”
Difficult future Without money to reseed,
growers are facing a difficult future. Many have already sold cattle, equipment and even land to keep the bills paid over the summer. With lines of credit tapped out and very little crop expected, people are bracing themselves for the fall. “This impacts everyone, not just the farmers. It’s the John Deere dealer, it’s P&H Supplies, it’s the grocery store,” says Brian Kochel. “I know one family, it’s three
A lack of snow cover this past winter left Ken Fawcett and Denise Dowswell standing in barren brown fields this spring. TAMARA LEIGH PHOTO
boys and the mom and dad, and one of them has to leave this fall. Is that going to happen to us? I don’t know – maybe I need to take off next year and get a job somewhere else.” It’s a strong statement coming from a young man who left the University of Alberta, where he was
working on a Master’s thesis on hay export, to help start Nechako Valley Agri Ltd., one of the area’s two hay processors that have bought thousands of acres in recent years to meet export demand. TopHay Agri-Industries Inc., the other processor, lost 3,000 acres to winter kill this
year. Judd Wu, CEO, said this leaves TopHay struggling to supply its Chinese contracts. “Last year, we shipped bout 20,000 tonnes. This year at best we might be able to get 6,000 tonnes,” says Wu. “We will try to keep on going but it's very unfortunate. We
See FORAGE on next page o
Consistant spreading. Quality forage.
TH522 TELEHANDLER
The TH522 ground-engaging telehandler is designed to meet the digging demands of a wheel loader, the versatility of a skid steer and the lifting performance of a telehandler. With the hydraulically operated universal attachment plate, operating a wide variety of skid steer attachments is easy.
Visit our showroom to see more! 8085T
ALL WHEEL LOADER
Van Der Wal Equipment (1989) Ltd. 23390 RIVER ROAD, MAPLE RIDGE, BC V2W 1B6 604/463-3681 |
vanderwaleq.com
HIT 8.91 Tedder
Asymmetric tines sweep up all of the crop Patented MULTITAST system offers unrivalled ground following Robust DYNATECH Rotors designed for difficult conditions Even spread thanks to high tine to rotor ratio
R ROLLINS “Serving British Columbia proudly since 1946”
Machinery Limited
Chilliwack – 1.800.242.9737, 44725 Yale Road W Langley – 1.800.665.9060, 21869, 56th
Avenue
2 YEAR
FACTORY WARRANTY ON ALL EQUIPMENT
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
