Reading Time: 5 minutes Retirement always used to be a dirty word on the farm. Retirement meant washed up. It meant useless. Basically it meant you were ready to be carried out of the house in a box. If that’s still your attitude, though, you might be well advised to spend a minute thinking about your better half. Are […] Read more
Learn to let go
Young Employees Too
Reading Time: 6 minutes When I m on assignment for COUNTRY GUIDE, young farmers have been talking to me for several years now along the lines of, My father has hired hands, I have employees. Now, however, today s young farmers are moving the HR yardsticks even further. My interview with 32-year old Jeff Vermeersch is a prime example. […] Read more
Pull The Trigger
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you feel that marketing is getting tougher all the time, you aren t alone. Volatility in grain and oilseed pricing has increased dramatically, so it s no wonder farmers are having an even harder time pulling the trigger. The more volatile the markets, the more paralyzed with fear farmers become, says Scott Irwin, chair […] Read more
You Earned It!
Reading Time: 4 minutes When prices are good, do you pour every last dollar back into the farm or do you take some of that hard-earned cash to enjoy life a little? We asked three experts to weigh in with advice on management strategies when prices are good. Gary Mawhiney, human resources expert at the Ontario agriculture ministry, says […] Read more
168 Hours
Reading Time: 5 minutes hat’s how many hours we get each week… 168 hours. Never an hour more nor an hour less. We have no say in the matter. But the way we spend those 168 hours is up to us, and that’s the focus of Laura Vanderkam’s book 168 HOURS — YOU HAVE MORE TIME THAN YOU THINK. […] Read more
Reward Yourself
Farming can take all you've got, but don't burn out in the process
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s a good thing that farming is so all consuming. There is always something more to be done today, and something else that you know needs doing tomorrow, and both of them have to be done perfectly. There’s always another problem to be solved and a challenge to be met. And if all the field and […] Read more
Your Own Paradise
Reading Time: 4 minutes There are lots of great things about life on the farm, but being able to shift gears may not be one of them. The farm is always there. Every view out every window makes you think of another job that needs to be added to a list that is already too long, and the views […] Read more
It Isn’t Just In Your Head
Reading Time: 5 minutes We believe science when it’s about how to grow bigger crops, or when it’s about weed control, swine rations or soil quality. When the science is about happiness, though, many of us turn downright dismissive. How can happiness be a science? In fact, we might say to ourselves, show me somebody who spends their time […] Read more
Kernels of Wisdom – for Aug. 30, 2010
Reading Time: 4 minutes Does it really take seven years for gum to pass through your digestive tract? Do you really lose 40 per cent of your body heat through your head? Does a red sky at night really predict good weather? All of us can recite lists of folk wisdom as long as your arm. But is any […] Read more
Struggle is an inevitable part of farming, but it doesn’t have to tear you or your family apart
Reading Time: 4 minutes Every farm family faces stress on a daily basis. Sometimes though the stress can reach staggering proportions: a barn fire, a farm accident, plummeting markets, disease in the herd, drought, serious illness, a death in the family. Such calamities are democratic. None of us escape. Sooner or later, we’re all knocked off our feet. Even […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
