Reading Time: 5 minutes Edda Boettcher has hired several local high school students for part-time help at Capella Meadows, a certified organic vegetable farm and goat dairy in Brussels, Ont. When it came time to add a position for the 2022 season, Boettcher decided to offer an internship instead of traditional employment. “The people we could have hired didn’t […] Read more
The on-farm intern advantage
Could the innovative internship strategy on these diverse farms help conventional farms too?
New school: The business concept that reshaped the Meunier farm
Growing numbers of mid-career farmers are enrolling in high-level business programs aimed at the farm. The experience can be transformational
Reading Time: 9 minutes [UPDATED: Jan. 9, 2023] We were feeling stuck,” Stacey Meunier recalls. For her and for husband Chad, the future was on hold. They knew what they wanted — to take over Paul Meunier and Sons Farms Limited, their family’s mixed farming operation in Barrhead, Alta., an hour and a half north of Edmonton — but […] Read more
Better at change
Just because change is a constant on the farm doesn’t mean you can’t get much better at it
Reading Time: 8 minutes Farmers understand change: The weather changes, markets change, economics change. Technologies change too and, through it all, farmers keep farming. You always have. You always will. Change is inevitable, but we can learn from how other farmers navigate their own big changes, and we can adapt to the next major shakeups on the farm. “Change […] Read more
The moment is right
Commodity prices are on a high, so why are these successful, well-managed farms doubling down on diversification?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Loewith and Sons Limited has kept to the same business model since 1948: Raise cows, milk cows, then sell the milk to the wholesale market. After all, it’s a model that has proved itself across the years and it has powered the Hamilton, Ont. dairy farm through multiple expansions and continued increases in production. “We’re […] Read more
Lessons from the 1980s
Can farm advice from those who were on the front lines 40 years ago help producers survive the challenges of the 2020s?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Roger Pelissero remembers when the 1980s farm crisis dominated headlines in newspapers and the evening news, although he didn’t need to read the paper or turn on the television to know that farmers were in trouble. “We had friends in Western Canada growing commodities and grain who had to give up their land,” recalls Pelissero, […] Read more
Before you come back to the farm
More next-gen farmers are taking off-farm jobs before they return to the farm. It’s proving a very good thing
Reading Time: 6 minutes While growing up, Jackie Dudgeon figured she would go to school and then be on her way. She had no plans to join her dad growing canola, wheat and soybeans on their Darlingford farm, a couple hours southwest of Winnipeg. But after she spent a summer working off-farm blending fertilizer, treating seed and delivering chemicals […] Read more
Managing millennials
Six tips to help this generation thrive, and boost your farm productivity too
Reading Time: 5 minutes You’ve heard all of the bad things about the millennial workforce. These “kids” want trophies just for showing up for work. The entire generation thinks it’s somehow entitled. And if they do show up, they have zero work ethic. The science agrees, to a point. Data do show that millennials (the generation born between 1980 […] Read more
Skill share
Farmers like Cheryl and Marc Norleen are giving time where it’s needed
Reading Time: 9 minutes Farmers raising livestock and growing crops in developing countries often lack access to modern equipment and the capital needed to make improvements on their farms. They face other hurdles too. Without computers or the internet, it’s impossible to watch YouTube videos for step-by-step instructions to repair equipment or to learn new farming techniques, and there […] Read more
Multiple choice(s) for an ag education
Finding the best way to integrate business studies with farm skills is becoming an educational must
Reading Time: 7 minutes It takes a ton of skilled farmers — and workers — to manage Canada’s 40 million acres of grains, 25 million acres of oilseeds, 14 million hogs and 12 million cattle. And, increasingly, that means not just time in the field and barn, but also in the office, in the meeting room and on the […] Read more
Six questions to ask when choosing a post-secondary program
Reading Time: 2 minutes Some students have their post-secondary education plans mapped out early, with an eye to a specific major, degree or institution. Others are less sure about the next steps. Before choosing a program, consider these six questions: What are your career goals? If you want to return to the family farm to manage crop production or […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
