Accelerating the pace of innovation in B.C.’s agriculture sector

Victoria, British Columbia – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - A Delta-based fresh vegetable provider and a family-owned orchard in Vernon are leading two of 15 projects receiving more than $2.9 million to take innovative B.C. agriculture projects to the next step.

 

BCfresh is receiving over $99,000 to adapt a tool to reduce the bruising of table beets during harvest and handling. The project is underway on six farms using Produce QC, an adaptation of Spudsmart technology. The table beet samples have been collected and are being monitored for quality issues during the storage period. If successful, the technology will help the sector become more competitive by eliminating hundreds of thousands of dollars in spoilage-related losses.

 

Davison Orchards has been an agriculture fixture in the Okanagan for more than 85 years. The Davison family grows five types of tree fruits, with more than 20 varieties of apples on 120 acres of land. They have received $128,000 for a project that is doing a side-by-side comparison of the effectiveness of hail netting to protect crops. The project will demonstrate the value of hail netting in reducing crop losses from sun scald and hail.

 

The funding is provided through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a federal-provincial-territorial investment that includes $2 billion in cost-shared strategic initiatives delivered by the provinces and territories, and $1 billion for federal programs and services through March 2023.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.