Reading Time: 6 minutes Are you a couch potato when it comes to talking to your family about critical farm decisions? The comparison isn’t so far fetched. In a way, family communication is a lot like physical fitness. Even the best of us have areas that need a little toning, while many more of us need to spend serious time […] Read more
What’s your communication fitness level?
What kind of meeting athlete are you? Check out this new take for meetings your family will be proud of
Financing proposals — what to take to the bank
AME Management: Provide the essential information to your lender so they can better understand your business and assess your "ask"
Reading Time: 3 minutes In farming, where access to adequate financing is key to success, lender relationships can’t be ignored. Nor can you neglect your approach to your annual review meeting with your lender. This is an important management function that needs focus. How can we best manage those relationships and your annual review for long-term positive outcomes? “Lending […] Read more
Keeping up with the high cost of farm living
When farmers have more, they spend more. The question is, can farm families stop spending if they have less?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Maybe the biggest surprise is that the numbers aren’t all that surprising. Researchers at the University of Illinois have found the average amount of family living expendables skyrocketed from about $53,000 per farm in 2004 to $81,000 in 2013. After starting at $84 per acre, living costs jumped in that one decade to $121 per […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Brothers versus sisters
Reading Time: 2 minutes History will judge today’s farm families based at least in part on how they treat their brothers and sisters. At this point, it’s far from clear that history’s judgment will be kind. If you have sons and daughters in your family, they know this and they are thinking it (actually, they are thinking a lot […] Read more
From farm to seed company
Can the succession process at Simpson Seeds help your farm keep growing through the transition years?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Greg Simpson and his two brothers have already been through succession planning once. Almost 40 years ago, Greg’s father successfully transitioned the family farm to the three brothers. He also helped them set up Simpson Seeds, telling Greg “You know I’ll be here to backstop you, but I want you to have the reins.” Today […] Read more
Look north for fruits and vegetables
These Saskatchewan farm projects are winning converts in some surprising places
Reading Time: 6 minutes The northern village of Cumberland House seems an unlikely place to find a farm or a farmer. For starters, it’s remote — 450 kilometres north east of Saskatoon at the end of Highway 123, a notoriously bad road that spring can turn into one long mud-hole. The village, established by the Hudson Bay Company in […] Read more
I do, and I don’t
Let’s agree. Prenuptial agreements will never be easy to talk about, but knowing the facts can help you get started
Reading Time: 9 minutes At a meeting this winter I sat down with a friendly group of farmers. The conversation turned from the weather to crop prices and slowly shifted into the personal, mostly about children. We shared our farms’ stories, our wins and our defeats. Then the man with tuffs of white hair beside me bent quietly toward […] Read more
Manufacturing talent
Executives at the major equipment manufacturers know their brands can’t succeed without the right people on the payroll
Reading Time: 5 minutes Among the Big Four farm equipment brands, John Deere owns the largest slice of the North American market, and the bosses at its world headquarters in Moline, Illinois, have no intention of letting that change any time soon. In December they revealed their updated, long-term corporate strategy to investors, outlining how they intend to keep […] Read more
A team approach to farm succession
Getting their advisers to meet and work together as a team is helping drive the Tilstras’ succession planning
Reading Time: 7 minutes When Ted Tilstra imagined his retirement, he knew that he wanted it to continue to include having a coffee around the kitchen table with his brother and nephews. Tilstra Bros. have been running their parents’ dairy farm in Dunnville, Ont., for nearly 25 years. Together Don and Ted are milking 100 purebred Holstein cattle and […] Read more
Would your farm business benefit from an advisory board?
Reading Time: 3 minutes A number of farm businesses have already appointed or are considering either a board of directors or an advisory board to help them define and execute on their strategy. In this article, several considerations in developing an advisory board are addressed. How does it differ from a board of directors? Why have one? How do […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
