Reading Time: 5 minutes For those who missed our December issue where Button thanked his readers for their almost two decades of support, you’ll have missed the announcement that Country Guide’s long-time editor is headed for retirement. What started as an opportunity to have fun producing a business publication for Canadian farmers soon transformed into the humble pursuit of […] Read more
One page at a time
After 16 years and more than 4,000 stories, Tom Button, Country Guide’s editor, has turned a page in his career
The case for hiring a full-time employee on your farm
It’s different today. Employees come with expectations. You have to work with them... but on this farm, it’s more than worth it
Reading Time: 12 minutes You may have had help on the farm before on a seasonal, casual or term basis. Most farms probably have. But farming today is different, and so are the reasons why you might be considering a full-time employee. So how do you know when it’s time to take the plunge? Will it pay off, or […] Read more
Get more shots on goal with AI
The Global Institute for Food Security in Saskatoon is planning to lead the world into a future where computers can re-design and improve natural compounds and where science will make bigger strides than ever before
Reading Time: 5 minutes Ben Scott builds proteins. You got that? He is not looking for proteins. He creates them, from scratch. Scott is an engineering biology expert at the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He is helping GIFS build an engineering biology foundry to design, build and test new enzyme […] Read more
Agriculture takes a ride to the city
Looking for a way to talk to urban consumers about how farmers produce food? Jeanine Moyer takes farming right to the heart of Toronto
Reading Time: 6 minutes For the second time this past spring, Jeanine Moyer and her father Allan Wallace were phoning their rural Ontario neighbours, tracking down just the right animals to take to Toronto. They wanted docile animals, and, equally important, trusting owners — the kind of owners who would let Moyer and Wallace take their livestock on an […] Read more
Target: work-life balance
Life can be better. Even on the farm, real balance can be achieved
Reading Time: 6 minutes The struggle to find work-life balance may be “the single most important thing in your life to get right,” says Weyburn, Sask. farmer, Jake Leguee. “It’s also one of the hardest things any of us will ever do.” Farming presents unique challenges for achieving work-life balance. While technologies like robotic milkers and birthing cameras in […] Read more
In the combine
Syngenta leader Jeff Rowe talks about being prepared for leadership and the importance of listening to people
Reading Time: 3 minutes Jeff Rowe, CEO of the Syngenta Group, doesn’t often get home to his farm near Princeton, Illinois. He’s usually operating from his base in Basel, Switzerland, instead. But when he does get back to the Midwest, you might catch up to him running a planter in the spring or the combine in the fall, just […] Read more
The formula for farm growth
Capital + Risk + Execution = Farm SUCCESS
Reading Time: 3 minutes “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.” That’s how John C. Maxwell said it, and he might have said it best. It’s easy to look around the ag industry and see changes in the landscape. Suppliers, competitors and customers are consolidating and growing. Yet growth is often met with more scorn in farming than in these […] Read more
Finance 101 – What is a business plan?
There’s more at stake this winter, and more than ever to gain
Reading Time: 5 minutes A business plan is like a road map for your farm. You can plan your route, set a destination and track progress. But without a map or a plan, how does a farm business owner know what success looks like, or even what you’re capable of achieving? Or, most importantly, how do you know when […] Read more
Ontario growers bring ‘sun and fun’ to agri-tourism market
Could agri-tourism boost your farm income? The Davis family has some advice — “You gotta love, love, love people.”
Reading Time: 5 minutes Agri-tourism is trending. For farmers, agri-tourism is a way to diversify, to create new revenue streams and to capture more profit by selling direct to consumers without necessarily having to expand the land base. It can also be a way to make room for additional family members to join the farm business, easing the transition […] Read more
Discovering ways that your farm can do more
The value-added journey can look like a fast track to success. But as roads go, this one may not be so straight or level
Reading Time: 15 minutes When they start planning for transition to the next generation, many family farms recognize they have to increase revenue if the farm is going to support everyone full-time. But in today’s agriculture, the farm can’t always turn to the old tried-and-true solution, adding acres. So it’s little wonder they begin asking how they might raise […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
