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life insurance policy
Guide Business, Management

Life insurance strategies for your farm

These 5 strategies can be serious winners -- but be prepared for some equally serious homework

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Reading Time: 5 minutes If everything is tied up in fixed assets when a major change happens, even the best-managed farms can stumble and fall. Debts suddenly become unmanageable, family farms get bogged down in the mud of unachievable succession, and estates get devoured by tax liability. Setting up a rational way to deal with these situations ahead has […] Read more
two farmers talking in a field
Guide Business, Management

Networking and the farm

In the first of two parts, networking expert Donna Messer explains why her work should matter to you

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Reading Time: 5 minutes If you challenge yourself to describe a farmer in 10 words or less, before you’re halfway through, you’ll find yourself reaching for words like independent, autonomous and self-reliant. And no wonder. With all the risks and stresses of agriculture, farmers have earned the rights to that image of strength, resiliency and self-determination. But, as every […] Read more
Columns, Management

When the SPCA comes knocking

Understanding your rights and duties

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Recent media coverage of alleged abuse at Chilliwack Cattle Sales in B.C. has sparked questions about an owner’s obligations when dealing with animal abuse investigators. What are your rights and responsibilities when an investigator arrives at your doorstep? Inspector powers Animal cruelty is prohibited under the Criminal Code, which applies across Canada. In practice, most […] Read more
new holland tractor
Guide Business, Management

Meeting the customer’s need for farm equipment

New Holland veers away from corporate mega-dealers

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Reading Time: 6 minutes When New Holland vice-president Abe Hughes spoke to a room full of farm media at the company’s North American headquarters in Pennsylvania in July, he wanted to talk about more than the shiny new iron parked outside. It was important, of course, to highlight the innovation in the brand’s 2015 equipment introductions, but Hughes also had […] Read more
man wearing baseball cap
Guide Business, Management

Real-time financial management for farmers

Is it good, or too good to be true?

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Reading Time: 5 minutes It sounds like a dream come true, placing current financial data at the fingertips of everyone involved in the farming enterprise so you can make better, more efficient on-the-spot decisions at critical crunch times. And it might not be a pipe dream any longer. “It’s just the way the world is working,” says Lance Stockbrugger, […] Read more
man doing paperwork at a desk
Guide Business, Management

Family farm corporations on the rise

Depending on your farm objectives, building a trust into your corporation may be your best first step

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Reading Time: 6 minutes The death of the family farm is widely bemoaned. Activists ask, “What do we really know about these corporations that produce our food?” As it turns out, it’s the same question that many farmers are asking themselves, although in a very different context. How can I be sure that my farm corporation is the best […] Read more
Photo: Thinkstock
Guide Business, Management

You want to fire Dad?

There's almost always a better solution, says our panel of experts. Try these strategies to get everyone living happily together again

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Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s a movie standard. When the mob turns angry, they start wielding pitchforks. Whether it’s a monster that incites them or an invading army, when the local population goes berserk, and when they suddenly get transformed into nightmarish creatures of violence, the first thing they reach for is the nearest farm implement. It’s a scene […] Read more
Source: Iowa State University
Management

Selling out farming

Here’s a crowdsourcing website to get all of us fighting to keep farmland ownership in the hands of farmers

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Owning farmland is no longer a passion restricted to farmers. Today it is just as likely that farmland offered for sale will be bought by an individual investor, a developer, an investment fund, or even a sovereign wealth fund. While this demand is a boon to land values and those farmers seeking to sell land, […] Read more
Wrong choice
Management

Wrong choice

As farming gets more complex, what if you fear your son or daughter isn’t up to the job?

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Reading Time: 6 minutes One of the hardest truths about farming, like most professions, is that some people just aren’t cut out for the work. Worse, it isn’t always clear from an early age who has the makings of a good farmer and who hasn’t, which puts some farm parents in the awkward position of having built up the […] Read more
Chain reactions
Machinery Guide, Management

Chain reactions

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Losing a dealership chain creates distance between manufacturer and customer. As farmers get more sophisticated, the companies are exploring new strategies to bridge that divide “Claas to open corporate dealership chain,” the headline above the brief news item said in a European farm magazine this spring. But beneath that simple announcement lay a difficult marketing […] Read more

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