JANUARY 2020 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Date change bolsters turnout


at dairy meetings Recall insurance in the works


by DAVID SCHMIDT VANCOUVER – Moving the


BC Dairy Association and BC Milk Marketing Board annual meetings and the BCMMB fall producer meeting from the morning after to the evening before the main BC Dairy Conference in Vancouver proved to be the right strategy as attendance was much better than in previous years.


BCDA opened the evening with a quick recap of its activities for the year and the introduction of its new executive director, Jeremy Dunn. For many producers, it was their first opportunity to meet Dunn, who had only been in the new job for five weeks at the time of the November 27 meeting. With Dunn in the top job, the association reappointed interim executive director Ken Miller as the independent board member. BCDA also welcomed Mickey Aylard of Sidney as a director-at-large, replacing Jared DeJong of Abbotsford. DeJong chose to step down from the BCDA after a three-year term but will continue to represent dairy producers on the BC Agriculture Council. Replacing him as BCDA vice- president is Sarah Sache of Rosedale. BCDA president Holger


Schwichtenberg used the meeting to present the BC Milk Quality Award to William Wikkerink of J. William Wikkerink Farms in Cobble Hill. During the 2018-2019 dairy year, the 50-cow robotically-milked Wikkerink herd topped the province with a 40,338 SCC (somatic cell count) and 12,768 IBC (individual bacteria count) average. Perennial contenders Viewfield Farms of Courtenay and T & L Cattle of Rosedale placed second and third this year.


BCMMB made quick work of getting its annual financial statements approved before moving on to the meat of the evening: the fall producer meeting.


Although BCMMB’s bottom line was almost identical to the previous year, expenditures included a $2.4 million increase in freight costs, over half of it coming from increased milk shipments within the Western Milk Pool, and a $500,000 increase in administration,


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largely due to development of the board’s new online Milk Management System. MMS went live August 1 and has made board operations much more efficient, BCMMB controller Dan Poelman told the producer meeting. He noted 99% of producers


have accessed the new site, saying overall response has been “very positive,” although a few issues are still being worked on. MMS has “greatly increased” the information available to producers, processors and staff, he said. BCMMB director David Janssens detailed the board’s efforts to develop a product recall insurance program. BC has decided to join the other three provinces in the Western Milk Pool in a mandatory program which would cover all 1,400 producers in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Having all four provinces


involved “spreads the risk and simplifies administration,” which will remain in BC, Janssens said. The WMP is working with


BFL Canada, Canada’s largest employee-owned and operated commercial insurance brokerage, to develop an insurance package specific to its needs. The package will provide $10 million coverage per province as well as a $10 million


BC Dairy Association president Holger Schwichtenberg presents the 2019 BC Quality Milk Award to William Wikkerink of J. William Wikkerink Farms in Cobble Hill. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


umbrella policy for all four provinces. It will have a high deductible and low premiums. Janssens stressed it will not cover on-farm liability but be limited to product recalls due to accidental contamination, malicious product tampering or government recalls. “It’s catastrophic


occurrence insurance,” Janssens explained, telling producers that in view of the increasing number of product recalls in the food industry, “it’s time for us to recognize our risks.” Producers also discussed


the board’s B-train accessibility policy. The BCMMB currently offers a staggered discount, based on litres of milk shipped, to farms which are B-train accessible year-round. That is 83% of BC farms, by far the highest percentage in Canada,


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BCMMB manager of market supply and development Woody Siemens reported. Despite considerable


discussion, there was no clear consensus as to what, if any, changes should be made to the current policy.


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