Reading Time: 9 minutes Situated on the south edge of Winnipeg, the farmers market at Le marché St. Norbert was bustling on the chilly Saturday morning in late October when I visited. A fiddler entertained inside the market’s new 11,700 square-foot canvas canopy, and vendors with a range of local products for sale were busy engaging with the crowd. […] Read more
Growth markets
Sales at farmers markets across Canada are rushing toward $1.5 billion, and their farmers have plans for much, much more
Land at $75,000 per acre
Balancing the need for high yields and sustainability — farming a Dutch polder
Reading Time: 8 minutes The newest province of the Netherlands, Flevoland, is flatter than the Canadian Prairies. There isn’t a tree, building or windmill older than 40 years. And while in Canada our farmland was won from the bush, here in the Netherlands it’s wrung from the sea and called polders. Fabulously fertile, furiously high priced and fragile, this […] Read more
Taking the bull by the horns
Western Canada’s beef producers have taken control of their industry, achieving a level of stability that seemed gone forever. Here’s part of that story
Reading Time: 8 minutes Statistically, at least, it seems the long, sharp decline in Western Canada’s cattle business has stabilized. To say it’s closing the book on one of the most momentous stories in the entire history of Canadian agriculture (or for that matter, of agriculture anywhere in the world) is perhaps going too far. But it’s been an […] Read more
Service please
Are you keeping up with the level of business service your neighbours are getting from their accountants and advisors?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Country Guide compares notes with two insiders in Canada’s booming farm advisory sector. As they tell us, there’s a lot to keep up with. There are two reasons why Canadian farmers are now using more business services than they did five or 10 years ago — and neither of them is going away any time […] Read more
Dream team
In Vector Grain, the Bruggencates and Sulzles are collaborating on a joint venture to make their longtime farming dreams a reality. It takes dedication and smarts, and loads of professional advice. But it’s paying off
Reading Time: 8 minutes Mike Sulzle had worked as Craig Shaw’s hired man for 16 years when Shaw approached him in 2015 with surprising news: 2016 would be his last year farming. “Craig had always said I could take over when he quit farming one day, but it wasn’t serious,” says Sulzle. “I didn’t see how I could do […] Read more
The annual performance review
Does it really make sense to put employees and team members through a performance appraisal?
Reading Time: 4 minutes You’re busy, of course, so finding an excuse for not doing annual performance evaluations with employees and team members looks so very tempting. Would it really be so bad if you pushed the reviews onto the back burner? The answer is an unequivocal “yes,” according to Dr. Sara Mann, an associate professor specializing in human […] Read more
Seven steps to a learning plan
Learning never stops on the farm. There’s always something new to wrap your head around, whether it’s a business or management strategy, human resources, marketing tools, production techniques, farm equipment technology, on-farm food safety and traceability protocols — the list is endless. Indeed, the learning goes on even when you’re not aware of it. It[...]
Read more
Read more
AranLIFE
World-famous for their mix of Irish culture and nature, the Aran Islands are learning just how much they owe to agriculture, and how much they may have to pay to keep it
Reading Time: 7 minutes In Galway Bay just off the coast of Ireland, a new five-year project called AranLIFE aims to help preserve both a unique farming system and also the cultural and ecologically important landscapes that depend on it. It’s a project that started with the same question that more Canadian farmers and non-farmers are also asking. Is[...]
Read more
Read more
Farming on the edge
Reading Time: 3 minutes Farming on the three Aran Islands off the coast of Galway, Ireland, is quite literally, farming on the edge. Or, actually, on many kinds of edges. Winter pastures on the north coast cling to cliffs that jut into the crashing Atlantic, while on the southern side, orchid-strewn summer pastures sweep gently between ancient stone walls[...]
Read more
Read more
Get the story right
Why it’s so hard to debunk myths (and the secret to doing it)
Reading Time: 3 minutes The expression “mud sticks” doesn’t just refer to the aggravation you experience during spring planting. It also means that misinformation seems to have an uncanny knack for settling in and never letting go. Take, for instance, these gems that persist despite (or perhaps because of) an online world of information at our fingertips: bovine flatulence[...]
Read more
Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
