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Guide Business — page 2

In Quebec, a healthy agriculture is the cornerstone of its rural sustainability policy, and a big part of the reason it will spend an extra $15 billion on farms and related businesses by 2025.
Guide Business

Different in Quebec

History makes Quebec unique. But it takes more than history to account for its approach to ag policy and why that approach is being studied by farmers across the country and around the world

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For centuries, agriculture has been a major contributor to the economic engine of Quebec and to the vitality of its rural regions. In 2016, the GDP of Quebec’s bio-food industry was 7.4 per cent, totalled $23.4 billion, and created 12 per cent of jobs in the province. From 2013 to 2016, the GDP of the […] Read more
IT firms are seeing the potential in agri-food technology and are buying companies or bringing in talent.
Equipment, Guide Business

Investing in agri-food technology

“A very dismal state of affairs” is how one investor looks at Canada’s ag tech future

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San Eng thinks the agri-food technology investment climate in Canada might improve, but a “venture capital ecosystem” must develop quickly or the nation will lose out. “The people I’ve talked to are overlooking the sector — they don’t think it’s sexy enough, which is disappointing because the potential is there,” says the serial entrepreneur who […] Read more
Owen Fijala of Manitoba was only 16 years old when he set his sights on dairy farming.
Dairy Cattle, Guide Business

Early days

How young is too young to make major farm decisions? Meet Owen Fijala, and get ready to rethink your assumptions

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Just like any farm kid, Owen Fijala grew up helping out on the family grain farm near Manitou in south-central Manitoba. Things got a bit different, though, when he got a part-time job helping out a neighbouring beef farmer and he began to get interested in livestock production as well. He’d kept his eyes open, […] Read more
A full-sized Silverado made out of LEGO blocks was built by school students to help publicize the Silverado and “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.”
Guide Business, Marketing

Affecting attitudes

GM takes to TV and the movies to get you to buy the new Silverado pickup

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One of the most interesting press releases to drop into my inbox this year has come from General Motors. “Chevrolet debuts all-new Silverado marketing campaign,” was the headline. It revealed how The General (as car guys have called the brand for years) plans to convince consumers to take a second look at the updated pickups […] Read more
“Not having family members that were farming made some things more difficult,” Lydia Carpenter says. “In other ways, it was an asset to us.”
Guide Business, Livestock

The way it happens

How do new farmers get a start in Canada? Every story is unique, but so often it starts, as here, with the right people somehow getting together

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If, as the Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet,” Lydia Carpenter and Wian Prinsloo are the living embodiment of it. They have always had an interest in food production, yet neither had grown up on a farm, and when they set out to follow their passion in their […] Read more
Increasing costs related to farming are making your decisions more important and sometimes more difficult as well.
Guide Business, Management

Farm fit

Maybe the phrase “Standardized Financial Benchmarks for Canadian Farm Financial Statements” doesn’t instantly get your blood pumping. But read on. Could this be the tool that lets you control your future?

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Like many others, Larry Martin is convinced that Canada’s agriculture is evolving far faster than anyone driving a few miles of country sideroad could guess. The scenery hasn’t changed. At least, it hasn’t been transformed. It’s still a patchwork of crisp farmsteads and open fields, and of barns and bins. But those who live here […] Read more
Beating the odds: Gurpreet Singh, Murray Froebe and Tapinder Singh found a way to connect that helps the farm and them too.
Guide Business, Management

New hires

On Canada’s farms, the cost of all the work that can’t be done because there are no workers to do it is spinning out of control

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Farmers around Carman, Man., know the small convenience store in the town called the Lite Stop Foods. They know they’ll find what they want there — a few groceries, the local newspaper, a snack to tide them over. It also happens to be where Murray Froebe found two very good employees for his farm. Froebe […] Read more
Women are talking with their families to start practising what they learned, and to take more of a team approach on the farm.
Guide Business

A better agenda

Workshops for farm women are teaching both men and women across the country how to score more with business education

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Whether you are male or female, you know you need more business know-how to thrive in today’s ag world. Also regardless of whether you’re male or female, you’re probably actively seeking to increase those skills and your knowledge base. Everyone is upping their game. It’s part of the farmer’s basic job description. Maybe, though, the […] Read more
“Sovereignty of food and resources will become more politically inter-twined with business.” – Neil Hemingway, BroadGrain Commodities
Guide Business, Soybeans

China trade

Will the friction between China and Donald Trump create real opportunities for Canadian soybean growers?

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In today’s world, the news headlines that we read in the morning can be turned on their head that afternoon, which is why being able to differentiate what is really newsworthy from what’s just background noise is becoming a critical success factor for farmers. On the trade front, ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China […] Read more
Workers who aren’t the right fit for their job aren’t happy, and seldom stick around.
Guide Business, Management

‘I didn’t sign up for this!’

The new AgriHR Toolkit from the national ag human resources council can help in heading off conflict before it happens

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Many of us have heard it from a disgruntled employee or possibly a family member. Maybe, at some point in our lives, we have even said it ourselves. “I didn’t sign up for this!” Workers who aren’t the right fit for their job aren’t happy, and they seldom stick around. In fact, 80 per cent […] Read more

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AGCanadaTV: In Case You Missed It – Your National Ag News Recap for the week ending August 23, 2019.

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