Reading Time: 2 minutes A federal/provincial action plan to reduce phosphorus loading in Lake Erie has been released for public comment — and many of its recommendations will have implications for farmers in the Lake Erie basin. None of the numerous recommendations are particularly new or surprising and mostly call for using existing funding programs to encourage certain production […] Read more
Lake Erie plan’s farming recommendations released
Building a new Agriculture Policy Framework
After a decade of “Growing Forward” programs, Ottawa is developing a new five-year Agricultural Policy Framework this spring. What should be in it?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Canadian farmers are watching as the negotiations for the next Agriculture Policy Framework (APF) gyrate to completion, paving the way for the launch of the new, five-year plan in the first quarter of 2018. This new document will be immensely influential, defining how federal and provincial government ag spending will be allocated for the following […] Read more
The brother and sister advantage: Jake and Sarah Leguee of Leguee Farms
Off-farm work and a five-year plan helped this brother and sister team prepare for the non-stop challenges of farming
Reading Time: 4 minutes Leguee Farms has also found a balance that allows it to grow and succeed in Saskatchewan in grains and oilseeds. Communication and defined roles enable the family to run a large business together, and also to live nearby and have harmony during family get togethers. Unlike Misty Glen, Jake and Sarah Leguee’s father Russ is […] Read more
The brother and sister advantage: Melinda Foster-Marshall and Mark Foster of Jockbrae Farms
Just because they’re siblings doesn’t mean Melinda and Mark instantly agree on everything. But they have a system for finding common ground, and once they’ve found it, they commit
Reading Time: 5 minutes Mark Foster and his sister Melinda Foster-Marshall never thought they’d be farming together. They had different personalities and routes through high school, but they have created roles and responsibilities and processes that are allowing their individual strengths to create a successful farming business. Melinda has a degree in geological sciences from Queen’s University and was […] Read more
The brother and sister advantage: Tom and Suzanne Pettit of Misty Glen Holsteins
There can be a kind of magic in a brother-sister relationship that helps them run a better farm business
Reading Time: 5 minutes A small but growing number of brother-and-sister farms across Canada are rewriting the rules on how families farm together in a new spirit of gender equality. Even more than that, though, they’re showing the rest of the industry how to step up their productivity with new management strategies that let every member of the team […] Read more
Ontario names trustee to break tomato impasse
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Ontario government has appointed a trustee to assume the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers’ power to negotiate 2017 contracts with processors for the growing of processing tomatoes in the province. The board of directors of the marketing board has been dismissed until new elections are held, as expected by the end of 2017. “I have […] Read more
Custom business
Custom operators like Troy Monea are under pressure to boost customer service and to intensify their business management. In this game, there’s less and less room for the uncommitted
Reading Time: 10 minutes The same stories get told over and over again. For instance, when Troy Monea was growing his busy custom farm business near Falun, Alta., he reached out to a potential competitor. “They had got so big so fast, I didn’t know how I could compete,” Monea recalls. “I couldn’t offer what he was offering, so […] Read more
Dairy sector still working toward ingredients strategy
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian dairy industry has missed a self-imposed deadline for the Feb. 1 implementation of a national ingredients strategy — but work continues toward that implementation. The strategy is meant to create a lower-priced class of milk, Class 7, to encourage the use of skim milk powder in further-processed ingredients. Ontario has already independently implemented […] Read more
Phosphorus program aims to reduce Lake Erie nutrients
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chatham, Ont. — Henry Denotter’s farms near Kingsville, Ont. are close to the Wigle Creek, which flows into Lake Erie and takes with it any residues it pulls from nature and farmers’ fields. The Wigle Creek subwatershed, west of Leamington, has turned into ground zero in long-term research on how farmers can reduce phosphorus running […] Read more
Corn/soy price ratio favours soybean acres, analyst says
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chatham, Ont. — Most underpinnings for higher corn, soybean and wheat prices appear to have fallen away — leaving biodiesel the only area that could drive higher prices. A growth mandate for U.S. ethanol production ends in 2017, and oil prices continue to stagnate well below the highs of a few years ago, according to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
