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
Editor’s Note: Who deserves today’s farm?
Editor’s Note: Will winter really be so quiet?
Reading Time: 2 minutes In its way, this may be the biggest surprise of 2023. It’s that there are so few voices out there promising to tell us exactly what the future of agriculture is going to look like and exactly who the winners and the losers will be now that land prices and net worths are so high. […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A journey for us all
Reading Time: 2 minutes As you visit the new Country Guide homepage, we hope you’ll get a taste of the changes we will be bringing to Canada’s national farm management magazine in coming months. These will be our most significant changes in 15 years, the year we adopted “Strategic. Business. Thinking.” as our tagline. We now think of that […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Dale gets a lesson: “Sisters are like that, but …”
It was his aunt on the phone, so Jeff knew his Mom would be surprised. And maybe worse
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Dale Hanson looked at his phone and saw it was his sister calling, he set his wrench on the workbench and answered. “Good morning, Margaret.” Her response was garbled. “What’s that?” he asked. “Are you okay?” She answered, but Dale still couldn’t understand. “Is something wrong with Aunt Margaret,” Dale’s son Jeff called over […] Read more
Editor’s note: Making the most of 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutes I was wrong about the bull run that made grain prices soar beginning in 2008. Will I get it right on the 2020s’ surge? More to the point, will you? Of course there’s that old saying that we’ve all heard too many times. The worst decisions get made in the best of times, it says. […] Read more
Hanson Acres: There’s a secret to happily hanging around
It isn’t always easy to find your place on a farm, until someone reaches out
Reading Time: 5 minutes “I’m not going skiing with a bunch of older boys,” nine-year-old Jenny said on Saturday morning. “They won’t wait for me.” “They will,” her mother, Elaine, said. “The twins might get sick of waiting for her,” Jenny’s 12-year-old brother, Connor, said. “Their mom will make them wait,” Elaine said. “They won’t want to, so they […] Read more
Editor’s Note: It’s here. We can’t go back
Reading Time: 2 minutes Actually, it’s more than that. It isn’t just that we can’t go back. It’s that we can’t even want to do it. The past is gone. It’s over. And while the future is full of challenge, it’s popping with excitement and opportunity too. It sounds so trite to say that the future is here. What […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Hello or goodbye. Which is it going to be?
“Eventually we’ll have to,” Dale said. Donna didn’t answer
Reading Time: 4 minutes Donna and Dale had been home from Arizona for a week when Donna drove back from town on a Thursday afternoon to find their farmhouse cold. She checked the thermostat, inspected all the windows, then called Dale to come in from the shop and take a look. She was still putting the groceries away when […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Another historic year for the farm
Reading Time: 2 minutes The future of farming seems obvious. At least, it can seem like that if we don’t look very hard. The only thing that’s certain is this: Farmers keep passing every test they face. A decade is such a short time. Most farmers expect to be at the top of their game for something like four […] Read more
Hanson Acres: Getting away, maybe for good
When friends announce their surprise plans, it has a way of making everyone think
Reading Time: 4 minutes Jeff stomped his boots on the step before he opened the door, then stomped again inside the porch to shake the rest of the snow loose. “March is coming in like a lion,” he shouted down the hall to his wife Elaine. “It’s snowing so hard out there I could barely see the road. And […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
