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Tour highlights adaptation
Layers and seed savers on stops by RONDA PAYNE
ABBOTSFORD—Ray Nickel and his wife Linda of Quarter Holdings are adding enriched housing to their laying hen operation. The farm was one of several stops on the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce’s annual farm tour in June. “We’ve been actively egg farming since 1998,” Ray told tour guests. “We’re third- generation egg farmers.” A new, four-tiered system houses birds in groups of 30 per cage. The cages, made in Italy, feature perches, scratch pads, nesting boxes, feed and water. An alternate feed line adds to the birds’ diets. The barn provides approximately 120 to 130 square inches per bird and each tier has a manure belt to carry waste to the back of the barn. “A number of producers are moving into these kinds of
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systems,” says Nickel. “It’s a safer flock size and it’s easier to control the environment.” Nickel says enriched housing is similar to organic but computerized controls manage the feeding lines and interior environment. Tunnel venting feeds air into the manure shed. The barn also includes drop lighting to help manage the light sensitivity of Leghorns. “I’m expecting that as I go to this system from conventional, I’ll lose some production. Maybe not,” he shrugs. “We’ll see.” The new barn represents a $1.5 million investment and will boost Quarter Holdings’ bird count at the property to 70,000. The farm supplies about 18,000 dozen eggs a week to Golden Valley, including Born 3 eggs, and production will exceed more than 30,000 dozen when the new barn is fully functional.
Seed savers The next stop on the tour
was Maple Lane Farms in Mt. Lehman where Don and Connie Campbell have 74 acres with an organic dairy farm and innovation centre including a variety of projects like a greenhouse for Lepp Farm Market and 3.5 acres leased to FarmFolk/CityFolk. The latter tract serves as a
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • SEPTEMBER 2019
THAT’S A LOTTA EGGS! And a drop in the bucket to what Quarter Holdings will be producing when its new barn comes into full production. Noah and mom Linda Nickel hosted the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce on a farm tour in late July. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO
seed farm for research into locally adapted seed varieties, training others to produce and save seed and seed production for local growers. Seed sales generate a small amount of revenue for FFCF. “Being able to use the site to train farmers through field days and workshops is key,” says Chris Thoreau, who stepped down as director of FFCF’s BC Seed Security Program this summer, handing the reins to David Catzel. “A big area of research for us … is developing crop varieties for organic seed systems.” Char Friesen oversees day-
to-day operations at the farm. Weed control, nutrient update and taste of the resulting crops are all important elements of the research. Thoreau says it’s not an easy undertaking but he believes FFCF’s background and relationships with others in local seed production will lead to success. At the farm’s entrance is a
diffuse-light greenhouse . Dan Boon, a grower with Lepp Farm Market, is exploring ways to grow fresh produce year round. The large pond in the greenhouse resembles a small melted ice rink with
pink lighting overhead. Plugs of lettuce will be grown on Styrofoam “rafts” that allow their roots to trail in the water to absorb nutrients. “We know how much lettuce we sell,” says Boon. “We started going through how we could grow lettuce in a greenhouse and we explored different kinds of hydroponics.”
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