Reading Time: 3 minutes Jeff Rowe, CEO of the Syngenta Group, doesn’t often get home to his farm near Princeton, Illinois. He’s usually operating from his base in Basel, Switzerland, instead. But when he does get back to the Midwest, you might catch up to him running a planter in the spring or the combine in the fall, just […] Read more
In the combine
Syngenta leader Jeff Rowe talks about being prepared for leadership and the importance of listening to people
The formula for farm growth
Capital + Risk + Execution = Farm SUCCESS
Reading Time: 3 minutes “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.” That’s how John C. Maxwell said it, and he might have said it best. It’s easy to look around the ag industry and see changes in the landscape. Suppliers, competitors and customers are consolidating and growing. Yet growth is often met with more scorn in farming than in these […] Read more
Finance 101 – What is a business plan?
There’s more at stake this winter, and more than ever to gain
Reading Time: 5 minutes A business plan is like a road map for your farm. You can plan your route, set a destination and track progress. But without a map or a plan, how does a farm business owner know what success looks like, or even what you’re capable of achieving? Or, most importantly, how do you know when […] Read more
Summer Series: Skills training that can make you a better farmer
[Make It Count] It’s a whole new world. For Jamie Christie, mid-career education means driving farm growth by adding skills no one used to think are needed on the farm. Which should be on the top of your list? And where to find them?
Reading Time: 9 minutes First, you could get process-minded about it. If you recognize it would pay to get serious about adding an education focus to your farm, there’s a logical way to get started. Make a list of the current skills that everyone involved in the operation has, then assess where there are knowledge gaps and training needs. […] Read more
Summer Series: Creating a positive culture
[Make it Count] Will creating a better workplace culture really improve your bottom line enough to justify all the buzz it’s getting?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Sure, a positive workplace culture can make your farm a more enjoyable place to work, and who doesn’t want a few more smiles in their day? But will a better workplace culture really improve your bottom line? According to a growing body of psychological research, the answer is a clear “yes.” The new science says […] Read more
Summer Series: Get more from your farm advisors
[Make it Count] Boost the returns from your investment in advisors’ fees with these tactics
Reading Time: 6 minutes Hiring business advisors and consultants is becoming a top habit on Canada’s most profitable farms, as identified in Farm Management Canada’s Dollars and Sense study. Whether it’s in accounting, law, human resources, succession planning, agronomy, livestock nutrition, communications or marketing, advisors are filling in the gaps in the farm team’s expertise. It turns out, though, […] 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
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: Farm opportunities
[Make it Count] Steve Larocque builds a case for value-add at every farm size
Reading Time: 7 minutes We’ve all seen them, even in this magazine. They’re all the headlines about the wonderful world of value-add. How many headlines have you read? A dozen? More? They seem to be everywhere, offering glowing accounts of outside-the-box thinking and entrepreneurial success. Often, though, the concept leaves a big question in the air. Is value-add only […] 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
Summer Series: The right farm team
[Land] It’s the Catch-22 of the decade. Either buy that ultra-expensive land or someone else will. How do you make that decision?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Two years ago in June, Terry Aberhart got a call from an account manager at the land investment company that, at the time, was leasing him about 2,000 acres of his roughly 15,000-acre operation. “Hey, we’ve been having some unsolicited offers come in,” the voice on the line said. The account manager went on: “In […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
