Reading Time: 7 minutes Hiring farm business advisors isn’t a new concept, but the creative ways some of them are approaching consulting is worth a second thought.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor Today’s farm operations are growing ever more complex. There are crucial production, financial, human resource, marketing and other management decisions to be made, and it is impossible […] Read more
Summer Series: Building a better farm business
[Best Advice] Is Trish Fournier creating the new template for how Canada’s farms will inject cutting-edge financial skills and strategic business acumen into their mid- to large-size operations?
Summer Series: Top transition tips for young farmers
[Best Advice] How the next generation can help farm transition be successful
Reading Time: 3 minutes How can the incoming generation help farm transition be successful? Follow these top transition tips below!– April Stewart, Associate Editor Glacier FarmMedia – Transitioning management and ownership of a farm business from one generation to the next can present many challenges. While there are numerous resources to support farm founders in assessing their business and […] Read more
Summer Series: A practical guide to writing your farm business plan
[Best Advice] This eight-point plan can help put you on the right path
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farm business planning is always a popular topic of discussion among advisors and management gurus. But statistics still show a slow uptake by farmers. Those using a written business plan, however, are reaping the benefits. Follow the eight steps below to get started.– April Stewart, Associate Editor. If you’re an avid Country Guide reader, you […] Read more
Taking a direct mindset to farm marketing
Three winners at Outstanding Young Farmers share the insights that turned their ideas into successful businesses
Reading Time: 6 minutes More Canadian farmers are selling more of what they produce directly to consumers than ever before. Customers are keen to shop for locally made products and many are looking for agritourism experiences. While direct farm marketing has grown in popularity in recent times, it isn’t new to everybody. Some farmers have years of experience in […] Read more
Which child will you pick to take over the farm?
Here’s help to identify and develop the right leader from your farm’s next generation
Reading Time: 6 minutes Across Canada, the biggest decision today’s farmers will make is choosing who will lead the farm tomorrow. In our fast-paced, fast-evolving agriculture, making the right choice will be critical to success, and maybe survival. In past, there wasn’t that much choice. The family farm got handed down from one generation to the next by way […] Read more
The ginger difference
What’s the best strategy to market a product no one thinks you can grow? The Mueller farm perks things up
Reading Time: 7 minutes For Cindy and Ron Mueller, who run Fisherville Greenhouses near Lake Erie an hour south of Hamilton, the farm business was ticking along. It felt like they had it pretty much figured out. The couple had started their farm careers by growing tomatoes for sale through a wholesaler. Then, when the market changed, they adapted […] Read more
Taking grain marketing to the next level
After a year like 2021, more Canadian farmers are reaching out for marketing support
Reading Time: 4 minutes When it comes to marketing, Canadian farmers won’t forget 2021 anytime soon. High commodity prices early in the year motivated most farmers to price a portion of their grain. After all, this was what typical marketing strategies said to do. But as prices continued to rally, the desire to capture the high also continued and […] Read more
Strategic marketing
These three farms have made fundamental changes to how they market. Should you too?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Whether you price and deliver using a commodity exchange, or whether you negotiate contracts with retailers or you sell farm products directly to consumers, the price you go to market at is always crucial to success in agriculture. Increasingly, though, today’s farmers are applying their management skills to the job. How can they set themselves […] Read more
Speaking of success
A new cohort of farmers has never farmed with rising interest rates. Same goes for bankers. So what does retiring RBC vice-president Gwen Paddock see ahead?
Reading Time: 5 minutes As she closes the book on a career spanning regional and national leadership roles at RBC, Country Guide asked Gwen Paddock about the level and pace of change she sees in cutting-edge farm businesses. Size, sector and location aside, what traits do the owners of these farms have in common? How do they stay on […] Read more
A path to better bookkeeping
Are you using the right accounting software for your operation? And, is the right person doing the job?
Reading Time: 7 minutes A few decades ago, most Country Guide readers put the final lid on their shoebox record-keeping systems and made the move to computerized farm books. Maybe it started with a progression from Mom’s hard-copy ledger to a series of Excel spreadsheets. Or was it a transition from spreadsheet hell to a desktop software that the […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
