Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s economic prospects have long been underpinned by trade. No industry better illustrates this than agriculture, where more than 90 percent of our producers depend on selling their goods to the world. In recent years, exports in agriculture and agri-food have grown dramatically, generating millions more in annual sales for producers and billions more to […] Read more
Preparing the future of Canadian agriculture
Canada’s share of global agriculture tech investment was just 3.4 per cent last year
How to make your kids more financially literate
Don’t overlook how powerful it is to teach your children about managing money on the farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes Financial literacy is essential for everyone, but it is particularly critical for farmers. Defined as “the ability to use knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being,” it’s a must in modern agriculture. Parents agree. They want their children to be financially independent. Yet Stephanie Szusz, who works in […] Read more
The ever-changing landscape of farmland rentals
The risks are growing. So is the pressure to lease more land. What does a smart rental strategy look like as we head into 2020?
Reading Time: 8 minutes There’s a small panic in the air, the muted response you might expect from farmers who hold their cards close and practise a stoic realism that helps them navigate the risks they can’t control: weather, grain prices, the impact that a single Chinese tech executive might have on an important market. Most of these are […] Read more
AGCO picks Fendt as its global brand
“It’s the year of Fendt,” as the company's new focus puts the brand squarely at the corporate core
Reading Time: 5 minutes In June, AGCO invited several machinery editors to its Jackson, Minnesota assembly plant to hear its news for the coming year. I was included in that group. As we were seated around a large table listening to the initial presentations, AGCO’s media relations manager made an off-the-cuff comment that stuck in my mind. “It’s the […] Read more
‘There’s no place like first place’ says billionaire cattleman
Just how differently do you have to think to succeed like Bob Funk?
Reading Time: 9 minutes What does success mean to you? If you posed that question to billionaire cattleman Bob Funk — who grew up on a small, impoverished family farm and went on to earn fame and fortune — you might be surprised by his response. “Money is not my motivator and never will be,” Funk says. “Entrepreneurship is […] Read more
Dealing with problem employees effectively
Instead of firing them, use these tips to coach problem cases into good employees
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s getting tougher to find and keep good employees. Nor, by all indications, is the situation going to improve anytime soon. According to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council’s newly released Labour Market Forecast for the next decade, farmers can expect an already tight labour market to get even tighter. According to the council’s survey […] Read more
Alberta growers add value by producing high-quality malting barley
How — and why — this enterprising Alberta farm family built themselves a platform in Canada’s fast-growing craft beer industry
Reading Time: 10 minutes John Hamill has always liked showing the family’s Penhold, Alta. farm to anyone who asks. After all, the 2,200-acre farm, growing wheat, canola and high-quality malting barley, and home to now a fourth generation of Hamills, is his pride and joy. “But before, no one was asking,” says his son Matt, smiling. Hamill Farms Ltd. […] Read more
Why marketing is the test, no matter how great your idea
“It’s a mind-shift,” says value-add pro Gary Morton. Success takes groundwork, strategic planning… and money
Reading Time: 3 minutes Branding that identifies you as the producer and connects buyers to your farm product is a key strategy for adding value to farm products, says Halifax-based business consultant Gary Morton with Morton Horticultural Associates. “You are kind of in a sea of sameness,” says Morton, who has worked with all types of farms, not only […] Read more
Alberta Hutterite colony bottles water to diversify
Clear Lake Colony is challenging the definition of “value-added” with bottled water production
Reading Time: 8 minutes Across the West, Hutterite colonies are successfully diversifying into other business ventures, but this is a unique story at the very rural Clear Lake Hutterite Colony, an hour and a half southeast of Calgary. Clear Lake, it turns out, is home to a natural spring well — and to a group of very forward-thinking farmers, […] Read more
Is western separation a real possibility? The cost of Alberta secession
Why is it farmers will tour countless variety plots and study mounds of test data to find a one or two per cent yield advantage, yet are willing to bet the farm on key structural changes based on nothing more than political slogans?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Case in point: Once again western separation has become a hot topic. Many readers will argue this shouldn’t be taken seriously; it’s just coffee-shop talk. But is it? In February an Angus Reid Institute poll showed 50 per cent of Albertans would support secession from Canada. Since then Premier Jason Kenney on multiple occasions has […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
