The Annual Farm Fest event was held by BC Young Farmer’s (BCYF) at UFV Chilliwack Campus on November 22nd this year. There was a great turnout from farmers across the Lower Mainland, with a few of them venturing out from the Interior/Okanagan to com and take part in this event. The event started off with a tour, led by Tom Baumann of UFV and Timothy Kendrick of BW GLOBAL, of the new greenhouse and barn facility at UFV. It was an amazing look into how it was built, why it was built and how it will be used.
The night was highlighted by keynote speaker Peter Gredig, who spoke about maximizing mobile technology in to the day to day life of a farmer. He offered great tip on useful apps to use, great Smartphone functionalities, hardware options, things to look for in the future and other various tips/tricks to help farmers.
There were a couple of other great speeches as well on various topics:
- Kathleen Fryer – Youth Connecting with Agriculture and Food on a Global Scale –experiences from the G20 Youth Summit in Europe and the Global 4-H Youth Summit in South Korea
- Denise Parker from MNP – income tax issues on inter-general farm transfer -tax rules specific to farming
- Gurtaj Sandhu & Taj Sekhon from Modern Agriculture Magazine –the start, the present, the future – a young farmer’s perspective
- Graham Bolton of FCC – new trade deals (CETA and TPP) and farmland values –how will it impact agriculture in the future and young farmers in particular
To end the night off, there were door prizes given out, a great Buffet Dinner that featured local Fraser Valley Products donated by BCYF directors and some time for a social. We hope to see more people here next year and at other BCYF events throughout the upcoming year. You can view the upcoming events at www.bcyf.ca/events
