Farmers In The Lower Mainland May Have To Wait Months Before Returning

Nov 22, 2021

There are many farmers in the Fraser Valley between the cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack who believe it will be months before they can set foot on their farms again.

Many were flooded by more than a metre of water as a result of a huge storm on the west coast about a week ago. Although some farmers managed to get horses and cows to higher ground, it's believed at least a thousand animals died in the flooding. There are also many chicken farms in the area and some of those farmers were forced to abandon them. Several that weren't flooded were quickly running out of feed because of washed out highways.

This past weekend, the situation was beginning to improve. The Fraser River started receding and some traffic was moving again between Hope and the Okanagan.

Alberta is helping out our neighbors to the west. Late last week, Premier Jason Kenney said he had a phone call with his BC counterpart, John Horgan and they discussed various ways our province could help producers in the Fraser Valley, including setting up veterinary lab services.

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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.