Reading Time: 6 minutes The spring rush is over, so now is the time to take a moment and reflect. As you gaze across fields flush with new growth, think about how much things have evolved in the last few years. Although that lone tree out there still leans to the east, and the sun still sets in the […] Read more
Six numbers in agriculture to make you stop and think
It isn’t as quiet as you might think on the home front. Yes, today’s farms seem stable, but the next evolutionary wave is gaining energy
Five big ideas to help take your farm in the right direction
It's time to be a game changer. Choose the right business priorities and make your move
Reading Time: 11 minutes The year is at half-time, and you’re the coach. Most of the crop is in the ground, the spring rush is coming to an end, the team is winded. It’s a time when you can make a difference. You can be in charge; you can draw up new plays, analyze your strategy and motivate your […] Read more
One Ontario family’s joint path to farm succession
“Succession planning here is like hitting a moving target,” says Jim McGregor, but it’s also the family’s greatest opportunity
Reading Time: 8 minutes A mile from the Ottawa River, the McGregor family has lived and farmed, and they have loved and built for five generations, to the point where their produce business has mushroomed to 15 stands, a pick-your-own business and four farmers’ markets. Theirs is a story about embracing change, and about how, in the midst of […] Read more
Keeping up with the high cost of farm living
When farmers have more, they spend more. The question is, can farm families stop spending if they have less?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Maybe the biggest surprise is that the numbers aren’t all that surprising. Researchers at the University of Illinois have found the average amount of family living expendables skyrocketed from about $53,000 per farm in 2004 to $81,000 in 2013. After starting at $84 per acre, living costs jumped in that one decade to $121 per […] Read more
Is there room for improvement on your farm?
Who knew? Formal process improvement is emerging as your farm’s best bet for solid gains
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farms have an impressive record of increasing their production efficiency through scale, scientific improvements and innovation. Efficiency is the ultimate controllable factor in commodity margins. “Every year we do more with less, better,” says Dick Wittman, Idaho farmer and consultant. “We are becoming safer, more environmentally sound, and more efficient.” As our farms become more […] Read more
I do, and I don’t
Let’s agree. Prenuptial agreements will never be easy to talk about, but knowing the facts can help you get started
Reading Time: 9 minutes At a meeting this winter I sat down with a friendly group of farmers. The conversation turned from the weather to crop prices and slowly shifted into the personal, mostly about children. We shared our farms’ stories, our wins and our defeats. Then the man with tuffs of white hair beside me bent quietly toward […] Read more
Unleash your Midas touch
Adopt these seven habits of Canada’s top farmers
Reading Time: 7 minutes Does it seem some farmers just have that touch? Anything they start turns into gold. Is it just timing? Genius? Luck? Or do these farmers regularly do things that enable them to excel? Or do they cultivate skills that the rest of us don’t? Country Guide asked Jack Thomson, president of the Outstanding Young Farmer […] Read more
Are you a good leader on your farm?
Like never before, your farm needs new leadership for a new business environment. Are you getting the job done? Rate yourself on these five key leadership traits
Reading Time: 6 minutes Quick, name five strengths that farmers need in order to get their day’s work done. It’s simple, right? You need technological, financial, production, and mechanical skills, and of course, we should never forget hands-on experience. Now, just as fast, list five leadership skills that farmers need for success into the future… Not so easy, is […] Read more
Focus on where you can lead
At RFW Farms, the goal is to inject certainty into what can seem a very uncertain business. How they do that is a story in itself
Reading Time: 7 minutes In 1995 James Reesor and a business partner bought a 300-sow farrowing herd. Today, two decades later, RFW Farms is a 4,000-sow farrow-to-finish multi-site operation, producing about 2,000 hogs a week. By all measures, those 20 years have been challenging times in the hog business, yet this company has emerged as one of the largest […] Read more
This is thriving?
Guide Reviews: Maybe there’s something we can learn from a media darling after all
Reading Time: 4 minutes THRIVE By Arianna Huffington, Crown Publishing Group, $31.00 In her new how-to on how to succeed, and how to know you are succeeding, Arianna Huffington emerges at her ironic best, calling one chapter “Sleep your way to the top.” The irony isn’t really a surprise, but perhaps the message is (or, at least, the growing amount […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
