Reading Time: 4 minutes This important federal program remains poorly understood on too many farms — perhaps on your farm too. Here’s why it may prove so relevant Across Canada, farmers are wondering if AgriStability still has a fit on their farms. As I wrote in the last issue of Country Guide, government funding of AgriStability has been significantly […] Read more
Figuring out AgriStability
Nitrogen without Agrium
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farmers across Canada and the Midwest Grain Belt of the U.S. are angry and frustrated over the price they had to pay for nitrogen fertilizer this past spring. They want to know why the price of nitrogen fertilizer was nearly as high as it has ever been even though natural gas is near record lows. […] Read more
A new co-ownership option
Reading Time: 4 minutes With price tags on the largest, fully equipped combines now topping a cool half-million, farmers are looking for strategies to reduce their equipment costs. The obvious solution may not be the best, however. Buying a lower-quality machine or a high-hour used machine may actually cost you more in increased repair costs and lower productivity than […] Read more
A new co-ownership option
Reading Time: 4 minutes With price tags on the largest, fully equipped combines now topping a cool half-million, farmers are looking for strategies to reduce their equipment costs. The obvious solution may not be the best, however. Buying a lower-quality machine or a high-hour used machine may actually cost you more in increased repair costs and lower productivity than […] Read more
An impossible dream
There’s an air of confidence down on the farm. Grain prices are historically high and returns across the livestock sector have been catching up. Not only that, but the good times seem basically guaranteed for years to come. Grain producers believe that rising global populations combined with soaring biofuel demand will mean that markets will be demand-led as far out as we can see. Livestock producers meanwhile see huge increases in demand for their own products now that higher incomes in China, India and the rest of the developing world are enabling consumers there to add more meat to their diets.
Reading Time: 4 minutes There really can be no question about it. The main driver of high grain prices over the past few years has been utilization of food crops for biofuels. Now, biofuel byproducts are also gaining acceptance in the livestock sector as a lower cost feed stuff in ration formulation. The upshot is, every farm has benefited […] Read moreA question of size
Reading Time: 5 minutes Large farms are getting larger. This trend is well documented and will not be a surprise to anyone. But the reasons why farms are getting bigger may surprise many. While most farmers would say the growth in farm size is simply because economics of scale mean farmers must get big to stay competitive, James MacDonald, […] Read more
A new way to rent
Could the American “cash with bonus” system be the best way to rent land when commodity markets are so volatile?
Reading Time: 6 minutes A new type of American land rental agreement is gaining ground across the Midwest and may soon cross the border into Canada because it appears to offer advantages both to farmers and landowners, especially with 2012’s economic forecast. Called “cash rent with bonus,” the lease is being praised for helping farmers reduce risks in volatile […] Read more“The Best Family Farms”
Reading Time: 5 minutes All too often, a farm s success is measured exclusively in economic terms. It s a job we know how to do. Net income, net worth, debt to equity, return to investment, and profitability are great tools to use to determine the financial health of the business. Yet we know that success is defined by […] Read more
Growing More, Earning Less
Reading Time: 7 minutes The primary reason for the success and growth of North American agriculture has been the ability of Canadian and U.S. farmers to do two seemingly contradictory things simultaneously: increase productivity and at the same time, reduce production costs. By doing both, farmers remained competitive in the global marketplace despite decades of declining commodity prices. Unfortunately, […] Read more
The Competitiveness Fallacy
Reading Time: 6 minutes If only it was true. According to today’s competition mantra, as long as we’re more efficient, productive and low cost than anyone else, the future is ours, both as individual farmers and as Canadian agriculture as a whole. Instead, it’s becoming clearer that getting competitive isn’t enough. For most of us, in fact, it won’t […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
