Reading Time: 9 minutes [UPDATED: Jan. 9, 2023] We were feeling stuck,” Stacey Meunier recalls. For her and for husband Chad, the future was on hold. They knew what they wanted — to take over Paul Meunier and Sons Farms Limited, their family’s mixed farming operation in Barrhead, Alta., an hour and a half north of Edmonton — but […] Read more
New school: The business concept that reshaped the Meunier farm
Growing numbers of mid-career farmers are enrolling in high-level business programs aimed at the farm. The experience can be transformational
It’s about winning
The 2020s are best the argument yet for farm business planning. CG sits down with economist Michael von Massow to explore why
Reading Time: 9 minutes It’s hard to make a plan that will stick. We all know it. The pressure of things you need to do today can overshadow the importance of getting ready for the things you might want to be doing five years from now. Besides, you have a good four years left. Surely there will be a […] Read more
On board with insight
With its new advisory board, the Leguee family is tapping into the smarts of a group of incredibly talented, experienced business people. Their farm needs it, Jake says. “The decisions we’re making these days are big.”
Reading Time: 11 minutes When a farm or a farmer’s name comes up, you’ll sometimes hear other farmers say, “That one’s progressive.” But what does that really mean? Of course it means they are interested in new ideas, new research and new opportunities. But that is true of all farms, so it has to be more than just that. […] Read more
The equitable farm
Being fair and equitable to women on the farm has to start much closer to home than most of us are aware
Reading Time: 12 minutes Women in agriculture span the career spectrum from hands-on farm owners and managers to the unpaid extra pair of hands that runs to get parts or takes a turn checking the cows at calving time. Women fill all those roles and more, and almost without exception, they juggle that work with all the other balls […] Read more
Look beyond ag to re-imagine your farm
Bright Ideas: Where are you going to get your next great idea?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Innovation and reinvention are the cornerstones of any industry, helping them survive over the long haul. Their role is crucial in Canada’s agriculture sector. However, sometimes we rely too heavily on insider data knowledge. This approach can make us stale. It becomes repetitive, eventually costing us our originality and objectivity. So, where can our agriculture […] 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?
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
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
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
