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Farm business

"It was the best decision — having two separate businesses instead of sharing one,” says Steve, with Amanda on their farm, just down the road from the family operation.
Guide Business, Management

Generating farm independence

Sometimes, the best solution can be for the next generation to build a farm of their own

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Reading Time: 10 minutes The roads here are typical for this part of rural Ontario, running between neighbouring towns. On either side, at the end of long maple-sided lanes are well-kept dairy, beef and crop farms divided into 100-acre parcels, with red and black barns stamped proudly with farm names, usually family names. Occasionally too a lane is overgrown, […] Read more
Farm adviser Larry Batte recommends a five-step process to slow down the farm transfer, making it more predictable and tax-smart.
Guide Business, Succession strategy

Plan before you retire

Whether you’re selling or if you’re transferring farm assets to the next generation, tax-smart retirement takes planning… and time

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Reading Time: 10 minutes In 2011, 48 per cent of Canada’s farmers were 55 years old or older. Five years earlier, the number had only been 41 per cent. If you draw a straight line, that means 55 per cent of farmers are now 55 or older. And it also means our median age is approaching 65! Whether that’s […] Read more
For one-year-old Lincoln Ellis, climbing into a combine cab with father Simon and grandpa Warren is an introduction to a world of wonders. Of course, he won’t know for years whether a farming life is right for him, but if it is, the plan will be in place to make it possible.
Guide Business, Succession strategy

Never too young to talk about farm succession

As the Ellis family is learning, there’s no such thing as too soon for starting the conversation about farm succession

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Reading Time: 7 minutes Lincoln Ellis has just got his first taste of combining. “He thought it was pretty interesting for the first 10 minutes, and then he realized how small the combine cab was, and that was about it,” says his dad, Simon Ellis, with a chuckle. “So it was short-lived, but you know, small steps for now. […] Read more
"Supporting local farmers and keeping an authentic farm community absolutely makes sense here.” – Philly Markowitz
Guide Business

Getting serious about local food

Philly Markowitz is fired up about supporting local farmers in an effort to build up rural communities throughout Ontario’s Grey County

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Generations of rugged farmers have worked this rugged landscape. They’ve run cattle, they’ve pastured sheep, they’ve planted crops. None of it has been easy. South of Georgian Bay, the county’s highlands are notoriously cold, the ground rolls unpredictably in all directions, and the soil is just plain tough. If Grey County was an old building, […] Read more
Two men shaking hands
Guide Business, Management

Cleaning up sweat equity

It used to show you were committed to farming. Now it’s a dangerous source of controversy on more Canadian farms

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Reading Time: 11 minutes At his financial office in Stettler, Alta., Peter Boys reaches for stark language to make his point. “Slavery is alive and well on farms in the Prairies,” Boys says. Boys is referring to the practice of farmers not paying equitable wages to their children working on their farms, often under the promise of future ownership… […] Read more
Young Farmer Carrying a Bale of Hay
Guide Business

Profit by putting people first

Attracting and retaining good workers on your farm doesn’t just happen — you have to make it happen

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Reading Time: 3 minutes If you don’t have people, you don’t have a farm. It’s as simple as that. While most producers think about their farm in terms of their livestock and crops, they neglect to think about the people, says a rural business specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. But that needs to change, Abby Verstraete told attendees […] Read more
man beside farm sign
Hogs, Livestock

Where have all the hog farmers gone?

They’ve gone to Manitoba, where they’re enjoying some good years in the face of a long list of challenges

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Reading Time: 9 minutes Despite losing nearly 14,000 pig farmers since 1971, Manitoba still produces more pigs than any other province, accounting for just under a third of Canada’s total pork production, and well over half of its exports. For nearly three decades, Manitoba has had a front row seat on the peaks and valleys of Canada’s hog industry. […] Read more
No one wants to talk about divorce, but being realistic is being loving, farm lawyer Barrie Broughton tells his clients. “Marriage breakdown is always a possibility.”
Guide Business

Common-sense thoughts on divorce

Divorce doesn’t have to get ugly, or to destroy farms and people, but that’s what it’s doing to more farming couples

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Divorce is one of the biggest threats to farm family legacy,” says Manitoba-based farm adviser and coach Elaine Froese. “We need to start talking more about how to prevent the breakups and create more makeups.” Farms and divorce can be a toxic mixture. Tradition, culture, religion, isolation, community gossip, strong families — they all come […] Read more
For Martin and Monique Detillieux, running an independent ag supply demands big business sophistication without jeopardizing the tight local relationships that are essential to the area’s success.
Guide Business, News

Taking over the shop

When the big chains consolidated their outlets, business-minded locals and farmers started up their own independent farm supply businesses. They’re succeeding too, but it isn’t simple

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Reading Time: 12 minutes Old habits were dying hard, even on a personal basis. Here, about two hours west of Prince Albert, Sask., the Canadian National Railway abandoned the branch line that used to run up from North Battleford, connecting the little towns that had been my stomping grounds. It happened just a couple of years after I finished […] Read more
Harold Parsonage was determined to find a better way to open the farm to future generations.
Guide Business, Succession strategy

Succession planning: Preparing for takeoff

How one Manitoba family's farm business succession plan is taking flight

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Reading Time: 9 minutes Case Study Objective Four children in their late 20s and early 30s, all want to be part of this family farm and aerial spraying business. First Step The Parsonage family transferred ownership before operational management. The parents had used some of their capital gains exemption earlier when buying out of partnership, and about that time […] Read more

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