British Columbia Archives

Program director Gillian Watt, sponsor Brian Garland and student Liam Dennison, winner of TRU’s 2020 award for ranch business.

If you build it

Ranchers and businesses at Williams Lake get together to set up a college program that’s great for students, and for local industry too

By Lauren Kramer 5 days ago

Reading Time: 6 minutes A decade ago, Brian Garland, owner of the Cariboo Auto Group in Williams Lake, B.C., was troubled. Around him were hundreds of ranches, many of them large, successful and thriving. Yet their families had nowhere local to go to study the profession and prepare to continue in their families’ footsteps. Garland’s own parents had met […] Read more

Livestock, Weather

Two more ‘murder hornets’ turn up on B.C. mainland

One nest found last month in neighbouring U.S. town

By Dave Bedard November 11, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Beekeepers in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and Lower Mainland are asked to keep an eye out for so-called “murder hornets” after two were found in the region within a week. A single Asian giant hornet was found Saturday at Aldergrove, near the intersection of Fraser Highway and Highway 13 — about five km from where […] Read more

General

B.C. ag minister, critic expected to win re-election

NDP projected to form majority government

By Dave Bedard October 25, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes British Columbia’s incumbent agriculture minister and opposition ag critic both appear set to head back to the provincial legislature as the New Democrats are projected to end three years of tentative minority governing. John Horgan’s NDP, which in 2017 overturned a minority Liberal government with the help of the Green Party, was projected Saturday evening […] Read more

Livestock

B.C. ag ministry to take over regulation for on-farm slaughter

Class D- and E-licensed sites to move to ag ministry oversight

By Dave Bedard August 20, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes British Columbia is set to consolidate all provincial-level meat inspection duties into its agriculture ministry — including the regulatory oversight for on-farm slaughter work. The province announced Wednesday that all slaughter work licensed under its Meat Inspection Regulation for Class A, B, D and E sites will now be regulated through the ag ministry, starting […] Read more

Beef Cattle, Livestock

Bovine TB probe wraps with no exact point of entry found

'More stringent' tests now being run on U.S. rodeo cattle imports

By Dave Bedard August 13, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes Federal inspectors have formally closed the book on a 2018 outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a British Columbia cattle herd, but with “no definitive source of infection” found. The probe dates back to October that year, when a beef cow of an unknown age, from a cow-calf operation in B.C.’s southern Interior, was culled, […] Read more

Livestock

Prairie livestock vet named B.C.’s chief veterinarian

Rayna Gunvaldsen replaces Jane Pritchard

By Dave Bedard July 11, 2020

Reading Time: < 1 minute A Saskatchewan vet with a resume in emergency preparedness and managing livestock disease outbreaks has been named British Columbia’s new chief veterinarian. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham announced Rayna Gunvaldsen’s appointment Friday, replacing Jane Pritchard. Gunvaldsen trained at the University of Saskatchewan with an emphasis on herd health and regulatory medicine, worked as a herd health […] Read more

Livestock, Reuters, Weather

More ‘murder hornets’ found in B.C., Washington

Findings suggest some were able to overwinter

By GFM Staff, Reuters May 30, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters/Staff — Officials in British Columbia and Washington state have confirmed new sightings of the Asian giant hornet, dubbed the “murder hornet,” indicating the invasive, predatory insect survived the winter in the Vancouver area and U.S. Pacific Northwest. The stinging hornet, whose queens can grow as large as 2-1/2 inches in length, could potentially pose […] Read more

Canola, Crops, Reuters

Huawei executive loses key court argument in fight against extradition

By Moira Warburton, Tessa Vikander May 27, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Toronto/Vancouver | Reuters — Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou has lost a key aspect of the trial on her extradition to the United States, a Canadian court announced on Wednesday. Meng, a Chinese citizen, was arrested in December 2018 in Vancouver on a warrant issued by U.S. authorities, who accuse her of bank fraud […] Read more

Livestock, Reuters

‘Murder hornet’ findings worry agriculture officials

Invasive pest known to decapitate honeybees, take over hives

By dan-whitcomb, Omar Younis May 5, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — The Asian giant hornet — an invasive, predatory insect dubbed the “murder hornet” — has been seen in the Vancouver area and may pose a threat to the beekeeping industry and potentially to people if it establishes there, a U.S. official said Monday. The stinging Vespa mandarinia can grow as large as 2-1/2 […] Read more

Livestock, Poultry/Eggs

B.C. health officials order two more poultry plants closed

Over 50 COVID-19 cases found at Superior Poultry

By Dave Bedard May 2, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes Health officials in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley have ordered two more poultry processing plant closed after multiple cases of COVID-19 were confirmed among employees. Fraser Health announced April 24 it had ordered Superior Poultry Processors of Coquitlam to close after two employees of the chicken processing plant tested positive for the coronavirus. The health district […] Read more

Suspended pulse crop handlers partly reinstated

Klassen: Feeder market stabilizes on demand hopes

Seasonal forecast calls for more snow

GFM Network News