Farm Plans

What a farm plan is

A farm plan is a written, professional account of how a parcel of agricultural land can realistically be farmed — and the document regulators most often ask to see before they’ll act on a file. It pulls together what the property is, what the soils can support, how water moves across and through the site, and which crops and land uses make agronomic and economic sense. The result is both a practical roadmap for the landowner and a defensible submission for the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), a municipality, or BC Assessment.

For ALR land, a credible farm plan does real work: it demonstrates genuine farming intention, underpins a Soil or Farm Use (SFU) application, and shows the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) and your local government that a proposal is rooted in agriculture rather than dressed up to look that way. A vague plan invites questions and delay; a specific, soil-grounded one moves files forward.

When you need one

Consider a farm plan if any of these apply:

• You’re preparing a Soil or Farm Use (SFU) application to place fill or alter soil for a farm use, and need to explain why the work makes agronomic sense.
• You want to establish or defend BC Assessment farm class, and need a plan capable of meeting the farm-class income thresholds.
• You’re making an ALC application — non-farm use, subdivision, or similar — where an agricultural rationale strengthens your case.
• Your municipality’s farm or ALR bylaw requires a farm plan as a condition of a permit or approval.
• You’ve bought ALR land and want a clear, expert answer to: what should I actually do with this property?

Even where no rule compels it, a farm plan is often the cheapest way to avoid an expensive misstep — the wrong crop on the wrong soil, or an application a regulator was always going to refuse.

How Titrin approaches it

Every farm plan starts in the field. We walk the property, observe what matters — topography, vegetation, surface water, signs of past use — and dig test pits to describe what’s genuinely in the ground. Soil texture, structure, and rooting depth reveal far more about a parcel’s potential than a parcel map ever will. From those observations we interpret the land’s agricultural capability and identify its real constraints.

Drainage is treated honestly and within our professional scope. As a Professional Agrologist practice, we describe observed drainage conditions and their agricultural implications — whether a field sits wet, where water collects, what that means for crop choice and timing. Where a site needs engineered drainage to be farmed as intended, we say so and refer that design to a qualified engineer. We do not perform engineering.

With the soils understood, we move to crop and land-use recommendations matched to your goals and your ground: blueberry on suitable acidic, well-drained soils; forage or hay where a lower-input rotation fits; nursery or cut-flower production where market and site align; or a mixed approach staged over several seasons. We weigh agronomy against economics, including what it takes to reach BC Assessment’s farm-class income thresholds, so the plan is something you can actually operate — not a document that satisfies a form and sits in a drawer.

Finally, we align the plan to the rules governing your land. ALC policy and municipal farm bylaws don’t always agree, and they vary from one local government to the next. We map the specific expectations of each body that touches your file and structure the farm plan — and any SFU application built on it — to meet them, so the two tell one consistent story. Where a stamped opinion is appropriate, the plan is prepared and signed by a P.Ag.

Why Titrin

Titrin AgriSoil Solutions is led by Tishtaar (Tish) Titina, P.Ag., M.Sc., a Professional Agrologist registered with the BC Institute of Agrologists, with more than a decade of experience spanning the Agricultural Land Commission and the City of Richmond. That regulator-informed perspective is the difference: we’ve sat on the other side of the table and know how a farm plan is read, what raises a reviewer’s eyebrow, and what makes an application credible the first time.

You work directly with the P.Ag. on your file — not a junior handed the work after the sales call. And because Titrin delivers across the full cycle, from assessment through permitting and, with our partners, into construction and compliance, a farm plan written here connects cleanly to whatever comes next. Where a project touches riparian areas or environmental review, we bring in R.P.Bio. partners so the ecology is handled by the right professional.

We serve landowners, farmers, developers, and municipalities across Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island, including Richmond and the surrounding ALR. Whether you need a farm plan to support an SFU application, build a farm-class case, or simply make a confident decision about your land, the work is science-backed, plainly written, and built to stand up to the people reviewing it.