Reading Time: 5 minutes From a business perspective, whether it’s a family business, a family farm business or any other kind, succession planning is not only smart, it’s a condition of survival. According to the Family Business Institute for example, after the leader of a family business exits the picture for whatever reason, 70 per cent of these enterprises […] Read more
Sharing succession stories
What can farmers learn from the transition struggles of Canada’s other independent, family-based businesses?
Family farms are finding their way
It’s more than the legalities. The culture of Canada’s farm families is evolving too, and on many farms it’s keeping up quite nicely, thanks
Reading Time: 6 minutes Brett Meinert, of Shaunavon, Sask., knew early on that his son Barclay was hoping to take over the family farm. “He bought land three days after he was old enough to own land, when he was eighteen years old,” Brett says. “We knew at that time that he was going to farm — there was […] Read more
Building the chain
When should you give an expert chain-builder like Braden Douglas a call?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Farmers are expert at producing food. No one doubts that. Increasingly, farmers are also expert at finances and myriad other sorts of business management. Again, that’s beyond debate. But are you expert at launching startups too? It’s one of the big questions of 2020, when so many of the ideas that are bubbling up across […] Read more
Paying it forward
Could a philanthropic gift be the right succession strategy for your farm?
Reading Time: 8 minutes In terms of size, W.A. Ranches’ gift to the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine (UCVM) is the biggest donation of ranch property ever made to a North American university, adding up to 19,000 acres of land and 1,000 head of cattle for a total value of $44 million. Although precedent setting in many […] Read more
Is your farm transition on-track?
As farms grow in value, it gets tempting to think succession planning is too risky to consider. It’s why only eight per cent of Canadian farms have written plans. But maybe there’s a way after all
Reading Time: 10 minutes Whether you call it a succession plan or a transition plan, if the very idea makes you wince, you’re not alone. Canada’s farmers are older than ever — according to Statistics Canada, more farmers are over 70 than under 35 — yet only about eight per cent of all farmers have a written succession plan. […] Read more
How about a life coach?
More farmers are turning to life coaches to help them strengthen themselves, their families and their businesses
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the 30 years since the first coaching programs were developed, the field of coaching has exploded. You’ll find coaches who specialize in a broad range of areas including business, leadership, personal development, wellness, financial management and more. While coaching has been gaining popularity in the corporate world for the past decade, farmers are now […] Read more
Does your farm team have the skills your farm needs the most?
Summer can be the best time of year to ask
Reading Time: 9 minutes First, let’s start with something everyone can agree on. Investing in developing the skills of the farm team is vital for the continued success of every farm. It’s documented by Farm Management Canada’s Dollars and Sense study too, and by the finding that the number one practice of Canada’s top farmers — in other words, […] Read more
Social (un)distancing
Canada’s young farm grads have learned how to capture the benefits of social networking despite living in a kind of isolation the rest of Canada is experiencing for the first time
Reading Time: 7 minutes When Blair Cummins left the farm where he grew up to go to the University of Saskatchewan and get his bachelor of science in agriculture in the 1970s, he could count on one hand the number of people he knew who were pursuing higher education. “Out of my generation, I only know two others that […] Read more
Winding down: How will Canada’s aging farmers sell their land?
As the Besser family discovered, it can pay to play the long game
Reading Time: 5 minutes In 2011, Howard and Jannette Besser found themselves at a crossroads. The pair, who farmed 3,000 acres near Plumas, Man., had reached their 50th birthdays, their sons were not interested in farming, and they could see they’d have to start purchasing bigger, newer equipment if they wanted to carry on. “We decided to step out,” […] Read more
Make self-care your priority
Actually, you do have time to take care of yourself, especially with these incentives
Reading Time: 5 minutes Grain farmers Jennifer and Michael Doelman are making self-care a priority in 2020. Years of hard work, sleepless nights caring for young children, and a stressful farm succession process have left the Renfrew, Ont. couple suffering from burnout. The couple love their work but have been stretched too thin giving to farm, family and community. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
