Reading Time: 5 minutes Melanie Sommers tears around the corner of her family s free-stall barn, jumps out of the tractor cab and pokes a hand out of her coveralls for a handshake. She s been cutting some fourth cut hay and is rushing to get it done before the fall rain sets in. The pressure is on, but […] Read more
Young & In Motion
Listening In
Reading Time: 8 minutes A generation ago, Sarah Wray might have gone looking for a farm organization to join. Maybe she would even have started a new club so beginning farmers such as she and her husband Logan could learn from others about getting off to a good start. Or she might have opened up a new branch of […] Read more
Better Than Gold
Reading Time: 7 minutes Farmland values are up again across the country, and with strong commodity prices, land prices seem sure to post sizeble gains well into the future. For farmers coming off two decades of tight margins, the strength in the land market is not only helping them sleep at night, it s actually giving them fun options […] Read more
Retire Easier
Reading Time: 6 minutes The very nature of farming can squash all of a farmer s best intentions for off-farm investing. Busy schedules, fluctuating incomes and the constant demand for new technology can each put the reins on even a modest plan. Yet for more farmers, off-farm investing is becoming an essential business strategy, both so they can inject […] Read more
CLICK AND PRINT
Reading Time: 9 minutes When there aren t enough hours in the day to even get all the essential jobs done, it s no surprise that writing job descriptions, drafting interview questions and carrying out performance reviews often plummets to the very bottom of the farm priority list. That doesn t make it wise, though. In fact, in a […] Read more
5 Questions To Ask Your Market Adviser
Reading Time: 8 minutes Markets can be overtaken by hype and emotion, says ag economist Al Mussell. The last thing you need is an adviser or broker who injects even more. Before the frustration sets you storming out the back door, chucking your smart phone into the field and yelling some words that you aren t even supposed to […] Read more
Breaking Through
Reading Time: 4 minutes Dan Doner s eyebrows jump when I mention May, 2003. Eight years later, the reaction is still there, and it s still easy to understand why. That May, a Canadian animal first tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), taking control of Doner s business life just as it did for thousands of other livestock […] Read more
Today Is Already History
Reading Time: 6 minutes In the heart of the U.S. farm belt, Michael Boehlje looks around him and knows that what he sees is fast disappearing. The future is almost here. What will the future look like? More important, how can you build for success in that brave new world… or decide if you should just get out of […] Read more
Fix ’Er Up
Reading Time: 6 minutes There’s a whole lot of impatience going around. With strong commodity markets, no one wants to wait for yield. We want it now. So it’s little wonder all the good-quality, high-efficiency farms seem to get snapped up before they even hit the market. So, which is your smarter strategy — to sit on the sidelines, […] Read more
Bump Up Asset Values – for Sep. 1, 2011
Reading Time: 2 minutes This year Canadian accountants are moving public companies to international financial reporting standards (IFRS). Private companies by contrast can choose one of two options IFRS or Accounting Standards for Private Enterprise (ASPE). The acronyms seem bureaucratic, but the impact for farmers can be real. About two million private businesses operate in Canada, and although all […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
