Reading Time: 5 minutes Phil Loring, associate professor and Arrell Chair in Food, Policy, and Society at the University of Guelph has his eye on a question that’s been getting little attention so far, but may turn out to be crucial in shaping the direction of our agriculture over the next decade. Loring wants to know: How are the […] Read more
How are Canada’s top conservation farmers faring through COVID-19?
It's a tough question, but an associate professor at the University of Guelph is asking it
Does your farm team have the skills your farm needs the most?
Summer can be the best time of year to ask
Reading Time: 9 minutes First, let’s start with something everyone can agree on. Investing in developing the skills of the farm team is vital for the continued success of every farm. It’s documented by Farm Management Canada’s Dollars and Sense study too, and by the finding that the number one practice of Canada’s top farmers — in other words, […] Read more
Humming, strumming along with song
Few things cheer a farmer’s heart like music, so let’s hear more of it
Reading Time: 5 minutes It shouldn’t take a global pandemic to remind us of what’s important in our lives, but, over the past months, that’s exactly what’s been happening in homes and communities around the world. Even on farms, which after all have more experience dealing with these issues, some are feeling the loneliness and boredom of isolation from […] Read more
Farm hobby
Non-farmers earn smiles and sometimes smirks when they move to the country to hobby farm, but their basic idea is sound. A hobby is great for all of us, especially as we age
Reading Time: 8 minutes It’s no surprise that active farmers say they don’t have time for hobbies or outside interests, especially if they’ve also got young families. But as the years go by, the price begins to show, both in quality of life and also — as more and more research shows — in the quality of your decision-making […] Read more
What’s your emergency plan?
It’s more than COVID-19. Here’s why having an emergency plan ready for action is more important — and more achievable — than ever
Reading Time: 10 minutes You can look at it as one of the good sides of COVID-19. It’s reminding all of us that emergencies do happen, they can come when you least expect them, and they can upset practically every part of your operation. Even before COVID-19, it was easy to find experts eager to tell us why we […] Read more
In search of new employees for the farm
If it seems you’ve looked everywhere for new employees, maybe it’s time to try a new way of hiring
Reading Time: 7 minutes We keep hearing the numbers. The farm employment crisis is real, and it is getting worse with over 100,000 farm workers expected to retire in the 2020s, and a dwindling number of candidates from traditional sources to replace them. So, why not go to non-traditional sources? Or maybe there are better ways to let potential […] Read more
Brother-sister team credit teamwork on their Sask. farm
As long as Mom and Dad are actively farming, it can be simple. But what about later? Here’s how Saskatchewan’s Jarid and Jody Berglund are working toward their shared vision
Reading Time: 8 minutes During their pre-school years, if they weren’t trying to help with chores, Jody Berglund and her brother Jarid were busy playing farm together. “I don’t ever recall playing with Barbie dolls as a little girl,” says Jody. “Jarid and I would constantly play farm; we had a wooden barn, we built corrals out of Jenga […] Read more
Do siblings fight? Is grass green?
But if the problem runs deeper than occasional disagreements over what crop to plant or what size tractor to buy, the resolution has to involve listening to each other, especially when you really don’t want to
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s common for siblings to not get along. Research shows that in about half of families, a brother or sister does not get along with one or more of his or her siblings. On the farm, if they do decide to work together — and many don’t — it can, at best, be an uncomfortable […] Read more
Our ‘Amazon moment’
As Wade Barnes sees it, farms and farm suppliers can either embrace today’s tech disruption, or get ready to sell to those who will
Reading Time: 5 minutes More ag companies are testing the winds of change. They believe agriculture is on the cusp of another technological revolution, this time fueled by digitization and online connectivity. This revolution will bring risk, and it will bring opportunity. And, for sure, it will bring disruption. It will change what it takes to be successful, both […] Read more
The open source farmer
For Dorn and Sarah Cox, building an ag internet will bring the power back in farmer’s hands
Reading Time: 7 minutes About 10 years ago, New Hampshire farmer Dorn Cox was thinking how agriculture will need new ways of tackling such huge challenges as climate change, biodiversity loss and depleted agricultural soils. In the past, the collaborative approach had always saved agriculture. Farmers have pooled their ideas, shared their results and found big solutions much faster […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
