4 Trial by fire


John Horgan and his NDP/Green alliance got a fiery welcome to government in mid- July as much of the Liberal-held strongholds in BC erupted in flames just days earlier. By mid-July, more than 40,000 hectares had been burned to a crisp and thousands of residents had been evacuated from Cache Creek, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake and dozens of smaller communities in BC’s worst fire season since 2003.


The immediate and generous outpouring of


support from both government and the public for these unfortunate souls (and their pet dogs, cats and horses) has been extremely gratifying to witness. As this issue of Country Life in BC was going to press, some evacuees were starting to make their way back, anxious to find out whether they had homes to return to. We do not wish to minimize their plight but they will know almost immediately what they have or have not lost.


While the early attention has been on


affected residents, we hope the impact the wildfires has had and will have on our farmers and ranchers will not be overlooked. Some, like Rob Donaldson of Bradner R Farms, have lost millions of dollars worth of infrastructure. Since Donaldson’s livestock were confined to a dairy and a feedlot, it was also relatively easy for him to count his losses in livestock – fortunately, they were minimal. We despair for the ranchers whose cattle


roam the range all spring and summer. Many will not know the true extent of their losses until the fall roundup. And their potential costs go well beyond livestock and buildings. As Rob Donaldson points out, he lost a field of corn and all of his irrigation equipment. How many others have also lost valuable winter feed? Working in a confined area, Donaldson can document his losses. It is much harder to quantify the loss of Crown range. Much of the impact will not be known until roundup or later. Even if they are alive, will cattle come back emaciated and underfed? And when they do come back, will the ranchers have hay to feed them through the winter? If not, this fall could see a surge of animals going to market. That could depress prices, adding insult to injury.


And what about the thousands of


kilometres of fencing which have been destroyed? What is the cost of that and who is going to pay to replace it? We doubt there is much insurance on fencing. We can only hope that after government


gets residents back on their feet, it not only turns its attention to the farming and ranching community but does so with a suitcase full of cash. It is a stern first test for new BC Minister of Agriculture Lana Popham and we, like BC’s farmers and ranchers, hope she passes the test.


The future of farming – without the farmer


The starting point of the agricultural revolution in Britain is commonly considered to be around 1650. Forces that set the table for it can be traced to earlier times but


The Back Forty BOB COLLINS


crop yields increased profoundly in the latter half of the 17th century.


A confluence of innovation and circumstance


transformed British agriculture, including wide adoption of crop rotation, improved tillage implements, enclosure (a tenure change that led to private land ownership), a transportation network and the resulting national market, widespread land improvement, selective breeding of livestock and increased farm size. Railroads, steam power and a national market also


gave rise to the Industrial Revolution from 1760 to 1850. Hundreds of thousands of villagers left landless by enclosure flocked to cities to work in the new factories. They were followed by craftsmen and artisans whose talents had been replaced by steam- powered machinery. While food production continued to outpace population growth, one power loom could replace hundreds of hand weavers. By the mid 1800’s, there were 250,000 power looms, Britain was exporting cloth around the world and women and children were introduced to the dust, noise and mindless repetition of low-wage factory work.


There are diverse opinions about the end of the


agricultural revolution. One school of thought suggests there have been several of them. The term evolution would better reflect agriculture’s ongoing changes and while occasional rapid acceleration in the pace of that change might seem revolutionary, in retrospect it is an inevitable stride in a dynamic evolution. Most of the drivers of the first revolution are still


with us. Crop rotation is still standard practice, tillage tools and management are ever improving, integrated transportation now services a global marketplace, science has unlocked the deepest secrets of plant and animal genetics and increasing farm size is an everyday reality. The wholesale application of computer and nano technology, artificial intelligence, megadata and robotics will be the power loom of 21st century agriculture. This might seem like a mixed metaphor but as technology assumes control of a mechanized agriculture industry, farmers could become as redundant as British weavers. The farmer of the future will more likely be a computer programmer than a skilled plowman, remotely setting parameters for autonomous implements working unknown land 100 miles away.


Does it all sound a little farfetched? By the time you read this, DOT, an autonomous


powered farming platform will have made its public debut. DOT is the brain child of reduced tillage pioneer and innovator Norbert Beaujot. DOT is designed to wrap around and power a variety of implements. It has independently


Publisher Cathy Glover


The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 Vol. 103 No. 8 . AUGUST 2017


Published monthly by Country Life 2000 Ltd. www.countrylifeinbc.com


604-328-3814 . publisher@countrylifeinbc.com Editor Emeritus David Schmidt 604-793-9193 . davidschmidt@shaw.ca Associate Editor Peter Mitham Contributing Editor Tamara Leigh news@countrylifeinbc.com


Advertising Sales & Marketing Cathy Glover sales@countrylifeinbc.com Production Designer Tina Rezansoff


Production Ass’t: Naomi McGeachy . Siesta time, PW!


powered wheels on each corner that can convert DOT from a 30-foot working width to 12-foot transport width simply by turning 90 degrees. Two DOTs will seed 4,000 acres with room to spare. The larger the farm, the more DOTs. Because they are autonomous, one operator will be able to run numerous machines. DOT is anticipated to save 30% on per-acre fuel costs and manoeuvre in a way that would be impossible for a conventional tractor-drawn setup. Human input, when needed, will be done through a laptop and there is a Gameboy lookalike controller for manual control. Perhaps most tellingly, Beaujot explains that a seat was purposely omitted to spare the temptation to sit on it. A human presence, it seems, would needlessly hinder the innovation that can replace it so efficiently. Where does this leave farmers in the future? Well,


we might suppose that at the very least they will have to log into a management website once a year to express their desired crop outcomes to a computer that will analyze and recalculate their input and over-ride their instructions. And there will certainly be a need for someone to look after the machines. Surely, DOT or others like it will have the capacity


for self-analysis and will be able to email instructions to their human caregivers to pick up the parts module that has been preordered and follow the directions that have been downloaded to their half- ton and drive to the given co-ordinates. Arrive by 11:17 am. Bring a Phillips screwdriver and a 9/16 socket wrench and await further instruction. Wear a “Proud to be a Farmer” t-shirt and have a nice day!


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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • AUGUST 2017


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