Reading Time: 7 minutes When they decided to start their own distillery in their hometown of Ayr, Ont., Cameron Formica and the brothers Jordan and Nolan van der Heyden decided to test the truth of the movie line “if you build it, they will come.” “Farming on farmland is good in theory,” Formica recalls thinking. He knows the “in […] Read more
‘Field of Dreams’ diversification
Got a diversification project in mind? Get ready for some serious negotiating — not with the bank but with the planning staff in local government
CNH revs up its strategic plan
CNH Industrial’s new CEO sets a direction he thinks farmers will want to buy into
Reading Time: 6 minutes When a new executive takes over a major corporation, it’s no surprise that a new strategic plan gets announced within a few months. The plan becomes a road map of sorts, revealing the new boss’s objectives and vision for the future. A new broom sweeps clean, as the old proverb says, and it’s what these […] Read more
A drive to succeed
How much energy and ambition does it take to succeed at value adding? Get ready for a serious reality check
Reading Time: 11 minutes Cutthroat. Vicious. Not for the faint of heart. Adjectives like these usually get saved for Wall Street bankers, high stakes poker or perhaps bull riding. It’s rare to find a person who’d apply them to making and selling potato chips. Take it from Ryan Albright, though. If anything, they’re much too mild for what this […] Read more
Three farms find ways to live it up
Yes, farms can aim at five-star markets, as Nuffield farms show around the world
Reading Time: 7 minutes When we think of farm diversification here in Canada, we usually imagine new crops or livestock, maybe some value-adding, or possibly some entry-level agri-tourism. How often, though, would you think of going after the top end of a luxury market? Below, meet three farms that have successfully diversified their income streams by targeting luxury offers […] Read more
Winning the barley battle
Australia’s barley exporters are getting a global reputation for out-hustling Canada
Reading Time: 5 minutes Recently I was eating my breakfast in Sydney, listening to the Australian barley industry make its pitch to potential buyers in Ecuador. The pitch was being made over Zoom, and it was all in Spanish and English with simultaneous translation. Such is the approach of Australia’s barley growers and their representative groups in an environment […] Read more
Food writer’s focus on local gets consumer attention
Why do Canadians love to read what Globe & Mail food editor Lucy Waverman thinks about their food and who grows it? Because her love for food is so irresistible
Reading Time: 4 minutes As we talk, Lucy Waverman is listing ingredients she always keeps in her kitchen. “Olive oil and chilies — I always like to have dried chilies or some fresh birdseye or banana peppers — just a pinch of something a little spicy brings out flavour,” she says. Then there’s salmon. Butter. Salt. “Salt is one […] Read more
More competition for Canada from Down Under
Australia has learned how to grow its grain exports. Is Canada paying attention?
Reading Time: 5 minutes I remember one Christmas Eve walking in minus 38, and then a week later saw the mercury hit plus 46 on New Year’s Day. Such are the outcomes of a 14-hour plane journey between Canada and Australia. But despite the different weather, I will tell anyone who will listen that Australia and Canada have much […] Read more
The view everywhere
What’s happening in the world of food, and does it matter? HINT: If you thought consumers were going to drop their pressure on how you farm, think again!
Reading Time: 6 minutes He’s called “Dr. Food” for a reason, Dr. David Hughes is emeritus professor of food marketing at Imperial College London and also visiting professor at the UK’s Royal Agricultural University. In other words, he knows both sides — farm and food — and he knows business too, serving as advisory board member for food companies […] Read more
The wheat and the chaff
Is there a better way to tell what market news is valuable and what’s overkill?
Reading Time: 4 minutes It can be all too easy to fall down the rabbit hole. Internet news, social media, newswires, online publications, they’re all shouting for your attention with new articles, new production forecasts, new supply-demand data and new opinion columns. But how much of it is just noise instead of actually useful? In order to know what you […] Read more
A better market ratio
How many hours does it take to be a good farm marketer? And how do you know if you’ve got there?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Of course farmers want the highest prices they can get for their production. And of course they know they have to work at it. But are your neighbours putting enough effort into the marketing side of their businesses to achieve maximum returns? Are you? “Farmers and ranchers are absolutely not spending enough time on marketing as […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
