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Young farmers with new tractor
Guide Business, Management

Intuition: When it’s the right time for change

A leader needs to be prepared to offer opportunities for the next generation

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Reading Time: 4 minutes The best leaders today seem to have a keen sense of when to make changes. They know when to share an example of their own struggle and when to motivate the next generation. It’s their gut instinct — that feeling we all get during times of decision-making. It’s the best leaders who know when to […] Read more
For Adrian and Jodi Roelands, the business challenge was clear. How could they grow their operation sustainably and profitably based on a reputation for top-quality product? In that search, employee feedback is now a key strategy.
Fruit/Vegetables, Guide Business, Management

Farm feedback

On this savvy farm, feedback is mined for real value, producing a happier, more efficient workforce

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Reading Time: 9 minutes On the farm, we’ve heard the jokes about feedback being a load of barley that gets rejected at the elevator, or maybe it’s how a cow chews her cud. In bizspeak, though, feedback gets taken a lot more seriously than that. As a human resources strategy, feedback is gaining global attention because of the power […] Read more
The value of a handshake
Guide Business, Management

The value of a handshake

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Reading Time: 4 minutes When I think of the greatest farm leaders today, I think of those who have experienced some incredibly tough moments and who, when their values were tested, stayed true to who they are. I think of those I saw stand their ground during difficult situations, often with the next generation watching. These moments stand out […] Read more
Two couples walking by cornfield
Guide Business, Management

Transition to better communication

How better succession planning can lead to better decision-making and less conflict

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Too many times, farm succession planning starts with a series of useless, dead-end and sometimes volatile meetings. Someone erupts into tears, someone else mutters some nasty words in anger and frustration and all our hopes crash in flames. No wonder we are afraid of stirring up this toxic mess of emotions. We’re supposed to be […] Read more
Family portrait standing in front of a red barn on the farm.
Guide Business, Management

Get more for your farm family

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Reading Time: 3 minutes I have been the witness to several successful farm operations over the last number of years. I count myself lucky as someone who gets to see what innovation, smart business practice and communication can achieve on family farms. The majority of what I see doesn’t surprise me. And it frustrates me when people act surprised […] Read more
Smart stuff
Guide Business, Management

Smart stuff

Do parents really recognize the skills their children are bringing back from college and university, and how those skills can make the farm stronger?

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Skip the smiley faces and the acronyms. In the new age of digital soft skills, agricultural schools are embracing the same modes of electronic communication as their students, albeit with a dose of finesse, professionalism and, at times, trepidation. “Don’t use emojis, they’re cute, but they’re not professional,” Mark Fournier of Alberta’s Olds College tells […] Read more
Who’s too old?
Guide Business, Management

Who’s too old?

Farm families know that age diversity makes them stronger. But did you know that a spread of ages in your employees adds strength too?

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Diversity in the workforce is a good thing, but diversity doesn’t mean just diversity of gender or ethnicity. It also means age diversity. Increasingly, older workers aren’t retiring gracefully to play golf and potter in the garden. Instead, they are making a conscious decision to change careers later in life, when the experience and skills […] Read more
Is agriculture ageist?
Guide Business, Management

Is agriculture ageist?

We tend to respect our elders more in agriculture,” says Tracy Biernacki-Dusza. Even so, ageism is one of the last and most common areas of bias

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Reading Time: 3 minutes More than four in 10 Canadians feel that ageism is the most tolerated form of social prejudice, according to the Revera Report on Ageism: Independence and Choice as We Age, released in May 2016 by Revera Inc. and the Sheridan Centre for Elder Research. This is more than double the number who rated racism or […] Read more
Famer and His Son Standing Side by Side Leaning on a Gate
Guide Business, Management

Leadership on the farm — empowerment

Part two in a five-part series on successful farm leadership

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Reading Time: 4 minutes Leadership surrounds me in my daily work with farm families across Ontario. One thing our succession conversations always circle back to is leadership, both in theory and in practice (and as we all know, the practice part is the difficult part.) We are still learning to wrap our heads around what collaborative leadership looks like […] Read more
Guide Business, Management

Which joint venture will work for you?

AME Management: Building a business structure that works for your farm

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Reading Time: 6 minutes The whole world acknowledges the brilliance of Albert Einstein. He is famous for his discoveries about relativity and the pull of gravity, and for his equation E=mc2, which says that the increased relativistic mass (m) of a body times the speed of light squared (c 2) is equal to the kinetic energy (E) of that […] Read more

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