Reading Time: 2 minutes The science of listening is almost beyond belief. Based at their Purchase, New York headquarters, 60 specially trained communication experts manage what is called the MasterCard Conversation Suite, backed up by a team of researchers, marketing specialists and lawyers. With software from Domo and Percolate among others, the MasterCard team monitors a 40-foot LED screen […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Listen to the science of 2017
If the Brexit vote didn’t prove it, the Trump election did. Voters are losing faith in their governments, which is one more reason to worry about the regulations imposed on ag
A new leadership
When DuPont Pioneer tapped Bryce Eger as their new Canadian head, here’s the leadership style they were putting their money behind. Can it work on the farm too?
Reading Time: 7 minutes When Bryce Eger says, “Nobody has a textbook for this,” farmers across the country get it. Where Eger goes next, though, may be worth a pause. As farms rapidly get bigger and more sophisticated, the difference between running a farm versus running an ag business fades. Some might say it even begins to disappear, and […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The competition
The challenges that lie ahead for our farms are real. Indeed, they’re more real than any but of a few us will admit. But so is the opportunity
Reading Time: 2 minutes I was asked some weeks ago to speak to a Purdue University ag business conference, where the focus was on trying to catch up with the rapidly evolving nature of today’s farms. An ag economics professor there named Mike Gunderson was early in the agenda, and clearly felt that all of us needed to be […] Read more
Editor’s Note: We’re making the connection
Reading Time: 2 minutes Finally we’re actually moving into an agriculture that knows exactly how to integrate business management for better, more profitable decisions in the field. I know that many of you have been following our series of financial management columns written by the faculty and teachers at AgriFood Management Excellence, the group that offers the advanced CTEAM […] Read more
Editor’s Note: This time, Ottawa must listen
Reading Time: 2 minutes If the average Canadian farmer was 40 instead of pushing 65, would we really be giving our governments such a soft ride? Of course there have been serious political issues in Canadian agriculture in the last five years. A list is easy to rattle off, comprising everything from grain transportation in the West to trade […] Read more
The next big step?
As their opportunities get bigger and better, more farmers are likely to hire marketing agencies
Reading Time: 5 minutes Among my questions was the natural one for a skeptic to ask. “How are you going to convince farmers to take on an agency and pay all those fees?” Seated across from me in a Guelph restaurant called Borealis — a thriving, trendy, happening sort of place that describes itself as “obsessively local” — agency […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Beyond our understanding
Reading Time: 2 minutes Before you click away, read Gerald Pilger’s ‘The target is glyphosate’, even if you think you don’t have time The organization that Gerald writes about is called Avaaz, named after the root that gives us the word “voice” in several European languages. Over 44 million environmentalists around the world now belong to Avaaz, and they […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Deciding you want a better future
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farming is evolving faster than any of us realize, with farmers solidly in charge. To see how, just read the stories our latest issue and apply their messages to an entire industry. A few weeks ago, our broader Country Guide team hired a bus and invited the agency people who make the ads, write the […] Read more
Editor’s Note: ‘Big’ plans for summer in the city
Swift Current is still a fine place. Brandon is too, and so are London, Kingston, Lethbridge and Prince Albert, along with an atlas full of other small cities across Canada. But…
Reading Time: 2 minutes … they just don’t come up to the mark, at least in this one important way. Even Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton fall short, partly because you feel too comfortable in them. Nor does even Calgary make the list, although that’s OK because Ottawa doesn’t get on it either. Canadians have built three of the world’s […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A season for deciding on new goals for the farm
Farmers stand out in today’s culture for their ability to make actual decisions, not just choices. Now the rewards for choosing which decisions to make are about to multiply
Reading Time: 2 minutes I know I’m a broken record on this subject, and that I’m forever saying that if there’s anything I’d like consumers to really understand about today’s farmers, it’s how they excel at decision making. It’s foreign to consumers, who excel in their own way at making choices, such as which pairs of jeans send which […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
