Agri-Career Adventure 2009

Monday, May 4 Tours

2009-05-06T21:53:00.001-07:00

In Vernon, heading to Davison Orchards

Monday morning had us all unloading from the bus at Davison’s Orchard. Tom Davison himself was there to see us. Tom’s family has owned the 60 acre orchard since 1933. They are now producing a plethora of tree fruits and vegetables to stock the successful market and bakery that Tom started when he took the farm over. There is also a delicious café and lots of gifts to take home to the family. Tom took us all on a tractor tour through the orchard.

The apple carts on the tractor ride

He explained that his orchard is actually in the middle of a microclimate, and it's in fact the hottest and driest piece of land in all of the Okanagan. He also went on to say that the most important factor in the Okanagan is Lake Okanagan. He explained that the only reason vineyards and orchards survive here is because the lake mediates the temperature, so it never gets too cold or too hot for the crops. At the end of the ride, one delegate asked if Tom considered his produce organic; you could tell he had been waiting for this. He puts it this way: “We are not organic, but let me tell you, we treat the land with the highest respect and are extremely careful with what we put on it. Our focus is on providing fresh, delicious produce that can be consumed the same day it was harvested.”

Well, that sounds good enough for us!

Tom Davison

The Farm Market

Spending time at Davisons

Then it was back on the bus to travel to Kelowna where we met four Farm Credit Canada (FCC) employees at a park for lunch. We learned that FCC is 50 years old and that it is special to Canada. The best business conductor for them is word of mouth in getting new clients and they also work hard to keep business relationships. It was interesting to learn that the business works with big accounts and numbers but also communication skills are really important.

Next stop was Orchard Corners Emu Farm. Ken Reiger owns it as a third generation farmer. On his property, he grows all organic apples, cherries and blueberries. He also farms emus. This 15 acre farm is where Ken has lived since birth.

Emus came from Australia some 40 years ago. At the beginning of the industry a breeding pair was worth about 30 to 40 thousand dollars. These birds lay their eggs every 3 days. The male emu incubates the eggs. Emus have a hump on their backs that is 3 inches of fat! This is why the meat of an emu has no fat. The fat is made into an oil which prevents scar tissue from forming. These birds have huge eggs - the yolk is the size of a tennis ball and they take about 1.5 hours to boil.

An emu egg

As for the fruit and berries on the farm, they are purely organic. It took about 3 years to work toxins out of the soil as the farm transitioned to organics. Ken says that because of pollution, it is hard for anyone to go 100% organic.

He decided to go organic when he was putting Roundup on the field and about 2 weeks later he saw a small mouse with a tumor on its back. Convinced that it was the chemicals that caused this deformity he switched to organic. Every year Ken volunteers his house and farm to the WOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) program. All folks that work on his farm love it. It was fascinating to learn about Ken’s farm and perhaps one of us will go back via WWOOF.

Grafting a fruit tree

Enjoying emu sausage and jerky

Next stop was the Clement Turf Farm, where we learned about the turf industry. There is a lot that goes into making turf including water and time. It takes approximately 12-14 months from start to finish to have the turf product. The industry has gone from hand cutting the turf with scissors to a fully automated robotic machine. We got to see the robotic machine in operation, and there are only 2 of them currently in BC.

Irrigated field on the way up the driveway

Checking out the robotic tractor

In motion: it has a guide along the last line of turf cut, then cuts it in 6 foot sections, rolls it and lifts 5 rolls at a time onto a pallet.

A rejected piece of turf that ripped while it was being cut

The last stop of the day was at Summerhill Winery. We learned about wine production and that their signature wine is their sparkling wine. Ice wine is also one of their specialties and a lot goes into making it.

Sparkling wine

We also got to experience the negative ions in the pyramid that they claim make the wine taste better.

Success!

Our visit was completed with a special dinner in our own private room. On the menu was food that included local ingredients that washed down with sparkling apple or peach juice.

After dinner we loaded the bus for the long ride back to Abbotsford.

Sunday tours - Kamloops and Salmon Arm

2009-05-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

On the road again...

Bus time

Arrival at the Ranch

On May 3rd, our tour group travelled to the Old Harper Ranch. It is now owned and operated by the Kamloops Indian Band as of 1995. Their main goal is to provide the public with healthy, hormone free, grass fed beef. Grass feeding naturally creates higher Omega 3 fat counts in the meat. Our group saw an extraordinary amount of acreage and many of the operations taking place.

The ranch is looking to bring in the Galloway breed from Alberta to add to their 22 head of cattle. Many of our participants were impressed with the effort of the ranch towards providing a stress-free environment in which the cattle flourish. On that note, one final piece of information would be that while the new name of the ranch, Spiyu7ullucw, is too difficult to pronounce, the literal meaning is “bird land”.

Time with the horses

Lots of photo ops

Checking out the cattle

Good times

The next stop was in Salmon Arm at DeMille’s Farm Market. We learned that the produce they grow is sold in their store on their own property. We also learned that almost any of the foods that they sell at their store not produced on their own farm is bough from local producers. Starting in 1981 with 15 acres, Roger DeMille, his wife and their son, Brad, have grown their farm to 240 acres. It now has an animal viewing area, produce store and greenhouses. We were able to view all aspects of the DeMille’s Farmers Market and learned that the store sells 150,000 lbs tomatoes, 350,000 lbs apples and 100,000 lbs pumpkins. The farm is environmentally conscious by recycling and reusing packaging as well as using as little chemicals as possible. Through buying so much local produce they are supporting the Salmon Arm community and supplying them with healthy and sustainable local foods.

