Reading Time: 5 minutes Of all the global ag input suppliers, Dow AgroSciences has arguably changed the most, transitioning from a company whose Canadian presence was dominated by Treflan, a herbicide that nobody sprays today, into a diversified operation with a strong national presence and significant market share in crop protection, plant genetics, traits and more. There’s just as […] Read more
Genuinely in business: How Dow Agro built its company culture
Guide Insight: OK, so it’s a cliché that business means people working with people. It’s also how you create success. Just ask Dow’s Brad Orr
Wade Barnes’ new playbook
Guide Insight: What can farmers adapt from Wade Barnes’ trail-blazing success at Farmers Edge?
Reading Time: 7 minutes In an agriculture that is struggling to figure out what its future will look like, Wade Barnes may at least know how to get there. And, as his example seems to promise, knowing ‘how’ may put you on the path to knowing ‘who,’ which in farming is the question that will eventually answer all the […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Are they right this time?
Reading Time: 2 minutes You’ll find no shortage of things to disagree with in our July/August issue of Country Guide. If you don’t, it means we haven’t worked hard enough. My sense is that the future of farming is going to turn out to be just the other side of incredible. Probably, it’s your sense of the future too. If […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Getting rail back on the political agenda
Reading Time: 2 minutes John Diefenbaker was no longer Prime Minister when I got to shake his hand. Still, there was an election in the air, and my father, who distrusted Liberals every bit as much Dief (especially when they were led by Pierre Trudeau) had hauled his four boys to the high school auditorium to hear the great […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: The question of farm growth
Reading Time: 2 minutes It was a question that went all around the table. I was in Illinois with a group of Canadian and American farmers, and the discussion leader kept track of all their answers on a whiteboard. Here’s the question. In the last 30 to 40 years, how much has your family expanded the number of acres […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Brothers versus sisters
Reading Time: 2 minutes History will judge today’s farm families based at least in part on how they treat their brothers and sisters. At this point, it’s far from clear that history’s judgment will be kind. If you have sons and daughters in your family, they know this and they are thinking it (actually, they are thinking a lot […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Get your mind around it
Reading Time: 2 minutes Of all the sciences, which is the most important for your farm? Is it biology, or soil science, or chemistry, or electronics? My vote is for none of those. My vote is for psychology. I hope that surprises you, because it sure surprised me. I had just finished talking to young wannabe farmers at Ridgetown […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Test the next generation
Reading Time: 2 minutes I can’t help thinking we’d all be better off if some of those exuberant FCC T-shirts that shout “100% Farm Boy” or “Future Farmer” would curb their enthusiasm just a notch. Yes, it’s a great time in agriculture, all things considered, and yes, agriculture is a great place to be, but we should think twice […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: The point of the telling
Reading Time: 2 minutes I’m reminded of the old story of the preacher who learned a valuable trick very early in his career, although it was a trick that he thought was a bit unchurch-like and that he was careful never to reveal. When he started his sermon each Sunday, this preacher would sneak his hand into his pocket […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Leading from the front
Reading Time: 2 minutes “Most bad decisions get made in good times.” We’ve all heard it, and most of us have said it. Except I’m not sure I believe it. I see precious little indication that farmers have been making bad decisions during the past five years. At Country Guide, we’ve been keeping our eyes open for signs of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
