Reading Time: 6 minutes At kitchen tables and at farm meetings across Canada, farmers are mourning the slow passing of the small towns that they still depend on for groceries, schools, doctors and hockey rinks. Often it’s a bitter farewell, because the farmers know that the sizing up of agriculture is at least partly to blame for the hard […] Read more
Saving Renville
Four Myths Of Value-Adding – for Oct. 11, 2010
Reading Time: 9 minutes Nearly everyone has climbed on the bandwagon, including economists, extension agents, consultants, policy advisers, and every level of government. They all see value-adding as the solution to the economic and social problems facing primary agriculture. David Bressler at the University of Alberta goes as far as stating, Value-adding is the ONLY solution to problems faced […] Read more
Four Myths Of Value-Adding
Reading Time: 9 minutes Nearly everyone has climbed on the bandwagon, including economists, extension agents, consultants, policy advisers, and every level of government. They all see value-adding as the solution to the economic and social problems facing primary agriculture. David Bressler at the University of Alberta goes as far as stating, “Value-adding is the ONLY solution to problems faced […] Read more
The Real Cost Of Rented Land
Reading Time: 5 minutes Economists tell us that open markets work when two conditions are met. First, there need to be many buyers and sellers in the market. Second, all parties also have to have good knowledge of the product being marketed. In many land rental markets, neither of those conditions is met, says Mark Gannon, president of US […] Read more
How much does knowledge about the market add to your bottom line every year? How much could it?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Canadian ag business icon Art Froehlich sums it up in just four words. “The market never lies,” says Froehlich who farms and also acts as chair and director on a long list of prominent businesses, organizations and charities. “You may not like what the market is telling you, but the customer never lies.” To most […] Read more
New strategies help you talk with landlords to create rental agreements that are fairer and carry lower risks for you both
Reading Time: 7 minutes Craig Dobbins gets straight to the point. “In most farmland rental agreements,” the ag economist at Purdue University says, “both parties have real difficulty in knowing where the rent should be set.” In many parts of the country, there’s an equally straight-to-the-point answer, Dobbins says. That’s that fair rent is however high the farmers in […] Read more
These experts say 18 months out is the right time to launch your marketing plan, but not necessarily the right time to start selling
Reading Time: 6 minutes Last June, just as Ontario’s corn crop was starting to be visible from the laneway, the Chicago Board of Trade posted its first December 2012 corn futures contracts. Overnight, growers could sell corn they wouldn’t harvest for almost four years. The question is, should you sell that far out? Grain buyers report that more farmers […] Read more
Has The Bubble Burst?
Reading Time: 6 minutes It happened so fast. When grain prices soared in 2007 and 2008, many of us hoped that agriculture was entering a new golden age. Some of us were actually sure of it. Then came 2009. Grain and oilseed markets collapsed, yet input prices stayed painfully high, leading many growers to wonder, “When will grain prices […] Read more
Shockvalue
Reading Time: 10 minutes How agriculture plugs in to renewable energy is emerging as the next decade’s highest-voltage source of farm successes (and failures) He knows how fateful the decisions will be, so Murray Logan pauses during a rare lunch break away from the pressures of pulling together the Canadian Energy Expo, a job he throws himself into with […] Read more
A new marketing strategy – for Apr. 14, 2009
Reading Time: 3 minutes Mechanical Self-directed Externally managed Active Mechanical Self-directed Disciplined marketer Markets are efficient Risk adverse High debt Poor pricing skills Externally managed Undisciplined marketer Markets are efficient Risk adverse High debt Poor pricing skills Active Disciplined marketer Markets are inefficient Risk seeking Low debt Good pricing skills Undisciplined marketer Markets are inefficient Risk seeking Low debt […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
