4 Think big BC’s farms produce more than 200 crops on a commercial scale, and many


more grow here at a level that’s not yet commercially viable but point to what’s possible with a little ingenuity. The province’s bounty runs from lamb to lemongrass, citrus to cannabis. A farm near Duncan harvests tea leaves that undoubtedly tell a bright future for small-scale production. The cost of land being what it is, a small acreage is what most new farmers can afford. However, small is – by definition – a fraction of the activity that boosted farmgate revenues in the province 4% last year to $3.2 billion. The biggest share came compliments of the supply-managed dairy and poultry sectors, which regularly draw fire from free market advocates and animal rights activists alike. Trade negotiators piled on at the end of September by using supply management as a bargaining chip in the renegotiation of NAFTA, now known as USMCA. A fifth of the domestic dairy market and nearly 11% of chicken meat will soon be imported thanks to the latest trade deal. While the province pledged its support for supply management, many of its


recent announcements have focused on small producers. It recently announced $300,000 for the Young Agrarians’ acclaimed land-matching program, which links new growers with landowners. This is a great start for ambitious, small growers, but producers wrestling with the future of their multimillion-dollar operations often have to sell, either to well-heeled buyers or for larger properties in the Interior. The result is a widening gap between small and large operations, a challenge


the province’s tech sector also faces. And, as even supporters of small-scale agriculture and local food systems point out, it doesn’t matter how smart, engaged and hard-working you are, poverty gets old fast. Ultimately, growers need scale, revenues that provide a living wage after expenses are paid, and stable markets.


Supply management has helped provide that for dairy and poultry


producers, allowing farms to thrive in a variety of sizes and configurations. Greenhouse, mushroom and berry growers are also cornerstones of the farm sector, keeping land in production, contributing to local food security and drawing suppliers that serve producers of all sizes.


Sometime this month, the province will receive a series of recommendations


regarding ways to revitalize the Agricultural Land Commission and the reserve it oversees. It would do well to remember that small and large farmers together make local agriculture successful as it unveils its plan to grow BC.


If wishes were horses, beggars would ride


Current science suggests the horse was first domesticated in Eurasia sometime between 4,000 and 5,500 years ago. There is clear archaeological evidence that horses were pulling chariots by 2,500 BC but ongoing discoveries indicate they were being raised for meat at least 1,500 years earlier. Whatever the date, it marked the beginning of a world- altering relationship with humans. Horses revolutionized


The Back Forty BOB COLLINS


travel, industry, warfare and agriculture. Horse power was abundant, portable and self-replicating. Horses were fuelled by the crops they laboured to produce. They powered the great agricultural mechanization of the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1790, one person with a sickle could harvest a quarter of an acre of grain a day. A hundred years later, two people with two horses and a reaper could harvest 20 acres a day. A hundred and twenty years ago, half of Canada’s population lived on a farm or ranch. Every farm or ranch was horse-powered and every farmer or rancher was, by choice or necessity, a horseman. The horses, properly trained, fairly handled and decently cared for, were usually willing and dependable workers. Teamster and team communicated in a largely unspoken language. With a gifted teamster, the silent conversation could be sublime. Everyone who grew up around horses had a basic understanding of their nature and most developed a deep fondness for them. The years following the First World War were the beginning of the end for horse power in agriculture. Internal combustion replaced horses and as their numbers dwindled, so did those who knew their ways and language. In the span of 50 years, the ubiquitous teamster became a rarity, and the rare farmer who wasn’t a horseman became ubiquitous. Yet, a small fraternity persisted: some because horses have talents that machines can’t match, and


some because they simply wanted to work with horses. Ideally, they found a niche that called on the talents and fulfilled the desire. There was such a man in my youth, who spent his entire life working with


horses. He was kind and soft-spoken, with people and horses, and spent more than 60 years working his horses in fields and woodlots. He was recruited to teach his woodlot and teamster skills to forestry students at a university where the Queen of England and her husband came to meet him. As he told it, the Queen really came to meet the horses, who were kind enough to introduce him.


I last saw him when he was in his mid-80s, still farming. It had been several


years since our last visit. He shook my hand on the porch and said, “C’mon up to the barn and see the horses.” The pre-eminence of horse power may have faded but the horses have not. Something in the thousands of years of relationship has rooted the horse in the human psyche. There are over 100,000 horses in BC and they are a source of power in agriculture, generating over $750 million of economic activity annually. We no longer need horses to work in the way they were needed a hundred


years ago but we still desire to be in their company. There is an undeniable – for many, inexplicable – emotional attachment. We see it on our farm. Guests and visitors, many who have no personal equine history whatsoever,


are drawn to our horses like iron filings to a magnet. The comments are telling: “I’ve always loved horses.” “My grandfather was good with horses.” “I’ve always wanted to learn to ride.” “We had horses when I was growing up and I still miss them.” Few horses are in harness anymore but clearly, they still have something we


need. Two members of the Country Life in BC fraternity have said farewell to valued horse companions in the past month. This Back Forty is dedicated to those horses, Jessie and Honey. Long may they run.


Publisher Cathy Glover


The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 Vol. 104 No. 11. NOVEMBER 2018


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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • NOVEMBER 2018


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