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Farm business

Today’s women in agriculture know that they bring more than a plate to the table.
Columns, Opinion

Defining the culture for a successful female in agriculture (Part 2)

“By knowing my own value, I hold my own space.” These wise words from one interviewee can be a mantra for Canada’s farm women

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Reading Time: 4 minutes In the last two columns, I have reported on my research into the lives of successful women professionals in farming and agricultural business. Their honest and engaging stories are varied, and they outline how we can create a culture of inclusion. An inclusive culture starts with parenting that offers boys and girls the same opportunities, […] Read more
Tom Button
Opinion

Editor’s Note: Before we get to 2020

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Reading Time: 2 minutes We’re talking in our shop about 2020 and, of course, about 2030 too. Probably you’re talking about it in your shop as well. On the brink of any new decade, it’s unavoidable. But this time, the future looks different by a country mile. The reason why it looks different is amazing in its own right. […] Read more
There’s a “million-dollar farm question” in Canadian agriculture as farm parents look to transfer a financially viable farm business to the next generation.
Guide Business, Succession strategy

Calculating a fairer, smarter farm inheritance: Part One

Can an estate plan be fair both to the family and to the farm business? Merle Good and Greg Gartner see a way forward

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Reading Time: 6 minutes I’m supposed to ask the questions, but Merle Good, Alberta farm business advisor and nationally followed succession expert shoots a question my way before I get a chance. “Suppose you could open all the wills of today’s farmers,” he says. “How many are leaving land to off-farm children?” I expect the number is big — […] Read more
For Dean, Devin, Darren and father Bernie, on-farm manufacturing provides a kind of balance. But make no mistake… this is a farm first, with all the challenges that implies.
Equipment, Guide Business

Auger-steer invention drives farm family’s business success

Diversifying into manufacturing creates more opportunity for the Toews family, but there have been many lessons along the way

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Reading Time: 12 minutes It was 2008 and things just weren’t working out for Bernie Toews. From his tractor cab, he’d tried again and again to manoeuvre an auger around a tight corner on the family farm near MacGregor, an hour and a half west of Winnipeg, and it just wasn’t going to happen. Now, Toews was backing the […] Read more
“Better is better before bigger is better,” says agricultural economics professor David Kohl. In other words, focus on operational efficiency before expansion.
Guide Business

Boost the survival odds of your farm

Farm finance expert David Kohl reflects on what farms — both small and large — must do for success in the 2020s and beyond

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Reading Time: 6 minutes We all know the basics of health: Get exercise, watch our weight, don’t smoke. But for better health success over the long term, we know we can go further. We should get regular checkups, eat more vegetables, nurture our personal relationships, maintain good sleeping habits and more. Similarly, we know the basics of farm business […] Read more
Guide Business, Succession strategy

Family Through Succession: Meet the Hunter family

One farm — seven individuals. Each with their own hopes, needs and ambitions. It’s a typically unique Canadian farm, just like yours. And yes, there is a way forward

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Reading Time: 6 minutes In launching this series of columns on farm succession, our goal is to offer the readers of Country Guide something unique, something we feel you will be able to relate to and learn from. We want to introduce you to the Hunter family. Of course names will be changed to protect identities of our clients, […] Read more
Women often face skepticism when starting a career in agriculture, with many being told they won’t make it on their own.
Columns, Opinion

Defining the culture for a successful female in agriculture

How women overcome challenges they've faced in business

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Reading Time: 3 minutes In my first Trailblazer column last spring, I reported on my interviews with trailblazing women across Canada. I focused on creating a culture in agriculture that is inclusive of women, and I looked at the life of the girl and how gender has an impact on the road to starting a new business. In this […] Read more
A variety of factors are combining to make the competition for acres very real.
Guide Business

The ever-changing landscape of farmland rentals

The risks are growing. So is the pressure to lease more land. What does a smart rental strategy look like as we head into 2020?

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Reading Time: 8 minutes There’s a small panic in the air, the muted response you might expect from farmers who hold their cards close and practise a stoic realism that helps them navigate the risks they can’t control: weather, grain prices, the impact that a single Chinese tech executive might have on an important market. Most of these are […] Read more
Efforts to improve soil health are set back by long-standing and destructive soil management regimens.
Crops

Real work on soil health needs to be done

Fine speeches about our soil make us all feel good, but there's an increasing urgency for wider adoption

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Soil health has received considerable attention in recent decades. There have been many champions who have promoted the benefits of good soil, farm organizations that have mounted campaigns to encourage its development and even Senate committees trying to help government recognize the urgency surrounding it. Yet reluctance to raise the bar on the subject remains. […] Read more
"The great part is… you get to be partners with the person who cares most about this farm," Joelle Faulkner says. “As we keep proving that out, we will attract more investment.”
Guide Business, Management

Investment model offers opportunity for farm expansion

Could Joelle Faulkner’s partnership concept work on your farm?

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Reading Time: 9 minutes It’s a common scenario: Farmer Bill has been renting land from his neighbour for years but the time has come and he is ready to sell. He wants Bill to have first refusal on the land, but Bill has just financed a new barn and bought a new combine, so he’s too over-extended to raise […] Read more

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