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Management

Control of the books doesn’t have to be a question that holds the farm back. Instead, it can help you tackle the big issues that will fit the farm for the years ahead — as long as it’s approached with honesty and foresight.
Guide Business, Management

Who’s doing the books on your farm?

On your family farm, is it time to transfer the books from Mom to the next generation? These seven steps will help you put things right

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Reading Time: 6 minutes Sometimes it’s a job that gets assigned by default. After all, how many farmers really want to volunteer for a job that involves sitting at a desk entering data, paying bills and sending out invoices? Sometimes, too, there can be an older generation that doesn’t want change. Managing the farm books is their last bastion […] Read more
"It was the best decision — having two separate businesses instead of sharing one,” says Steve, with Amanda on their farm, just down the road from the family operation.
Guide Business, Management

Generating farm independence

Sometimes, the best solution can be for the next generation to build a farm of their own

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Reading Time: 10 minutes The roads here are typical for this part of rural Ontario, running between neighbouring towns. On either side, at the end of long maple-sided lanes are well-kept dairy, beef and crop farms divided into 100-acre parcels, with red and black barns stamped proudly with farm names, usually family names. Occasionally too a lane is overgrown, […] Read more
Bags Of Money On A Farm Field
Guide Business, Management

How financially healthy is your farm?

AME Management: These two examples show how standardized financial statements can be a powerful source of insight into your operational management

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Three articles in this space over the last year (see links further down) focused on the management information to be obtained from standardized farm accounting statements. This month, we illustrate it here with two farm examples, concentrating on the operating (profit and loss) statement. The organization of our operating statements is based on three principles: […] Read more
Dustin and Kristi Burns.
Guide Business, Management

It’s their job

More farmers like John and Kristi Burns have family and non-family members working side by side, making it vital to set clear job expectations

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Job descriptions for new farm employees help them understand how the farm operates, what their job is all about, and what the employer expects of them. But family members working on the farm often think they don’t need one for themselves. They’ve been on the farm forever, after all, so they already know what to […] Read more
Two men shaking hands
Guide Business, Management

Cleaning up sweat equity

It used to show you were committed to farming. Now it’s a dangerous source of controversy on more Canadian farms

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Reading Time: 11 minutes At his financial office in Stettler, Alta., Peter Boys reaches for stark language to make his point. “Slavery is alive and well on farms in the Prairies,” Boys says. Boys is referring to the practice of farmers not paying equitable wages to their children working on their farms, often under the promise of future ownership… […] Read more
Farmer and His Son Leaning on a Gate in a Paddock on a Farm
Guide Business, Management

Getting onboard with your employees

The most valuable time you spend with any employee may be their first few hours on the job

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Whew! After months of advertising, searching and interviewing, you’ve finally found and hired someone to help on your farm. As processes go, this one has been stressful, time-consuming, and more than a little frustrating. Nor is that surprising. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council found in 2014 that our farms have a job vacancy rate […] Read more
I learned the patience game,” says Lauchie, “especially nearing the end of the seven years when I wanted to get things moving.”
Guide Business, Management

Lessons from a non-family farm succession

For Lauchie and Jolene MacEachern, a seven-year dream becomes a reality

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Reading Time: 10 minutes Is it still possible to start farming from scratch? “If scratch means no farm assets and a good work ethic with a passion for agriculture, yes it can be done,” says Elaine Froese, farm succession coach from Boissevain, Man. But how? Especially when the capital assets needed to be competitive have become so huge? Today, […] Read more
Herd of Holstein Friesian cows
Guide Business, Management

What will the TPP mean for your farm?

AME Management: Overall, Canadian farmers get increased market access from TPP, plus better dispute settlement

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Reading Time: 3 minutes The October 2015 Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is a substantial trade treaty for its 12 members, and like other trade treaties, it will introduce concessions on market access, such as tariff reductions and increased import quotas, as discussed below. But there is also considerable focus on food safety regulations as well as on biotechnology […] Read more

It doesn’t matter if you’re picking rocks, running a combine or talking to the banker. All those things have to get done at the same level of importance.”
Guide Business, Management

The 5 per cent solution of farm management

On the Hebert farm, the momentum for growth is internal

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Reading Time: 7 minutes In Saskatoon in mid-January, Kristjan Hebert was at the podium of a banquet room, telling the crowd of farmers something that farmers have said all through the generations. Hebert and his family want to build a legacy farm. “And our definition of legacy is extremely simple,” Hebert continued. “We want to leave the land and […] Read more
Guide Business, Management

Use financial ratios to diagnose operational issues

AME Management: Different farms have different factors affecting their performance

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Reading Time: 3 minutes The profit and loss statement provides three financial ratios that can help identify operational issues and set priorities in your operations plan. The ratios and their benchmarks are: The first and third columns define revenue/earnings and cost categories deducted from them on a standardized operating statement. The second and fourth are the resulting operating and […] Read more

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