We learned about business management and how they are striving to become more environmentally friendly. Thank you for the John Deere hats!
Our second tour was Rainbow Greenhouses. They started their business in 1985 with a 3000 square foot greenhouse. They have since expanded to half a million square feet and have over 1 million plants. For starting new plants, their plant cuttings come from Africa, South America and Mexico.
Getting toured around by the Head Grower
Look at all of the flowers!
Flood irrigation through the floor
The boiler room for heating the greenhouses
Rainbow Greenhouses are trying to be environmentally conscious by recycling water and using wood pellets from the mountain pine beetle epidemic to heat their greenhouses.
Our third stop was the Agriculture Department at the University of the Fraser Valley. We learned about the different agriculture programs offered at the university and that some of their horticulture and livestock research is done on site. We had a tour of their campus greenhouse and saw the research that was being done on pest control.
Our last tour of the day travelled to the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre. We learned about many interesting and exciting opportunities that are available there. When our group first arrived, we were required to wear plastic covers over our shoes as a safety precaution of transferring diseases to and from the centre. The researchers that gave us the tour told us about some of the research trials they were doing. One was to feed just a grain ration versus a grain and forage ration to see if either worked better to improve the calves’ immune system. During the tour, we were able to watch the milking process in action. The milking parlour was able to hold 24 cows.
Our group with our booties on
Aw, the calf barn
Look at that technology!
More touring
It was extremely interesting to see and all the work involved to do this. Overall, we got a very good impression of their industry and learned about the diversity of careers involved in the dairy industry.
What an action-packed day! After the last tour, we travelled to Kamloops to have dinner and some down time to get rested for Sunday’s adventures.
