Reading Time: 3 minutes Toursim and agriculture The Yukon government’s efforts to promote food raised and grown here also targets the 325,000 tourists who visit the territory every year, and new initiatives are now linking tourism and agriculture together. The whole aim is to give visitors a taste of the place, says Coralie Ullyet, project manager for Yukon Culinary […] Read more
More ‘Yukon gold’
Summer days
On more farms like Wade Bleier’s, summer can’t just be about crops and livestock anymore. Those days had vanished even before COVID-19 arrived. Now the challenge is even greater. How will they use this summer to take back control?
Reading Time: 13 minutes All Canadians pay close attention to the calendar and clock, but no one more than the Canadian farmer, whose livelihood has always depended on the tactical use of limited hours, days and months. Now comes summer 2020, and on top of all the uncertainties of weather, pests and markets, there’s no end to the COVID-19 […] Read more
Your first family meeting
It’s agreed. There are so many great reasons to start holding family meetings. The question is, how do you get started? Here’s help
Reading Time: 5 minutes The verdict is in. Family meetings do two things. They build stronger families, and they build stronger businesses. They empower the farm plan for the future in an orderly and constructive way. They help it take transitions in stride, and let it escape painful and costly conflict by addressing issues that inevitably arise in any […] Read more
A world of ideas
Canadian Nuffield scholars are seizing the chance to think differently
Reading Time: 9 minutes Travel is the best teacher. Anyone who has gotten off the main tourist routes will agree that time spent in someone else’s country is the finest form of education. In bizspeak, though, there’s a question: Can you bottle it? Does it have to be an intensely personal thing, or can you capture the benefits of […] Read more
After a decade in agriculture, these new farmers weigh in
Having completed their first decade, Adam and Amy Petherick, with son Lucas, take stock. They’ve met hopes, challenges, successes. What’s next?
Reading Time: 11 minutes About 2010, the tide turned. Or, the tides, with an “s.” Agriculture had finally left the gruelling 1990s behind, leading to an uptick in twenty-somethings with a realistic shot of making it on the farm. But it was also clear that this new generation was never going to start their careers the way their parents […] Read more
The 10th generation farm
In central Nova Scotia, Cornwallis Farms has been in the same family for nine generations. So how are they planning for David’s arrival, and the start of a whole new chapter?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Thinking back to 2011, David Newcombe told his family that they’d missed a milestone on their farm — and a chance to throw a big party. But another chance will come. “In 2061 we’ll have a 300-year anniversary,” says Newcombe, now 28. That’s a lot of confidence, yet on this farm, you might say they’ve […] Read more
A hunger for opportunity
From their eastern Ontario farm, Shelley Spruit is rediscovering old wheats, and how to turn consumer trends into an impressive, farm-based business plan
Reading Time: 9 minutes Shelley Spruit likes to say she began a thriving farm business with a single cup of seed. In fact, there’s a certain rightness to her choosing those exact words, as if it was a recipe. After all, Spruit can run a kitchen and turn out five-course meals just as well as she operates a farm […] Read more
Actually, black swans can be good for us too
We should expect black swans to arise more frequently than in past
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s part of our language now. A black swan is an event that is random and unpredicted and that brings broad consequences. The term originated in the late 1600s after the discovery of black swans in Western Australia. Until then, everyone believed swans could only be white. The discovery meant sometimes we get what we […] Read more
From good boss to great
Saskatchewan farm advisor and HR specialist Marianne Hawkins offers practical tips on making the transition
Reading Time: 5 minutes We’ve all heard the adage “people quit bosses, not jobs.” Maybe you have quit a boss yourself. If so, you’ll remember why. Perhaps they were always complaining, or maybe they played favourites, or they treated you as if they thought you were always trying to cheat them. Maybe, too, they would never admit their own […] Read more
Diverse, and profitable
Saskatchewan’s Prairie Berries has figured out how a diverse and inclusive workplace can help it achieve growth targets that otherwise just couldn’t happen
Reading Time: 9 minutes There’s a story that gets told about what it’s like to work an agricultural job in Canada. In this case, though, the story isn’t told in English or French. Those telling it speak Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic and other languages. They are among the thousands of newcomers in Canada as Temporary Foreign Workers on contracts, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
