Reading Time: 8 minutes In September 2008, Mark Torchia found himself in an operating theatre at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, holding his breath. The Winnipeg-based professor, researcher and medical device specialist was about to see the result of several years of hard work by himself and a team with members from the St. Boniface General Hospital, the University of […] Read more
Cutting Edge
Young & In Motion
Reading Time: 5 minutes Melanie Sommers tears around the corner of her family s free-stall barn, jumps out of the tractor cab and pokes a hand out of her coveralls for a handshake. She s been cutting some fourth cut hay and is rushing to get it done before the fall rain sets in. The pressure is on, but […] Read more
Rent To Grow
Reading Time: 5 minutes Jason Kambeitz knows that when farmers get together over coffee and the conversation turns to farmland investment companies like Assiniboia Capital and AgCapita, the smiles disappear and a sober seriousness takes over. By buying up local farmland, the talk goes, the big funds are driving up land prices, and they re taking capital out of […] Read more
The City Question
Reading Time: 5 minutes It was never going to be easy. Gwen Donohoe knew that, the same way that every farm kid knows that taking over the family farm is going to demand total commitment. Yet it isn t the hard work that has convinced Donohoe she needs to keep a least one foot in the city. She wasn […] Read more
What Is It Young People Want Anyway?
Reading Time: 5 minutes As questions go, this isn t exactly new. What do young people want? Every generation has wondered at the behaviour of their young, and every age has questioned the wisdom of its children s long-term goals. Granted, it doesn t help that the question sometimes gets asked with sarcasm in the voice and a raised […] Read more
Listening In
Reading Time: 8 minutes A generation ago, Sarah Wray might have gone looking for a farm organization to join. Maybe she would even have started a new club so beginning farmers such as she and her husband Logan could learn from others about getting off to a good start. Or she might have opened up a new branch of […] Read more
NEW FARM LESSONS
Reading Time: 3 minutes Their parents can probably be forgiven for assuming that a farmer growing five acres of strawberries in southern Ontario can t possibly have anything to teach a young farmer breaking into large-scale production on the Prairies. Even Christie Young, executive director with Ontario s FarmStart, describes her ideas about small-scale, new farmers as unique. But […] Read more
Young Employees Too
Reading Time: 6 minutes When I m on assignment for COUNTRY GUIDE, young farmers have been talking to me for several years now along the lines of, My father has hired hands, I have employees. Now, however, today s young farmers are moving the HR yardsticks even further. My interview with 32-year old Jeff Vermeersch is a prime example. […] Read more
More, More, More
Reading Time: 6 minutes CG:Why are we seeing so much new technology hit the market all at once? Jim Walker:I can only answer from our standpoint, but five years ago the company made a conscious decision to do two things. First and foremost was to assure top reliability in our existing products in the marketplace. Then, second was to […] Read more
“The Best Family Farms”
Reading Time: 5 minutes All too often, a farm s success is measured exclusively in economic terms. It s a job we know how to do. Net income, net worth, debt to equity, return to investment, and profitability are great tools to use to determine the financial health of the business. Yet we know that success is defined by […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
