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Even in this digital era, it's still important to build a good relationship between you and your advisor.
Guide Business, Management

Get more from your farm advisors

Boost the returns from your investment in advisors’ fees with these tactics

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Hiring business advisors and consultants is becoming a top habit on Canada’s most profitable farms, as identified in Farm Management Canada’s Dollars and Sense study. Whether it’s in accounting, law, human resources, succession planning, agronomy, livestock nutrition, communications or marketing, advisors are filling in the gaps in the farm team’s expertise. It turns out, though, […] Read more
Guide Life

How to help a grieving friend

No, you can’t take a friend’s grief away. But you can help

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Reading Time: 5 minutes When a friend has suffered the death of a loved one, we want to help but often we are unsure what to say or do. Even worse, we worry that what we think we should do could be exactly the opposite of what we actually should say, and could cause damage to our friend or […] Read more
The quality and quantity of the data collected saw clear patterns in the behaviour of the most successful farmers.
Guide Business, Guide HR

Seven strategies of successful farmers

Here’s new evidence that business skills increase farm income, no matter what size the farm

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Reading Time: 5 minutes With the harvest finally in the bin, farmers across the country are evaluating their farm management practices and they are making management decisions for the future. Business management skills are more important than ever as farmers face huge challenges, including unpredictable weather, volatile markets, labour shortages, succession, and much more. In this environment, a great […] Read more
The ‘winter blues’ are a real thing that can lead to depression with a variety of debilitating symptoms.
Guide Life

Coping with the winter months

“It’s okay not to be okay,” says therapist Deborah Vanberkel. All of us are subject to the winter blahs and cabin fever

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Reading Time: 6 minutes As if farming wasn’t already stressful enough, Canadian winters bring additional challenges. Frozen water lines, icy driveways and tractors that won’t start are just a few of the many physical challenges that farmers must contend with during our harsh winters. On top of that, when the short days of winter arrive, some of us will […] Read more
Before meeting with an employee to discuss areas of improvement, it’s a good idea to create a plan for the conversation.
Guide HR

How to deliver constructive criticism

Focus on end results to eliminate the emotional sting and to improve performance

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Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’re like a lot of people, you’d rather do anything than give negative feedback. Even when it is well-intentioned, criticism isn’t easy to deliver. It’s anxiety-producing both for the giver of the negative feedback and for the receiver. As a result, most of us avoid giving negative feedback, which, of course, fixes nothing. Failing […] Read more
Industry estimates indicate that three-quarters of small businesses will experience a cybersecurity incident.
Guide Life

How you can stay safe online

Is your phone tracking your kids’ every move, and selling that information to the highest bidder?

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Reading Time: 5 minutes If you haven’t turned off the location tracking setting on your smartphone apps, your phone may be recording — and sharing — your every movement. It’s the same for your microphone and camera functions. They may be recording your conversations or taking pictures without your knowledge. And no, this isn’t science fiction. This is a […] Read more
Farm kids often get plenty of experience on the production side of the business, but aren’t taught about budgeting or financial statements.
Guide Business

How to make your kids more financially literate

Don’t overlook how powerful it is to teach your children about managing money on the farm

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Financial literacy is essential for everyone, but it is particularly critical for farmers. Defined as “the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being,” it’s a must in modern agriculture. Parents agree. They want their children to be financially independent. Yet Stephanie Szusz, who works in […] Read more
Sixty per cent of men say that work affects their ability to get a proper night’s sleep.
Guide Life

Putting a spotlight on men’s health

Hey, Men! These small changes will boost your health, energy and fitness. Adopt them for yourself, and for your family too

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Reading Time: 5 minutes For many men, looking after their own health is far down on their list of priorities. Health care practitioners speculate as to why men don’t look after themselves. Men may not feel they have the time, they may think it’s a sign of weakness to seek medical attention, they may not understand the risks of […] Read more
Guide HR, Management

Dealing with problem employees effectively

Instead of firing them, use these tips to coach problem cases into good employees

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Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s getting tougher to find and keep good employees. Nor, by all indications, is the situation going to improve anytime soon. According to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council’s newly released Labour Market Forecast for the next decade, farmers can expect an already tight labour market to get even tighter. According to the council’s survey […] Read more
A researcher and soon-to-be author wanted to know what’s getting in the way of healthier soil. What she heard from farmers, industry and academia is it’s not a lack of technology but a lack of political will and financial support.
Crops

Where Ontario’s soil health strategy falls short

Farmers understand the crucial role of soil health for feeding the world. So why is it such a struggle to get support for that goal?

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Last fall, Dr. Sarah Rotz, then working at the University of Guelph, wrote an article with Guelph crop scientist Dr. Ralph Martin and York University agri-food policy researcher Dr. Rod MacRae to draw attention to what they perceive as shortcomings in the Ontario government’s Soil Health Strategy. It’s a topic Rotz had been studying for […] Read more

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AGCanadaTV: In Case You Missed It – Your National Ag News Recap for the week ending January 17, 2020.

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