Reading Time: 2 minutes One Saskatchewan farmer who s taken the plunge and planted soybeans is Kevin Elmy, who also writes for our FBC sister publication Grainews. Elmy said in a recent e-mail exchange that growers there are definitely interested in soybeans. He says there s a fairly long list of growers he s worked with in non-traditional areas […] Read more
Next, Here Comes Saskatchewan
Your best guide to the deals you may — or may not — get this spring could be inside this look at how retailers like Greg Haney hope to survive volatile fertilizer prices
Reading Time: < 1 minute Anyone who has been watching fertilizer prices at all closely for the past year probably already has a case of motion sickness. That’s true of farmers. It’s also true of retailers. Yet somehow, the two groups must figure out a way to shake hands on deals they both can stomach. It isn’t going to be […] Read more
Can mentoring really help your farm?
Reading Time: 2 minutes In your next three issues of Country Guide, human resources writer Danielle Harder will bring you practical advice on how to tap the full benefits of mentoring for your farm Think you don’t need it? You do if you’re a parent trying to cultivate good management habits in your children, and trying to decide at […] Read more
Versatile springs back to life, breaking expectations all along the way
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rostselmash must be the world’s most successful combine maker that nobody’s ever heard of. Today, the company boasts a 60 per cent share in combine market in Russia, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan — but it has almost no market presence in North America, despite owning 17 per cent of global combine manufacturing capacity. That’s about […] Read more
The key to a payback on your education is how you put it to work once you’re back on the farm
Reading Time: 3 minutes “It’s the numbers behind it all. It’s important to get to know them a lot better, especially now.” — Jay Peterson Jay Peterson is used to the questions. In fact, he’s been asked so often, he’s got his lines memorized. “I tell people that I’ve been farming in the field since I was 13 — […] Read more
A bit of advance homework can help you put the ideas at this winter’s meetings to work on your farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Did you hit your target yield? Did your strategy work? That’s how you learn.” — Dave Kelner Every winter, Western Canada’s farmers must prepare to cope with a changing spectrum of crop production challenges and to implement a new menu of production techniques and technologies. It’s the beauty of the winter meeting format, where you […] Read more
It’s only natural in business to play your cards close to your chest. So why are these farmers swapping their production costs, plus how much they’re bidding for land, along with their deepest business secrets? Because, say James Rybka and Kenton Pos
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you follow the rules, these farmers say, peer advisory groups can build your business There’s a natural tendency to think you’ve got the right answers, and to take pride in your management,” says James Rybka. With a 4,100-acre grain farm near Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, however, Rybka is part of a 10-member group of […] Read more
Pulling for wheat
Reading Time: 2 minutes Co-promotion agreements with Robin Hood and Primo Pasta point the way to the new brand battleground — the grocery shelf The headline in the New York Times said it all: “Canada Wins Wheat Prize: Raises the best wheat in the world say American Land Fair judges.” The date was November 5, 1911 and Saskatchewan pioneer […] Read more
Higher grain prices not source of higher food prices: report
Reading Time: 2 minutes Food prices in Canada are up but directly linking this trend to higher grain prices is an over-simplification according to a new report by the George Morris Centre. The independent agriculture think tank, based in Guelph, Ont., says drawing a straight line between the four per cent increase in food prices over last year and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
