Canada, BC commit $228 million in flood recovery

Feb 17, 2022

Following last year’s devastating floods, British Columbia farmers who suffered damages will have access to up to $228 million in federal-provincial government support.

Federal minister of agriculture and agri-food, Marie-Claude Bibeau and British Columbia minister of agriculture Lana Popham announced the Canada-BC Flood Recovery for Food Security Program, which will be delivered by the government of British Columbia and will leverage the federal government’s AgriRecovery Framework and Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements (DFAA).

The program will help farmers who have incurred extraordinary expenses from uninsurable damages such as:

Clean-up, repair and restoration of land, barns and animal shelter, water and waste systems; returning flood impacted land and buildings to a safe environment for agricultural production;
Repair of uninsurable essential farm infrastructure; reasonable repair of on-farm structures such as livestock containment fences, and the rental of temporary production facilities drainage ditches and riprap;
Animal welfare; replacement feed as well as livestock transportation, veterinary care and mortality disposal; and
Loss of perennial plants not raised for resale

The response was designed following extensive consultation with agricultural organizations and individual farmers in the different disaster areas.

The governments of Canada and British Columbia have also established a committee of federal and provincial ministers who are working together and with Indigenous leadership to guide immediate and ongoing support to British Columbia families, businesses, and communities affected by the extreme weather events.

Farmers who have already undertaken any work are advised to keep their receipts, track the hours of work involved, and take pictures documenting the damage and repairs to support their application.

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”