What traits set great farm business managers apart from the crowd? We asked leading farm advisers.
Reading Time: 5 minutes Brent Bender Regina district director Farm Credit Canada Great farm business managers surround themselves with an exceptional group of people, all of whom are committed to the success of the operation. These experts — the accountants, lenders, agronomists, lawyers, and involved family members — confirm whether the decisions the manager is considering making are the […] Read moreThe better leader
Plowing the glass ceiling
Reading Time: 5 minutes The farm wife of 1962 has become the farm partner of 2012. In operations all across the country, she has gone from keeping the accounts to managing them, and a lot more besides. Plus, on a growing number of farms, it’s a woman in charge. It took a long time coming. But now that it’s […] Read more
Meet the family
Reading Time: 6 minutes The joke used to be that if you want to hold a meeting on the farm, all you really need is a mirror. But you don’t hear that joke so often anymore. And even when you did hear it, it was never as true as the joke tried to make it seem. Farmers may not […] Read more
Retire on redeemed capital
Reading Time: 3 minutes Historically, succession was solved by lifespan. The next generation took over when the older generation gave out. Today, with the average Canadian living about 80 years, that just isn’t a solution anymore. Now we need to figure out ways for multiple generations to balance power, ownership and workload on the farm. As well, farm asset […] Read more
Here’s why 2012 will be different
Reading Time: 2 minutes 2008 revolutionized our expectations for commodity prices but it didn’t put an end to sleepless nights on the farm. 2012 will see farmers taking more control. Here are three of the ways they’ll do it. 1. Roughly one-third of our farms have no successors. On another third, there’s a chance that the children might want […] Read more
BIG IDEA: Built for success
Yes, incorporation is a powerful business planning tool — but don’t make the mistake of assuming it will be a permanent, painless solution to your farm transfer questions
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s no secret to anyone, says University of Saskatchewan economist Bill Brown. The past two generations have produced an enormous shift in the structure and nature of farms in Canada. Long gone are the section-sized Prairie grain operations and the 100-acre family farms in the East. They’ve been swallowed up by bigger and bigger operations, […] Read moreLearn to let go
Reading Time: 5 minutes Retirement always used to be a dirty word on the farm. Retirement meant washed up. It meant useless. Basically it meant you were ready to be carried out of the house in a box. If that’s still your attitude, though, you might be well advised to spend a minute thinking about your better half. Are […] Read more
Young & In Motion
Reading Time: 5 minutes Melanie Sommers tears around the corner of her family s free-stall barn, jumps out of the tractor cab and pokes a hand out of her coveralls for a handshake. She s been cutting some fourth cut hay and is rushing to get it done before the fall rain sets in. The pressure is on, but […] Read more
Rent To Grow
Reading Time: 5 minutes Jason Kambeitz knows that when farmers get together over coffee and the conversation turns to farmland investment companies like Assiniboia Capital and AgCapita, the smiles disappear and a sober seriousness takes over. By buying up local farmland, the talk goes, the big funds are driving up land prices, and they re taking capital out of […] Read more
What Is It Young People Want Anyway?
Reading Time: 5 minutes As questions go, this isn t exactly new. What do young people want? Every generation has wondered at the behaviour of their young, and every age has questioned the wisdom of its children s long-term goals. Granted, it doesn t help that the question sometimes gets asked with sarcasm in the voice and a raised […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
