Feed The Farmers

Reading Time: 5 minutes With volatile commodity prices, the finger is getting pointed at farmers for profiteering while the rest of the world starves. The facts from two internationally renowned ag scientists are completely different. In most countries, especially in the developing world, today’s higher prices may finally let farmers lift themselves out of the deepest poverty, says Clive […] Read more

Lobby Hard

Reading Time: 7 minutes “Farmers are professional complainers,” Pierre Elliott Trudeau told Quebec agriculture students in 1979. “When there is too much sun, they complain. When there is too much rain, they complain. A farmer is a complainer.” Historians say Trudeau’s complaint helped the Liberal party lose the election that year. Either way, the relationship between politicians and farm […] Read more


Promanager

Reading Time: 7 minutes In some people’s eyes, Trish Fournier isn’t a farmer. That’s OK by her. She doesn’t think she’s a farmer either. Instead, she’s a farm manager, part of a new generation of managers poised to revolutionize North American agriculture. In the U.S., 15 per cent of farmers have already turned their operations over to professional management […] Read more

Payday

Reading Time: 6 minutes No matter what your age, or the ages of your family members, it seems there’s good reason to start paying yourself (and them) a wage, especially if you back it up with a well-structured system of bonuses. Farm financial advisers across the country report that more farmers are making the switch away from simply dividing […] Read more


Focus Groups

Reading Time: 5 minutes Do you really want to get involved? You’re already busier than ever and it’s awfully tempting to simply say no. But then, focus groups are a major way for companies and other groups — even governments — to make sure they deliver what farmers want, so it would be good for them to get the […] Read more

Learning More

Reading Time: 8 minutes Some people are driven to learn constantly. Clearly at 54 years old, Dan Wester is one of them. In the last few years, Wester has taken extended courses from the George Morris Centre as well as executive training through Texas A&M University, and he has signed on for a multitude of workshops and seminars. And […] Read more


If The Bubble Bursts

Reading Time: 10 minutes Her words were carefully chosen to avoid any sense of panic, and she delivered them in a flat, bureaucratic monotone. But on October 18, 2010, when U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Sheila Bair warned that the rapidly rising farmland values may be the next asset bubble, she actually didn’t have to worry. Farmers and […] Read more

Jump Start

Reading Time: 7 minutes When Jean-Pierre Blackburn stepped up to the microphone to announce a new federal program to help young farmers, he knew that what he was going to say would cause heads to nod in agreement all across Canada. “We all know that beginning farmers face many obstacles,” the federal Minister of State for Agriculture said, listing […] Read more


Down At The Elevator

Reading Time: 6 minutes Greg Brenneman, who farms near Salina, Kansas quickly put the question is sharp context. His home state has moved away from wheat production, as Gerald Pilger reported in last month’s issue of COUNTRY GUIDE. Instead, farmers there are growing more profitable corn. It’s a change that is putting huge pressure on the state’s grain handling […] Read more

Grower University 2011 Series – for Feb. 15, 2011

Reading Time: 4 minutes Having a solid business strategy for your operation is like air to the lungs — essential to stay alive. Yet while contemplating a calculated strategy is critical, of equal importance is finding a way to give that strategy legs. So how can you incite your strategy, taking it from paper to reality? What is strategy, […] Read more