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Over $400,000 has been approved to support agricultural projects in the Peace region.
The funding comes from Northern Development Initiative trust’s BC Hydro Peace Agricultural Compensation Fund (PACF) to benefit 19 organizations.
A grant for over $40,000 was given to LH Williams in Rose Prairie for the first year of a five-year soil enhancing cover crop study.
According to NDIT, cover cropping builds soil resiliency and helps with climate change impacts and unpredictable weather. Results from this study will be made public.
In the Energetic City, Darren and Jennifer Snider will be receiving $50,000 to install new sheep feeding equipment to improve the quality of the livestock.
“We began raising lambs as part of a 4H project seven years ago and have grown in both size and knowledge ever since. We will be expanding our flock of 150 ewes to 500 high-quality ewes and lambing throughout the year in an indoor facility. The nutritional requirements of ewes, depending on their stage in the reproductive cycle, vary and are the foundation of a successful lambing operation,” said Jennifer in a statement.
“By upgrading our feeding systems, we will produce healthier sheep, providing our community with the option to enjoy local, exceptional grass and grain-fed lamb meat throughout the year and be able to meet the demand of the growing market lamb market.”
Elisabeth Haagsman out of Hudson’s Hope is receiving over $15,000 to build a 510 square foot geodesic greenhouse with a 130-plant vertical aeroponic growing system, meaning a globe-shaped greenhouse with roots from the plants being in the air instead of in soil. They are irrigated with a nutrient-dense mist.
The greenhouse will also be heated by solar power and, according to NDIT, will grow more food three times faster with fewer resources, including 98 per cent less water.
Once this greenhouse is built, the farm will be able to have a longer growing season and grow more crops with a reduced footprint and less dirty work.
Dawson Creek & District Exhibition Association is also receiving $15,000 for the 2022 Dawson Creek Exhibition and Stampede, happening from August 9th to 14th.
Since 2018 more than $1.6 million has been approved to help agriculture in the north.
Projects approved for funding:
- Bar 4 Ranch Ltd.: $19,297 to purchase a livestock scale
- British Columbia Honey Producers Association: $27,880
- Collins Cattle Co Ltd.: $14,559 for a half section fencing program
- Creek Bank Farms Ltd.: $23,775 for Creek Bank worm works
- Hill and Hollow Farm: $23,886 to improve a goat grazing fence line
- Jared Lee Loewen: $50,000 for fertilizer distribution
- Kayla Read: $11,653 for dugout management to improve water sustainability
- Kenneth and Anita Thomson: $10,500 for fencing at Thomson Ranch
- Kolby Peterson: $12.464 for the Wildwood Farm market garden
- LH Willms Inc.: $42,917 for soil enhancing cover crop research
- Lindsay Katherine Routledge DBA Flat Cat Ranch: $16,500 for orchard wildlife protection
- Rob and Leanne Esau: $15,109 for a cattle handling system
- Royd and Kelsey Lusk: $21,647 for all-season electric/geothermal stock waterers
- Sarah Mackie: $12,730 to build a new greenhouse
- Silver Willow 4H Club: $8,610 for handling equipment
- SquigglyThings: $8,615 for on-farm wash-pack-preserve equipment
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