Guide Business, Agriculture News & Resources

“We are diversified now but we had even more ventures in the past.” – Ryan Schuyler.

Next level farm management

Business planning practices are driving success on these three farms

By Rebecca Hannam December 31, 2020

Reading Time: 8 minutes There are two halves to farming — production and business. They are correlated, of course. You can’t really succeed in one if you aren’t also up to scratch at the other. That said, we’ve always known that every farmer brings their own mix of management skills and energies to the table, which means every operation […] Read more

“About 80 per cent of farmers fall into two categories,” says one Australian agronomist.

Guide Business, Guide HR

What type of person are you?

Across the business world, personality testing is growing exponentially. Now, it’s coming to the farm

By Julienne Isaacs December 16, 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve met them all before. In fact, many Canadian farmers don’t even have to drive down the lane to meet them all. Australian agronomist Cam Nicholson says farmers can be divided into four basic types: Dependables are the reliable types who defend the status quo. Doers work fast but don’t always finish every job. Pioneers […] Read more

Martin Richenhagen has been CEO of AGCO for 16 years.

Guide Business, Machinery

Career in ag machinery true to form

Assessing the legacy Martin Richenhagen leaves behind at AGCO

By Scott Garvey December 15, 2020

Reading Time: 7 minutes [UPDATED: Dec. 18, 2020] Having spent many years covering ag machinery, I recall all the times I found myself having a drink with other machinery writers at the end of a busy day, only to notice how often we’d all be agog at something we’d heard AGCO CEO Martin Richenhagen say. To be clear, we […] Read more

Features, Guide Business, Management

Resilient farmers vs. COVID-19: Producing good outcomes

It takes self-sacrifice, persistence and loyalty to each other, but farm families are creating good outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’re emerging stronger than ever

By Darrell Wade December 10, 2020

Reading Time: 5 minutes As we researched this series on resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic, did families ever shine! During some of the biggest challenges of our generation, we saw the agriculture community step up, and we saw the theme of family resiliency appear time and again. Our clients were eager to tell us the good, and yes, the […] Read more

To help insulate a farm business in unpredictable times it needs internal strength, but what does that look like?

Guide Business, Management

How fit is your farm?

Financial fluency helps the farm prepare for anything

By Angela Lovell December 9, 2020

Reading Time: 5 minutes A growing number of financial advisors are talking a different language today than they were 10 or 15 years ago. Increasingly they see the financial health of the farm in terms that go way beyond the numbers on the balance sheet or income statement. So, what are those fundamentals? “Healthy finances and internal strength in […] Read more

Crops, Guide Business

Selling the corporate farm

Darren and Carmen Sterling made the hard decision. 2019 would be their last crop. Then they would retire. But that’s when the real work began

By Anne Lazurko December 3, 2020

Reading Time: 10 minutes When we talk about Canada’s aging farm owners, we generally talk about how best to pass the agricultural torch to sons and daughters or, more recently, about creative contortions to move the farm into the future with those who are not family — in short, succession planning. But is it still called succession when there […] Read more

“For me opportunity, I think, lies in trying to partner with other farms.” – Erin Harris.

Crops, Guide Business, Livestock

Farm opportunities on your mind

Canada’s farmers tell us the new directions they’re planning for their farms

By Lorraine Stevenson December 2, 2020

Reading Time: 12 minutes Not so long ago, all the buzz was about unleashing Canada’s full agricultural potential on a world that desperately needs our farmers to produce more and more. Global population was booming, more countries were more prosperous, and consumers everywhere were changing and improving their diets. Now our country needs Canada’s farmers to succeed too. Whether […] Read more

NH North America’s vice-president Bret Lieberman introduced New Holland’s autonomous T7 at the same time CaseIH introduced its autonomous tractor at the 2016 farm show.

Guide Business, Machinery

Awaiting the autonomous tractor

How soon will there be a self-driving, autonomous tractor in your shed?

By Scott Garvey November 30, 2020

Reading Time: 9 minutes Over the years, all the major machinery brands have shown autonomous concept tractors to the public at farm machinery shows. They clearly wanted to get the message out that they have the engineering ability to build them. For example, CaseIH displayed its concept autonomous Magnum tractor at the U.S. Farm Progress show in 2016 where […] Read more

Program director Gillian Watt, sponsor Brian Garland and student Liam Dennison, winner of TRU’s 2020 award for ranch business.

Guide Business, Livestock

If you build it

Ranchers and businesses at Williams Lake get together to set up a college program that’s great for students, and for local industry too

By Lauren Kramer November 26, 2020

Reading Time: 6 minutes A decade ago, Brian Garland, owner of the Cariboo Auto Group in Williams Lake, B.C., was troubled. Around him were hundreds of ranches, many of them large, successful and thriving. Yet their families had nowhere local to go to study the profession and prepare to continue in their families’ footsteps. Garland’s own parents had met […] Read more

Guide Business, News

The farm reason to travel

Actually, the COVID-19 pandemic is a great chance to re-think how ‘off the beaten track’ travel and extended time overseas can be great business catalysts. Three farmers and a business professor tell us how it works for them

By Lorraine Stevenson November 24, 2020

Reading Time: 8 minutes Of course there’s a cost. Travel is an education, but how and where you travel means you do have to make the time, you do have to have the means, and you must seize an opportunity to do it. What do you get for that investment? The answer is both simple and complicated. Travel will […] Read more

Major flour miller to buy U.S. chickpea processor

Wet or dry spring ahead? Depends on where in Canada

Spanish report calls for cull of over 850 cattle on pariah ship

GFM Network News