Reading Time: 6 minutes That coffee you grab to start your day represents more — way more — than something to wake you up. As you sip your favourite morning brew, you probably aren’t thinking about what type of beans were used, where they were grown, who farmed them or how they arrived at your breakfast table or drive-through […] Read more
Coffee, from the ground up
When Canada’s farmers get together over coffee, maybe the coffee should do more of the talking
Local food outlook
How far will the local trend actually take today’s ag?
Reading Time: 4 minutes While the pandemic was still raging a year ago, Business Development Bank of Canada added statistical muscle to what so many others were observing all across the country. COVID-19 was great news for local food. In its nation-wide survey, the bank found 21 per cent of Canadians had started buying more local products since the […] Read more
Working on a hashtag
It’s happened. Social media is now the leading way consumers learn about agriculture, which might just prove to be great news for farmers too
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the early days of COVID-19, the staff at Farm and Good Care Ontario thought their website had been hacked. Overnight, the hits on their virtual farm tours were up 4,000 per cent. Then, they learned why. “It turns out the Toronto District School Board promoted our website,” says Kelly Daynard, the group’s executive director. […] Read more
Inspiring ideas on the farm
Which is more important — the idea, or the person who has it?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Everyone has ideas. Every day. Every hour. And some of those ideas really are solid. Some are even exceptional. Yet only a few of us actually take those ideas and turn them into successful farm businesses. What is it about the people who do that? What’s their magic? For some light on all this, Country […] Read more
A grain marketing strategy for 2022-23
Know your costs, pay attention to basis and be careful about leaving grain in the bin too long
Reading Time: 6 minutes After a year with some of the most volatile markets in history, crop growers will need a careful marketing strategy to turn a profit in 2022-23. “The last two years have made for complacent marketing,” says Jim Beusekom, president of Market Place Commodities in Lethbridge, Alta. “Holding on to commodities and waiting for the price […] Read more
Taking grain marketing to the next level
After a year like 2021, more Canadian farmers are reaching out for marketing support
Reading Time: 4 minutes When it comes to marketing, Canadian farmers won’t forget 2021 anytime soon. High commodity prices early in the year motivated most farmers to price a portion of their grain. After all, this was what typical marketing strategies said to do. But as prices continued to rally, the desire to capture the high also continued and […] Read more
Changing places
There’s a new kind of farm in Calgary — yes, it’s right in Calgary — and it’s surging ahead with its business plan to make money, be environmentally conscious, and destroy the import market
Reading Time: 11 minutes We’re a long way from hippies in ponchos and bare feet. Urban agriculture has graduated. Today, it’s all about serious professionals who know that growing food is a business before anything else. A way of life? Only if it turns a profit. And there’s something else that’s curious too, especially for operations designed as vertical […] Read more
Strategic marketing
These three farms have made fundamental changes to how they market. Should you too?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Whether you price and deliver using a commodity exchange, or whether you negotiate contracts with retailers or you sell farm products directly to consumers, the price you go to market at is always crucial to success in agriculture. Increasingly, though, today’s farmers are applying their management skills to the job. How can they set themselves […] Read more
Home ground
In New Zealand, farmer Ed Pinckney helped his entire country see the cost of being so open to Chinese investment
Reading Time: 7 minutes While they may be in different hemispheres and on opposite sides of the world, there are a lot of similarities between New Zealand and Canada. The New Zealand economy is driven by their land and natural resources. So is Canada’s. Our agriculture is heavily dependent on exports. So is theirs. The Kiwis export nearly 90 […] Read more
Does your farm plan position you for a summer payoff?
In today’s agriculture, summer is becoming the essential business season of the year. Now, with these five strategies, you can get even more out of it
Reading Time: 9 minutes At Hebert Grain Ventures in Saskatchewan, they actually have a word for it. They call it the “harvest hangover.” It’s those three weeks after the last of the crop has come out of the field when, somehow, nothing much seems ever to get accomplished. “Once the fall season hits, things go out the window,” says […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
