Reading Time: 6 minutes Farming without some startup help from your family can definitely mean an uphill climb. But getting the gift of a farm inheritance isn’t always such a blessing either. Many farmers will tell you it would have been impossible for them to get started in the business if it hadn’t been for a “hometown discount” from […] Read more
Inheriting the family farm as a gift
Succession in Agriculture: High land prices are driving innovation in how to distribute your land
Abiding by the rules if you need to fire an employee
Guide Legal: It's best to understand not only the law, but its principles
Reading Time: 3 minutes The best “strategic business thinking” requires not only knowing the law, but also understanding the policies behind it. Many readers will have had to terminate an employee. In this article, I discuss the principles behind the rules for termination “without cause,” that is, where an employee has not done anything that merits being fired, but […] Read more
Sustainability special: Saving Iowa
Stronger commodity prices are threatening many soils. But not on every farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes The topsoil of one of America’s largest agricultural-producing states is vanishing at an alarming rate, with wind and water erosion directly linked to the cropping practices and to the fencerow-to-fencerow philosophy that farmers have turned to in order to cash in on high prices for corn, soybeans and other crops. Around Iowa’s western and southern […] Read more
Sustainability on the hoof
Across Canada, livestock must be part of a healthy agriculture
Reading Time: 3 minutes Forages and livestock can not only help you manage your soil for sustainability, they can also help you manage the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds, says Martin Entz, professor of natural systems agriculture at the University of Manitoba. No-till farming has come a long way and has brought a lot of change to agriculture. But there’s […] Read more
Increase in conservation agriculture ‘has to happen’
Only 7.1 per cent of the world’s arable land is farmed no till, and there are many reasons to adopt practices
Reading Time: 4 minutes If conservation agriculture is so great, why aren’t more farmers doing it? It’s a question that surfaced repeatedly during panel discussions at the recent World Congress on Conservation Agriculture in Winnipeg. Presenters from countries spanning the alphabet from Australia to Zambia left little doubt that conservation agriculture is a worldwide movement. Zero tillage is growing […] Read more
Soil plays a major role in precision sustainability
Precision technology is teaching us some surprising eye-openers
Reading Time: 2 minutes Seriously? Can it really be better to till up and down some slopes instead of across? That’s one of the conclusions from early work with precision agriculture in Australia, where the technology is proving a boon for field crop productivity. It turns out that older technologies have blinded us to much of what’s really going […] Read more
Humanity must stop treating soil like dirt
Why we care: Farmers around the world know soil is the stuff of life
Reading Time: 6 minutes Winnipeg was the site of 2014’s World Congress on Conservation Agriculture where farmers, agronomists, researchers and policy-makers from 33 countries around the globe met to discuss the world’s soil, as the stories in the special ‘Sustainability’ section in the July 2014 issue of Country Guide reveal. In fact, Country Guide, and our farm readers, feel so strongly about […] Read more
Cover crops can be key to healthy soil
Starting out small and being flexible will improve your chance of success
Reading Time: < 1 minute The popularity of cover crops is growing and some farmers are discovering benefits of moisture retention, improved filtration, and increased organic matter for their efforts. But choosing the right cover crop and having the proper knowledge before you begin is important. We met with crop consultant Dan Towery at the recent OSCIA to hear his thoughts […] Read more
Consumers play major role in sustainable agriculture
Production efficiencies help the environment
Reading Time: < 1 minute Country Guide had the opportunity to speak with Terry Daynard, an associate at Agri-Food Technologies at the recent AGM of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA). He describes how public interest and activism for sustainable agriculture and the environment have moved modern companies toward sustainability. Super-chain stores also play a major role, as the […] Read more
Corn losing the acreage battle
Across the east, farmers like Elliot Lowry are dropping corn from their 2014 plans
Reading Time: 5 minutes Be prepared to see noticeably less corn in Canada’s cornbelt next year as farmers in southern Ontario and Quebec continue to switch acres to soybeans. The 2011 federal Census of Agriculture documented a 33 per cent jump since 2006 in the number of acres farmers are planting to soybeans, and it isn’t at all hard […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
