More couples like the De Groots are taking advanced farm business training together, and report that it’s good both for the farm and for their marriage
To say that Marty and Krista De Groot have their hands full is an understatement. The young couple are in the midst of taking over the third-generation family farm from Marty’s parents. Although his dad, Jack, still helps out, Marty does the bulk of the daily work, taking care of the 40,000 broiler chickens, 2,500 […] Read more
Sarah Jackson had been planning for her farming future since she was 17 years old, knowing her father Tom would be working right alongside her. So when he died suddenly eight months ago, she was thrown into a maelstrom. It’s an old story in agriculture, but because of new attitudes and modern connections, it ends with some surprising twists
“We left the hospital, and went to tell my grandmother he had died, then I came home and loaded trucks at two in the morning,” says Jackson. Neighbours rushed to help, but “Dad hadn’t even been dead for four hours and I had no choice but to keep farming.” Hard as it was at the […] Read more
Benefits include improved animal welfare and better workplace safety
Ontario will be joining most of the rest of Canada in moving to modular loading of chickens. But the change, mandated by Chicken Farmers of Ontario by 2024, will mean renovations to barns, some major, and investment by processors and transporters. Most chickens in the province are nabbed by chicken catchers in barns and carried to […] Read more
Planning to sell quota that is held in a corporation? Get some strategic tax planning, quick
Not surprisingly, the national media focused on proposals like the new tax-free Canada Child Benefit program when the Justin Trudeau government presented its first federal budget back in March. Buried underneath all the feel-good news, however, were some potentially painful changes to Eligible Capital Property (ECP) tax rules for incorporated businesses. Common examples of ECP […] Read more
Among supply management’s successes are its programs to help young farmers get established
“We’ve got a lot of young people coming in,” says Tim Lambert, CEO of the Egg Farmers of Canada. Like others, he credits board programs that give young farmers preferential access not only to quota, but to training in business leadership, and management. Yet underpinning it all, says Lambert, is income security. “They earn a […] Read more
More farmers are developing strategies that actually do connect with consumers
In her other life as a school board trustee, Okanagan Valley chicken farmer Christina Coers sees the value of education. It’s a mindset that she brought with her when she and her husband Steven became chicken farmers under the new-entrant program of the British Columbia chicken-marketing board a year ago. Coers, 46, didn’t grow up […] Read more
Farmers’ leadership skills are making a humanitarian difference, like Project Canaan in tiny Swaziland
Roger Pelissero gets choked up when he talks about his time in Swaziland as part of a humanitarian effort called Project Canaan. The words that come to him are the only ones he can think to say. “We take so much for granted,” he says. Pelissero sees eggs every day as an egg farmer from […] Read more
Getting into farming today is different, Kerry Froese believes. It demands whole new sets of skills
On the one hand, farming is what it’s always been, a profession with generous portions of independence, autonomy, and pride. It’s a lifestyle most farmers can’t imagine giving up, (even farmers who say they aren’t in it for the lifestyle). There’s space, freedom, physical exertion, honest value, and let’s not underrate the sense of authenticity. […] Read more
MEMBERSHIP
Register Using Your Social Account
