Reading Time: 7 minutes On most Canadian farms, technology’s big role is to make production more efficient. If marketing goes high-tech, it’s at the edges instead of at the core, such as with smart phones to track grain prices. That’s the first paradigm that John and Eadie Steele have turned on its head. Technology is at the heart of […] Read more
The Business At Hand – for Aug. 30, 2010
R.O.A. – for Aug. 30, 2010
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farmers live poor and die rich. That’s what the old adage says, and as the average age of Canadian farmers continues to creep up, it certainly seems true. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian farm in 2008 had assets valued at about $1.5 million and a net worth of $1.28 million. More important, though, […] Read more
Solar Fever
Reading Time: 5 minutes Before the solar fever took hold, Bert Rammelaere caused some local rubbernecking in 2008 when he built a solar photovoltaic (PV) tracking system on his farm north of Tilbury in southwestern Ontario. Since then, the gawking has only increased. Rammelaere’s system produced 18,000 kilowatts last year. “I thought I’d try something different,” he says. “Lots […] Read more
“ Your parents have had it better than you will,” the speaker told the group of would-be farmers that Gary Markus had joined. So why had they all come to Guelph?
Reading Time: 16 minutes Business strategies such as case studies can help young people launch successful farm careers, says session co-founder Lyndon Stewart Lyndon Stewart doesn’t sugar-coat the message for the 40 farm hopefuls he’s talking to. “You’re entering into a business,” Stewart leads off, then follows with the punch. “Huge capital requirements make for huge decisions.” “You will […] Read more
Shelf Space
Reading Time: 17 minutes Ron Lofthouse remembers it as the call that rocked his honey house. It was 2003, and the man at the other end said he was from Loblaws. At first Lofthouse assumed it was a call from the nearby No-Frill’s Loblaw store that was already carrying Buckhorn Honey, the brand that Lofthouse had launched part-time while […] Read more
Safe Bet
Reading Time: 11 minutes Building tougher food safety standards into your farm doesn’t come cheap. If these trailblazers are right, though, it’s an investment, not a cost The avalanche of new food safety standards that started in Europe is crashing into Canada. Now, big retailers are pushing it further down the value chain. Already, Loblaws and Wal-Mart have announced […] Read more
Thinking of a working retirement, staying on the farm and keeping your hand in things? John Baker has just three words of advice: “Don’t do it”
Reading Time: 5 minutes The average Canadian farmer in 2006 was 52, making farming the oldest occupation in the country. And farmers aren’t getting any younger. Today, the median age of farmers is thought to be nudging 57, or perhaps even 58 because so few young people are getting into farming. If so, our farmers are the same average […] Read more
Incorporation may still be the best option for your farm. Read on, though. You and your children could also come to regret it as the worst choice you ever made
Reading Time: < 1 minute While the sun poured into our accountant’s office earlier this spring, my husband and I shifted the conversation from filing income taxes into a direction that many and perhaps most Country Guide readers have wondered about too. Should we incorporate, we ask, or should we stay as a sole proprietorship? According to the 2006 federal […] Read more
Roundup-resistant ragweed confirmed in Ont.
Reading Time: < 1 minute Glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed is officially in Ontario, weed scientist Peter Sikkema confirmed Tuesday. Researchers grew plants from seeds of giant ragweed found in farmers’ fields in the southwestern part of the province in 2008 and the resulting weeds were resistant to glyphosate, Sikkema said at a farmers’ meeting at Uxbridge, Ont. During the meeting, he […] Read more
is right for you?
Reading Time: 4 minutes New strategies may help you break out of traditional size constraints, whether you want to be bigger than the old rules allowed, or smaller f you sit in on Alfons Weersink’s introductory ag economics class at the University of Guelph, you’re going to see a sample of agriculture’s traditional U-shaped cost curve. It will be […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
