Ready To Sell – for Oct. 11, 2010

Reading Time: 5 minutes It s a bedrock of car advertising. Maybethebedrock. If an ad is going to sell cars, it has got to show sheet metal. A lot of sheet metal. Not surprisingly, this has also been the bedrock of farm machinery marketing too. A flip through any farm magazine will prove it. Now, Case IH s new […] Read more

New Horizons

Reading Time: 4 minutes On the morning that Country Guide caught up with him, Leon Ternan was heading out to drive combine after he had worked on some bookkeeping and then made time to read his marketing newsletters. What other profession gives you this kind of variety? Leon says. Sometimes I am asked why I spend so many hours […] Read more


On Camera

Reading Time: 9 minutes In The Holland Marsh North Of Toronto, Jamie Reaume And The Area’s Vegetable Farmers Are Learning That Becoming A Media Darling Is A Full-Time Job. But, Says Reaume, It’s Worth It I’m doing a television show right now,” Jamie Reaume says over the phone. “And I’m filming tomorrow as well.” Then, Reaume suggests, why don’t […] Read more

The Marketing Puzzle

Reading Time: < 1 minute A call, a put, a naked writer. At-the-money, in-the-money, out-of-the-money. It’s enough to make you think you’re locked inside a jigsaw puzzle where none of the pieces fit. In fact, though, if you go to some online dictionaries of grain marketing terms, you’ll find these are a mere handful of the sub-categories listed for just […] Read more


Field Team

Reading Time: 6 minutes As if marketing isn’t complex enough already, Ryan and Lauren Maurer have injected two extra complications. Their farm is above average in size, with 11,000 acres based at Grenfell, an hour and a half east of Regina. Plus, they grow and have to market a wide variety of commodities, including grains, pulses, oilseeds and niche […] Read more

Talk It Up

Reading Time: 3 minutes Gilbert Ferré grows 2,500 acres of wheat, barley, oats, canola and peas in the Zenon Park area of northeastern Saskatchewan. His son Nicolas farms with him, much as Gilbert farmed with his own father when he started out in 1974. Now, with years of experience behind him, Ferré doesn’t hesitate when asked what marketing advice […] Read more


Trading Places

Reading Time: 7 minutes A handful of companies still dominate the global grain trade. Chances are, you’re still selling to them too, either directly through a local elevator they own, or indirectly through the maze of marketing agreements that local buyers negotiate with them. But scratch that surface and you’ll find a sector that’s undergoing an enormous transformation — […] Read more

Crop Adviser’s Solution – for Oct. 11, 2010

Reading Time: 2 minutes One hard-working producer called me last June about his field of canola. His outside round looked great — a thick stand of healthy plants at the three to four leaf stage. The inside of his field was another story. It was sparsely populated with sickly, yellow, mottled, dying plants. Up close, a sharp and clearly […] Read more


The Marketing Puzzle – for Oct. 11, 2010

Reading Time: 13 minutes A call, a put, a naked writer. At-the-money, in-the-money, out-of-the-money. It s enough to make you think you re locked inside a jigsaw puzzle where none of the pieces fit. In fact, though, if you go to some online dictionaries of grain marketing terms, you ll find these are a mere handful of the sub-categories […] Read more

Trading Places – for Oct. 11, 2010

Reading Time: 7 minutes Ahandful of companies still dominate the global grain trade. Chances are, you re still selling to them too, either directly through a local elevator they own, or indirectly through the maze of marketing agreements that local buyers negotiate with them. But scratch that surface and you ll find a sector that s undergoing an enormous […] Read more