Reading Time: 6 minutes The crisis is already here, and farmers are caught in the jaws of two ugly steel traps. Not only is it getting harder and harder for farmers to find the employees they need for their own farms, but the companies that farmers rely on — ranging from seed and chemical companies to equipment makers — […] Read more
Help wanted
Farmers can’t wait 10 years to build a workforce. In this first of a two-part series, we look at why the need is so urgent
Driving a bargain
Are you actually as good a negotiator as you think?
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you ask a non-farmer what skills you need as a farmer, the answer at the top of their list may be driving a tractor. Ask a farmer, and it’s more likely to be driving a hard bargain. Negotiating skills have been an essential part of farming for generations, so it’s no surprise that farmers […] Read more
Co-op succession?
The lack of succession planning helps explain why so many co-ops are being sold, and why even more are in danger
Reading Time: 6 minutes The only thing farmers seem to do better than growing vast amounts of grain seems to be selling off ownership of the industry, especially in the West. In February of this year, Parrish and Heimbecker purchased the 112,000-tonne farmer-owned Weyburn Inland Terminal. Just a month earlier, Viterra bought the 42,000-tonne Lethbridge Inland Terminal that had […] Read more
Untraditional
Greenhouses may not belong in the traditional farm stereotype, but Chris and Crystal Page reflect a new era of young farmers diversifying for business, and for the challenge too
Reading Time: 8 minutes There can be as many reasons for running a diversified farm business as there are farms. Diversification can add income stability and reduce overall operational risk. It can exploit market opportunities, enabling the farm family to take advantage of a lower cost of entry than competitors who might not have the same access to land […] Read more
Take a detour?
For some farms, there are big wins when the next generation gets work experience off the farm before coming back home
Reading Time: 7 minutes Take a look across the country and you’ll see myriad ways that farmers become farmers, and just about as many opinions on the right way and the wrong way to go about it. Good farm succession advice is abundant, as well as checklists to work through, seminars to attend, and even government resources to help […] Read more
Family brand
In turbulent times, your family brand can be the foundation for business success… like when Jim Hole and brother Bill decided to take the farm in directions no one had anticipated
Marketing experts say your farm already has a brand, and regardless of whether you give it a moment’s thought, and regardless of whether you try to manage it, that brand is your farm’s identity. It’s how you are perceived. Indeed, the people who devote their careers to thinking about these things have an even simpler way of making their point: Your farm is your brand. For most farms, your brand is conveyed by your last name — a reputation shaped and seasoned by multiple generations. The question is, can you manage your brand to give a boost to your farm business? In the case of Alberta brothers Jim and Bill Hole, their greenhouse business has been built on a brand of trust garnered by their much-loved mother. Today, the brothers’ challenge is to leverage that brand in order to build sales among time-stretched, next-gen customers. Here’s how they plan to do just that.
Reading Time: 6 minutes Winter is disappearing in a swirl of warmth and sunshine in St. Albert, on the northwest edge of Edmonton. Airseeders are poised about the countryside, and calves are nuzzling their mothers. This is the kind of day when Canadians rediscover that their heritage rises from the soil, thanks to the sweat of farm families. Across […] Read more
Too young to grow?
Canada’s next generation of farmers are smart, ambitious — and trapped on small acreages
Reading Time: 7 minutes As land prices ride high across Canada, it’s a struggle for young and mid-career farmers to compete against established farms and outside investors to buy land, or even to find it. They also need to ask themselves some tough questions. How much can I afford to pay? Can I service the debt? And then there’s […] Read more
“Let’s make some food”
Canada has enormous potential to increase irrigation in Saskatchewan. So why is so little happening?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Using only 20 per cent of the available supply, there is enough water running through Saskatchewan’s Gardiner Dam at Lake Diefenbaker to irrigate half a million acres. The potential for farm diversification and value-added processing would add billions to the national agriculture economy and cement Canada’s role in feeding a hungry world. And the other […] Read more
You want to fire Dad?
There's almost always a better solution, says our panel of experts. Try these strategies to get everyone living happily together again
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s a movie standard. When the mob turns angry, they start wielding pitchforks. Whether it’s a monster that incites them or an invading army, when the local population goes berserk, and when they suddenly get transformed into nightmarish creatures of violence, the first thing they reach for is the nearest farm implement. It’s a scene […] Read more
Times two puts knowledge to work
For this husband-and-wife team, advanced farm management training makes a measurable difference
Reading Time: 5 minutes The two desks of Kristin Ego-MacPhail and Gary MacPhail sit beside each other, tidy and yet stacked with business as their hectic farm market season winds down. This small office is the interface between production and business at Ego’s Nurseries, Garden Centre and Farm Market near Orillia, an hour or so north of Toronto, where […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
