Reading Time: 5 minutes As she closes the book on a career spanning regional and national leadership roles at RBC, Country Guide asked Gwen Paddock about the level and pace of change she sees in cutting-edge farm businesses. Size, sector and location aside, what traits do the owners of these farms have in common? How do they stay on […] Read more
Speaking of success
A new cohort of farmers has never farmed with rising interest rates. Same goes for bankers. So what does retiring RBC vice-president Gwen Paddock see ahead?
A path to better bookkeeping
Are you using the right accounting software for your operation? And, is the right person doing the job?
Reading Time: 7 minutes A few decades ago, most Country Guide readers put the final lid on their shoebox record-keeping systems and made the move to computerized farm books. Maybe it started with a progression from Mom’s hard-copy ledger to a series of Excel spreadsheets. Or was it a transition from spreadsheet hell to a desktop software that the […] Read more
The story of high prices
Return on investment is driving a rise in farmland purchases by non-farmers that looks like it’s here to stay. Is that bad? Or good?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Farmland’s reputation as a safe and profitable asset seems sure to draw more investment dollars into rural Canada, whether farmers are happy about the extra demand for their number one source of wealth or not. A look at Calgary-based investment fund Veripath Farmland Partners and its 90,000-acre row crop portfolio shows why. Farmland is just […] Read more
Keeping the ‘busy’ in ‘business’
The Mathesons continue to diversify on a farm modelled for success
Reading Time: 5 minutes All of the clichés about sharing workloads — “Many hands make for light work” or “Two heads are better than one,” fall by the wayside when chatting with Ian and Scott Matheson. Since they took over farming from their father, they’ve increased their respective duties on the family operation near Lakeside in the northwest corner […] Read more
Keeping workers on the farm
Scientific HR really can help ensure your farm business has the people and skills it needs
Reading Time: 8 minutes There are multiple moving parts to any busy farm, and there have to be just as many to a sound HR plan too. You can pretty quickly run out of fingers if you try to count them. There’s recruitment, retention, training, evaluation … the list goes on and on. But that doesn’t mean HR has […] Read more
Better neighbours
In an era of bigger, busier operations, are farmers still paragons of neighbourliness?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Neighbourliness is stitched into the fabric of rural Canada. It always has been. In fact, as Dr. Catharine Wilson, professor of history at the University of Guelph might put it, “reciprocal labour” is what paved the way for our farming success. “I don’t think we can overstate how important neighbours were,” says Wilson. It isn’t […] Read more
Building a knowledge base for your farm team
For today’s farmers, the top question to ask your farm business advisor may be, “Who else are we bringing in on my job?”
Reading Time: 6 minutes Independence has always had its limits. Farmers have always enlisted off-farm experts to help solve tough production issues, and they’ve always kept their ears open when they’ve met with their bookkeepers or bank managers. But times have sped up. Today’s farms, whether small, medium or large, are complex operations that require a team to help […] Read more
Are you ready for this?
Columnist Leeann Minogue learns that if you don’t get on board with how these young women think, you’ll get left behind
Reading Time: 8 minutes What do young women think about the male-dominated ag industry that they are about to enter? I had been asking myself this question, and I wanted to find out, so I talked to a selection of female ag students. What did I hear? Without exception, these young women all wanted to know why I was […] Read more
Bright spots and blind spots
Bright Ideas: “Hugely successful businesses have been built on this principle,” says IBM founder Tom Watson. “It’s worth giving it some thought."
Reading Time: 5 minutes Farmers frequently take stock of tangible assets. They know how much money they have in the bank, how much machinery they’ve got ready to go, and how much of which crop inputs they have on hand. But what about intangible assets? Could we be keeping better track of our knowledge and skills, and should we […] Read more
Is a joint venture right for you?
On Canadian farms, and especially in succession planning, joint ventures are still uncommon. That may soon change, but it means you’ll have to wrap your head around these essential concepts
Reading Time: 10 minutes They aren’t going to work on every farm. Joint ventures are common in industries such as natural resources, energy and property development, but they haven’t yet found a real home in agriculture, and certainly not as a farm transition tool. With the price of farm assets such as land and equipment soaring, though, and with […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
