Reading Time: 3 minutes Canola prices, as just one example, are down approximately 25 per cent from late 2023. Wheat is down 15 per cent, meaning producer paycheques have decreased with the markets this winter. That’s not all there is to watch for, however. Given that many farms have post-harvest year-end dates, a significant amount of inventory on 2023 […] Read more
Summer Series: Watch your grain inventory adjustment
[Make It Count] With the winter’s drop in grain prices, it’s important to track your inventory adjustment to avoid cash-flow and financing surprises
Summer Series: Are you getting the right advice for your farm?
[Make It Count] This summer, the top job for more farmers will be to get busy evaluating the people who advise them
Reading Time: 7 minutes Is it time to find a new advisor? Or would walking away from your current advisors be such a serious mistake that you’d regret it for years to come? Accountants, agronomists, grain marketers and other advisors are key parts of many farm management teams. But how good are we farmers at managing those relationships and […] Read more
Summer Series: Podcast with Julie Maw
Reading Time: < 1 minute Julie is the owner of Mooremaw Farms along with her husband and three sons. She’s also a Grain Farmers of Ontario director and operates a seed dealership. In this episode, she chatted with us about how she got on the path to agriculture, what it’s like to navigate farm growth, best advice she’s received throughout […] Read more
Summer Series: Your next great business idea
[Make It Count] These five tips promise to make you even better at spotting great business ideas for your farm
Reading Time: 5 minutes Farmers who can identify new business opportunities have a valuable leg up in this competitive and rapidly changing world, so Country Guide reached out to innovative farmers and to innovation experts for their insights into finding that next winning idea. 1. Be Tenacious What does it take? For one, it takes attitude. Over and over […] Read more
Summer Series: The learning curve of farm diversification
[Make it Count] Change is certain. Now, these two farms leverage it to diversify and grow their farms even more
Reading Time: 6 minutes The reasons farms diversify are as varied as the types of farms. The options are equally numerous. Maybe it’s to enhance or grow the operation or to add more income streams. Or the owners come across an opportunity too good to turn down. So, how does someone decide when to diversify and what option to […] Read more
Summer Series: Your personal re-set
[Make it Count] On the farm, successful mid-career change takes more than new business practices and adapting to external influences. It demands self-management too
Reading Time: 6 minutes Change can sometimes lead to a radical re-evaluation of your past and present. In mid-life, change can prompt you to imagine what your future might look like, including your career. Research shows that many people in their mid-40s grow dissatisfied with their careers. The reasons behind this mid-career “crisis” can be attributed to several factors, […] Read more
Summer Series: How these Ontario farmers are getting great at change
[Make it Count] Every new idea, challenge and decision is an opportunity to learn. Sharing the takeaways from those lessons will help strengthen and sustain Canada’s agriculture industry
Reading Time: 11 minutes What makes a farm business good at change? Country Guide spoke with three Ontario farms to find out how they meet the challenges of change and what lessons they’ve learned on the journeys to diversification and growth. Thatcher Farms Thatcher Farms was born out of necessity. Almost two decades ago, at a time when commodity […] Read more
Summer Series: Implementing change on farms that works
[Make it Count] Like it or not, one day your farm will have to change to succeed. But what makes a farm good at change?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Norm Dreger has seen a lot of farms and agribusinesses change. Like a lot of Country Guide readers, he’s seen it from the family farm, but he also saw it in his earlier role as head of business development at Syngenta and he sees it now in his current job as principal at Osborne Interim […] Read more
Summer Series: Working through change
[Make it count] Learning to change — and to change better — is a constant process
Reading Time: 5 minutes Canadian farmers are no strangers to change. Over the centuries, and especially over the last few decades, they have constantly adapted to changing global markets and government policies with new processes, technology and on-farm practices. Despite change being such a big part of farming, however, few farmers receive formal lessons in best practices for change […] Read more
VIDEO: Summer Series: Brooklyn and Harley Siemens
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this last instalment of our summer video series, we spoke with fourth generation Manitoba egg farmers, Brooklyn and Harley Siemens, about how they make everything count: business decisions, opportunities, and advancing the industry and their community.
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
