Reading Time: 5 minutes At first, the comment seemed counter-intuitive. I was sitting across a small table from Gavin Semple, chair of the Saskatchewan-based Brandt Group of Companies, during Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina in June. Semple had just been recognized as the first-ever inductee into the newly created Saskatchewan Manufacturing Hall of Fame, and I wanted to […] Read more
Cautiously aggressive
What does it take to be inducted into a business hall of fame? CG asked Gavin Semple, the first inductee into the new Saskatchewan Manufacturing Hall of Fame
Meeting the customer’s need for farm equipment
New Holland veers away from corporate mega-dealers
Reading Time: 6 minutes When New Holland vice-president Abe Hughes spoke to a room full of farm media at the company’s North American headquarters in Pennsylvania in July, he wanted to talk about more than the shiny new iron parked outside. It was important, of course, to highlight the innovation in the brand’s 2015 equipment introductions, but Hughes also had […] Read more
Drive, innovation unites equipment manufacturers
Curiouser and curiouser... corn brings Swedish equipment manufacturer Väderstad to rural Saskatchewan to buy the Seed Hawk brand
Reading Time: 4 minutes The sign at Seed Hawk’s air drill manufacturing facility in rural Saskatchewan says “Welcome.” Maybe, though, it should now be “Välkommen,” seeing that Väderstad, a global tillage and seeding equipment brand founded and still headquartered in Sweden acquired a minority interest in Seed Hawk in 2007, and earlier this year took over its former Canadian partner. […] Read more
Farm in Germany makes the old world new
This man’s farm really is his castle, bristling with electronics and shrouded in subsidies and regulations
Reading Time: 5 minutes Many Canadian family farms proudly display a “century farm” plaque at their front gates, signifying at least 100 years of uninterrupted family ownership. But as impressive as that may be, 100 years hardly registers on the European scale. The Graf family of North Rhine-Westphalia, a province in northern Germany, can trace its ownership back to 1340. […] Read more
Meeting farmers’ needs with the right tool at the right time
German implement manufacturer Lemken bases its Canadian growth strategy on providing equipment tailored to local needs
Reading Time: 5 minutes This time the conversation was the opposite of what I’m used to. In the last few years it’s become common enough to hear North American machinery executives talk about how they’re going to get their share of the huge new markets in the emerging economies. But in May, I was at implement manufacturer Lemken’s factory […] Read more
Return of the czars
Will the Putin effect hurt global ag equipment manufacturing?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Samuel Allen was blunt. “Today’s world is filled with uncertainty — fiscal, economic, and political uncertainty — that breeds extreme caution, disrupts thoughtful planning, and is generally bad for business,” the John Deere chairman and CEO wrote in the company’s 2013 annual report. Those words from December of last year now seem profoundly prophetic, given […] Read more
The power to help Africa
Where Canada once based its aid programs on high-capacity, Canadian-built machinery, new industry-led plans work better
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the February 4 edition of Country Guide, you read about Canada’s latest $13 million in agricultural development aid being invested in Ukraine to create a new generation of farm co-operatives under the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). While the Ukraine project represents a significant financial investment, CIDA has funded much larger agricultural development programs […] Read more
Farmers are from Mars…
… consumers are from Venus. There’s a disconnect between what consumers want to know about food and what farmers think they need to tell them
Reading Time: 5 minutes As I drove past a local equipment dealership recently, my eye wandered over to a long row of shiny new four-wheel drive tractors sitting on the lot. As I admired them, I wondered how many of the people travelling past on the nearby highway who have never set foot on a farm really understand what […] Read more
What a farmer wants
Your ideal tractor is getting more and more unlike the one your neighbour would like to buy
Reading Time: 5 minutes Understanding what your customers want is one of the basic musts for staying in business — any business. Now, it’s also something equipment manufacturers need to keep in mind more than ever, because a new study shows a widening gap between what different producer groups want and expect from their machinery. A 2014 survey conducted […] Read more
Easing back on the throttle
Is farm machinery still selling? According to sales stats, it all depends on where in the world you farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes The opening line was right on the money. It was at this winter’s Agrievolution Alliance conference in Germany, and it was the introduction to a report on global farm equipment markets: “The manufacturers of tractors and agricultural machines are satisfied with their current business situation.” There’s a good reason why equipment manufacturers are “satisfied.” Agrievolution […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
