Reading Time: 9 minutes It’s hard to make a plan that will stick. We all know it. The pressure of things you need to do today can overshadow the importance of getting ready for the things you might want to be doing five years from now. Besides, you have a good four years left. Surely there will be a […] Read more
It’s about winning
The 2020s are best the argument yet for farm business planning. CG sits down with economist Michael von Massow to explore why
Manitoba soys are K-reluctant
Soybeans use a lot of potassium, but getting them to use it from added fertilizer is a bit of a challenge
Reading Time: 5 minutes Soybeans are now a regular crop in a Manitoba rotation, and since they use a lot of potassium, you’d think that it would make sense to provide them with enough to keep them happy. But a study funded by the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers and Western Grains Research Foundation found little response to added […] Read more
On board with insight
With its new advisory board, the Leguee family is tapping into the smarts of a group of incredibly talented, experienced business people. Their farm needs it, Jake says. “The decisions we’re making these days are big.”
Reading Time: 11 minutes When a farm or a farmer’s name comes up, you’ll sometimes hear other farmers say, “That one’s progressive.” But what does that really mean? Of course it means they are interested in new ideas, new research and new opportunities. But that is true of all farms, so it has to be more than just that. […] Read more
A new path to the farm’s future
Today’s farm families think in terms of transition, not succession, and they’re setting new goal posts too
Reading Time: 8 minutes The questions may be the same, but the tone has changed, says Kent Gulash, longtime farm family coach from Saskatoon. When families meet their transition advisors these days, they’re coming from a different place. “That’s because the dynamics around the value of farms have changed,” Gulash says. There’s trepidation now, he explains. Will the farm’s […] Read more
The equitable farm
Being fair and equitable to women on the farm has to start much closer to home than most of us are aware
Reading Time: 12 minutes Women in agriculture span the career spectrum from hands-on farm owners and managers to the unpaid extra pair of hands that runs to get parts or takes a turn checking the cows at calving time. Women fill all those roles and more, and almost without exception, they juggle that work with all the other balls […] Read more
Planning to grow your farm?
These eight steps led to success for a U.S. family that talks in terms of its great, great grandchildren
Reading Time: 10 minutes It was 1985 and Jerry Lorenzen wondered whether what he was looking at was an opportunity. Lorenzen was working as an animal feed salesperson in the U.S. Midwest, so every day he was driving past crops that were getting grown to feed livestock. And he had a question. With spiralling population growth, won’t we need […] Read more
On-boarding the kids
This summer is a great time to ask the next generation some smart questions
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s an all-too-common scenario. The farm family sits down together around the kitchen table. It’s time to talk. Maybe you could even call it a meeting. Grandpa thinks it’s a bunch of hooey. No one ever had to sit and talk for hours in his day. If the kids had enough work to do, we […] Read more
So, you want to be a farm advisor?
Demand is booming, and you know the industry; Hmmm, is it time to jump in?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Looking for a new career to diversify farm income and provide extra job satisfaction? Maybe you could become a farm advisor. After all, you grew up on the family farm, you have production down to a science, you’ve taken over from Mom and Dad and had to learn all about farm management, human resources, business […] Read more
Keeping workers on the farm
Scientific HR really can help ensure your farm business has the people and skills it needs
Reading Time: 8 minutes There are multiple moving parts to any busy farm, and there have to be just as many to a sound HR plan too. You can pretty quickly run out of fingers if you try to count them. There’s recruitment, retention, training, evaluation … the list goes on and on. But that doesn’t mean HR has […] Read more
A new way to build a farm
It’s called 'agritecture' and it’s quickly gaining attention. What if you could grow a crop in the concrete used to make buildings?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It seems like something you should be reading in a cheap sci-fi novel, not in a magazine for farmers, but this is how urbanites might grow their own food in future if one Mexican company has its way. Today, if you want to grow food in a city, you grow it beside or in between […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
