Reading Time: 7 minutes Is it time to find a new advisor? Or would walking away from your current advisors be such a serious mistake that you’d regret it for years to come? Accountants, agronomists, grain marketers and other advisors are key parts of many farm management teams. But how good are we farmers at managing those relationships and […] Read more
Summer Series: Are you getting the right advice for your farm?
[Make It Count] This summer, the top job for more farmers will be to get busy evaluating the people who advise them
Summer Series: ‘Scale up your food ideas!’
[Make it Count] Is the time right to take your big idea to a food development centre? Today’s commodity prices may make this the best year ever to future-proof your farm
Reading Time: 12 minutes Could that idea that you’ve got buzzing around in the back of your head grow into a major commercial success if you took it to a food development centre? Who knows? And how much it would cost? There’s a lot to learn about Canada’s food development centres, but the fact is, few of our farmers […] Read more
Summer Series: Farm opportunities
[Make it Count] Steve Larocque builds a case for value-add at every farm size
Reading Time: 7 minutes We’ve all seen them, even in this magazine. They’re all the headlines about the wonderful world of value-add. How many headlines have you read? A dozen? More? They seem to be everywhere, offering glowing accounts of outside-the-box thinking and entrepreneurial success. Often, though, the concept leaves a big question in the air. Is value-add only […] Read more
Summer Series: Your next great business idea
[Make It Count] These five tips promise to make you even better at spotting great business ideas for your farm
Reading Time: 5 minutes Farmers who can identify new business opportunities have a valuable leg up in this competitive and rapidly changing world, so Country Guide reached out to innovative farmers and to innovation experts for their insights into finding that next winning idea. 1. Be Tenacious What does it take? For one, it takes attitude. Over and over […] Read more
Summer Series: Your personal re-set
[Make it Count] On the farm, successful mid-career change takes more than new business practices and adapting to external influences. It demands self-management too
Reading Time: 6 minutes Change can sometimes lead to a radical re-evaluation of your past and present. In mid-life, change can prompt you to imagine what your future might look like, including your career. Research shows that many people in their mid-40s grow dissatisfied with their careers. The reasons behind this mid-career “crisis” can be attributed to several factors, […] Read more
Summer Series: How these Ontario farmers are getting great at change
[Make it Count] Every new idea, challenge and decision is an opportunity to learn. Sharing the takeaways from those lessons will help strengthen and sustain Canada’s agriculture industry
Reading Time: 11 minutes What makes a farm business good at change? Country Guide spoke with three Ontario farms to find out how they meet the challenges of change and what lessons they’ve learned on the journeys to diversification and growth. Thatcher Farms Thatcher Farms was born out of necessity. Almost two decades ago, at a time when commodity […] Read more
Summer Series: Working through change
[Make it count] Learning to change — and to change better — is a constant process
Reading Time: 5 minutes Canadian farmers are no strangers to change. Over the centuries, and especially over the last few decades, they have constantly adapted to changing global markets and government policies with new processes, technology and on-farm practices. Despite change being such a big part of farming, however, few farmers receive formal lessons in best practices for change […] Read more
Summer Series: The dark market of farmland rentals
[Land] It’s not getting any easier to follow the market for this key farm expense
Reading Time: 5 minutes Somehow, how farmland rental rates get set remains one of the mysteries of the universe despite being so hotly debated in social media. Whether you’re a renter or a landlord, everyone is endlessly fishing for details about what the neighbour is charging or paying, although it’s easier to crack a bank vault than pry that […] Read more
Summer Series: Build a better crop budget
[Land] Financial management is evolving as fast as agronomy. Your budget can have the best of both
Reading Time: 3 minutes Crop planning involves decisions on return on investment and cost/benefit, and also cash flow and financing considerations. Some producers now utilize both agronomists and financial consultants to help build their crop budget. Optimizing crop budget planning is increasingly important as crop expenses increase and agronomic options continue to expand. Logistics, opportunity costs and strategy Logistics […] Read more
Summer Series: The family landscape
[Land] The Impact: Rising farmland values mean new farm opportunities, and frequent challenges for family harmony
Reading Time: 5 minutes Once considered among the most traditional, unchanging ways of life, farming today is being transformed. Farmland values are changing the nature of farming and farm business management, and introducing new opportunities and risks. Plus, they are creating challenges for farm families. Land prices are raising new questions about how to direct assets to different siblings, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
