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
Fix ’Er Up
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
THE BIG CHALLENGE
Reading Time: 7 minutes Allen Lash’s American drawl is slow. His voice is smooth, his words calculated. But his message carries a sting. “By 2020 we won’t recognize crop farming,” Lash tells me. “By 2030, it’ll be all over. Most of the land will be owned by a handful of producers.” Lash knows his words provoke sharp reactions. He […] Read more
Standing Up To Change
Reading Time: 6 minutes Wayne Black’s day has been life defining. His father John recently sold the family’s dairy herd, so on this particular morning, the father and son milked only a few cows. Although the decision to sell the cows had been made months ago, this was when the reality was sinking in. Wayne Black’s days would no […] Read more
Have You Any Wool?
Reading Time: 4 minutes After decades of low wool prices, Canada’s 10,000 sheep producers are warming up to the perfect storm of high prices and low world supplies. “We expect much-improved wool prices for the upcoming year for both finer and coarse micron wools,” says Eric Bjergson, manager of the Canadian Co-operative of Wool Growers in Ottawa. For years, […] Read more
Vital Statistics
Reading Time: 9 minutes There are almost as many financial ratios as seed varieties, and choosing which are most meaningful for your farm — and most helpful for how you manage for success — can be more than difficult. It can be positively head spinning. Should you track current ratio or working capital? Is ROA a good guide, or […] Read more
Bump Up Asset Values – for May. 31, 2011
Reading Time: 2 minutes This year Canadian accountants will move to the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) for public companies. Meanwhile, private companies 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 […] Read more
Succession: How Do We Start?
Reading Time: 6 minutes I was 22 and I had somehow scraped up enough courage to ask my parents about the possibility of succession. It’s a moment carved in my memory. There I was sitting in the kitchen of the farmhouse with my soon-to-be husband, my Dad and our provincial ag rep. The ag rep asked what we wanted […] Read more
Prepare To Be Inspected
Reading Time: 4 minutes Welcome to the future of farming where you are bombarded By Legislation And under constant risk of prosecution or legal action. On the farm it can seem more and more legal obligations are springing up, and many come with the scurry of inspectors and field staff lugging their mandates onto our farms. Now, a noted […] Read more
Where In The World?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Trade disputes, extreme weather, political upheaval. You name it, it impacts Canada’s farmers overnight, even if it happens half a world away. Where will the next big shock come from? Looking backward is the best place to start. COUNTRY GUIDE asked three agricultural news hounds to retrace the last six months and name the biggest […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