DeMille's Farm Market

Low rider

Roger talking to the group

Having fun

Sightseeing - cute kids

Animal Viewing Area

Brad DeMille talking to the group

In the farm store

Our last, but certainly not least, stop of the day at Happy Days Goat Dairy in Salmon Arm.

Happy Days has been operated for 16 years by Don and his herd of adorable kids, who were all outside the door to greet us as we tramped down the driveway. After introducing himself, Don explained that instead of watching goats being milked we were going to see the cheese making process. It turns out Happy Days has another operation in Chilliwack where the goats are milked, and then the unpasteurized milk is sent to Don.

After the milk is pasteurized, Don shows us how he adds rennin to heated milk. Rennin was originally harvested from a calf’s stomach, but now most rennin is produced with bacteria. The rennin and milk are then left to sit so the milk can become stiff. Once stiffened, Don “cuts” the milk for about three minutes. This basically is agitating the milk until it separates into curds and whey.

The curds become the cheese and the whey product has many uses: cosmetics, baby powder, and fertilizer to name a few. At this point in the cheese making process, herbs, fruits and other foods can be added. This cutting stage is also where you would decide how hard your cheese is going to be. The higher the temperature, the harder the cheese. Brie is a good example of a cheese cut at a lower temperature. After the cutting is done, Don pours the curds and why into a mold (usually a cylindrical container with a bunch of very small drain holes.

He then pushes the curds until they are compacted and all the whey has been drained. And since we were short on time, Don didn’t let the cheese sit overnight at a high temperature. And as a result, we had a soft warm goat cheese that had been made right before our eyes!

Cheese making

The finished product!

Example of Happy Days products

After Happy Days Goat Dairy, we travelled to Vernon for some career sessions and supper at the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands Office. Then it was off to the Cadet Camp for some much needed downtime.

Hanging out in the lobby

Interview Feud

Saturday - the tours begin!

2009-05-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

Our first day of the tour started at Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford. After loading the bus we headed for Friesen Equipment. Friesen Equipment has been a family owned and operated business for the last 40 years. The Gelinsky family bought the business in 1990 from John Friesen, but the still maintained the family image. Friesen Equipment has four stores located in Abbotsford, Langley, Duncan and Saanichton.

We learned about business management and how they are striving to become more environmentally friendly. Thank you for the John Deere hats!

Our second tour was Rainbow Greenhouses. They started their business in 1985 with a 3000 square foot greenhouse. They have since expanded to half a million square feet and have over 1 million plants. For starting new plants, their plant cuttings come from Africa, South America and Mexico.

Getting toured around by the Head Grower

Look at all of the flowers!

Flood irrigation through the floor

The boiler room for heating the greenhouses

Rainbow Greenhouses are trying to be environmentally conscious by recycling water and using wood pellets from the mountain pine beetle epidemic to heat their greenhouses.

Our third stop was the Agriculture Department at the University of the Fraser Valley. We learned about the different agriculture programs offered at the university and that some of their horticulture and livestock research is done on site. We had a tour of their campus greenhouse and saw the research that was being done on pest control.

Our last tour of the day travelled to the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre. We learned about many interesting and exciting opportunities that are available there. When our group first arrived, we were required to wear plastic covers over our shoes as a safety precaution of transferring diseases to and from the centre. The researchers that gave us the tour told us about some of the research trials they were doing. One was to feed just a grain ration versus a grain and forage ration to see if either worked better to improve the calves’ immune system. During the tour, we were able to watch the milking process in action. The milking parlour was able to hold 24 cows.

Our group with our booties on

Aw, the calf barn

Look at that technology!

More touring

It was extremely interesting to see and all the work involved to do this. Overall, we got a very good impression of their industry and learned about the diversity of careers involved in the dairy industry.

What an action-packed day! After the last tour, we travelled to Kamloops to have dinner and some down time to get rested for Sunday’s adventures.

Friday Night Welcome and Sessions

2009-05-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

And it begins...

On Friday afternoon, participants travelled from all over BC to meet for Agri-Career Adventure at Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford.

The program started off as a success as the delegates had a bite to eat and met their roomates for the night. Welcome games started off the evening's events and delegates got to know each other. Then they played a hand of Rummy to separate into their groups for the program.

Bananas!?!

Introductions

Playing Rummy

Sessions set the stage for the rest of the program with information about agriculture in BC and careers available in agriculture. Group activities gave the chance for everyone to get to know their group members and think about agriculture. There was some time for recreation then everyone headed to bed in anticipation for Saturday's tours.

Group Names - "0 to Debt" and "Inspector Health"

Brainstorming

Agriculture Webs

Presenting ideas

Lots of agriculture careers out there!

3 days...

2009-04-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

Three days left to get geared up for the program to start on Friday. 20 participants from around the province of BC will be meeting in the Fraser Valley to embark on the 5 day program to explore careers in the agriculture industry!!

A special thank you to our sponsors for helping make this happen:
- Canadian 4-H Council
- BC Youth in Agriculture Foundation
- Westgen Endowment Fund
- BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
- BC 4-H Provincial Council