Reading Time: 3 minutes What is your playbook going into this year’s crop? Not an easy question to answer right now, given the global trade turbulence. As Evan Shout writes in The Farmer’s Playbook, volatility is likely to be the most-used word in agriculture this year. But, he writes, it’s also during down times that some farmers are able […] Read more
Editor’s Note: No pressure
Editor’s Note: Ten years in
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ten years into any career can be a satisfying milestone. It can also be frustrating. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, as it’s been 10 years since my first novel was published. Since then, I’ve written a second, which was also published, and had plans for writing a third. But after the second […] Read more
Editor’s Note: How farmers and ag businesses are navigating change
Reading Time: 3 minutes I once asked someone I admired for advice on building a successful career. He told me, basically, to be adaptable. Great advice, but, like so many things, easier said than done. I’m sure he knew that, too. Still, like so much in life, it starts with mindset. If you don’t see any need to change, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Writing your life
Reading Time: 3 minutes Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? — The Summer Day, Mary Oliver What are the ingredients of a successful multigenerational farm, or ag business? Or book or film or other creative project? They have more in common than you might think. It starts, I think, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Making it happen
Reading Time: 3 minutes As we roll into 2025, I’m very pleased to be working with the rest of the Country Guide team. Years ago, as a field editor, I split my time writing for Guide and Grainews and learned much more from Tom Button than I can summarize in one column. He wanted to produce a magazine with […] Read more
Editor’s Note: See you at the airport
Reading Time: 2 minutes This is my last issue at Country Guide. Retirement starts today. It begins practically the moment I hit “Send” on this column. No one could work at this job without a sense of the magazine’s history and its deep connections to Canadian farm families over the past century. I routinely get calls saying, “I’m cleaning […] Read more
Editor’s Note: meet the new renters
Reading Time: 2 minutes By and large, Canada’s farmers have adapted to all the changes in farmland renting over the past several decades. This is very good news because a lot more change is coming. Not everything is perfect in today’s rental markets. There is never enough land, for one thing. And there’s never a perfect way — or, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Leadership – yes, it is a science
Reading Time: 2 minutes So often when we’re putting the finishing touches on your next Country Guide, I find myself pausing and thinking, “If only we could get this issue into the hands of every Canadian… Imagine the impact if they leafed through even just this one issue and saw farmers as we see them all the time.” In […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The sweet spot
Reading Time: 2 minutes We know that our January 2, 2024 issue of Country Guide only begins to explore the “sweet spot” questions that you ask yourself every day. This was inevitable, we all know, because questions about right-sizing have moved to the forefront for today’s farm management… right-sizing the farm, right-sizing the equipment inventory, right-sizing the amount of […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Who deserves today’s farm?
Reading Time: 2 minutes The word “entitlement” gets tossed around a lot in agriculture. “Oh,” somebody has always said, “the kids act like they’re entitled to the best truck money can buy.” Or, “Oh, he acts like he’s so entitled to a voice in how this farm is run.” In 2023, we’re sensing the entitlement charge is getting bigger […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
