Reading Time: 9 minutes Picture yourself driving in traffic. Then, you begin noticing that the traffic is increasing, not just in the number of vehicles around you but also in the speed they are travelling at. Some of the traffic rules seem to be changing too, and the driver controls in your vehicle are all new and confusing as […] Read more
The road ahead
Our panel tackles the question: What are the big farm business risks for the next five to 10 years — and what skills, actions and mindsets will be critical in taking them on?
Blockchain essentials
At last, here’s a clear explanation of what the blockchain fuss is all about, and why it may be such a winner for agriculture
Reading Time: 4 minutes Traceability, food safety and fighting food fraud are issues of significant importance to food producers around the world. In fact, with supply chains getting more complex and ever-more global, and with consumers becoming increasingly both more curious and more wary about how and from where food gets to their plate, these issues may never have […] Read more
Capture the off-farm bonus
Working off-farm before joining the family farm may never have been more valuable
Reading Time: 7 minutes Country Guide had a simple question to ask farmers who began their careers by working off-farm after graduation. Should today’s young farmers start the same way, with off-farm employment? The eager and unanimous “yes” is still echoing down the halls. But is it right? Or are they farmers only justifying the choice they made? Well, […] Read more
Time to talk: Building teamwork
In this pair of articles, we find all this talk about communication is more than a trend gone wild. It really does pay
Reading Time: 4 minutes When bad farm managers have bad farm teams, they blame bad employees. And sometimes it seems they have a point. I mean, who hasn’t had an employee who never gets down to work, who makes endless mistakes and who constantly gripes with other staff? But the trouble is, ineffective or inexperienced farm managers can’t see […] Read more
Time to Talk: Creating opportunity
Yes, you can talk your farm to a better bottom line
Reading Time: 4 minutes Since farming is all about productivity, most farmers would rather “do” than talk. The old cliché that time is money is never more true than when seed needs to get into the ground or livestock needs to get to market. And yet, some of the most successful farm businesses in the country are those that […] Read more
The right time
For Brian and Joanne Keunen, off-farm experience created an eye for opportunity. But what really paved the way for Mapleview Agri came from the generations innovating how to work together
Reading Time: 9 minutes Like many newly minted high school grads, when he turned 18 years old Brian Keunen went off to college. His choice? Centralia College in southwestern Ontario. His goal? To get a diploma in agriculture, and then to return to the family dairy farm near Drayton, an hour and a half west of Toronto, where he […] Read more
Creating a culture of participation on the farm
Participation is about more than just joining in. It’s about contributing in a meaningful, valuable way
Reading Time: 3 minutes “Participatory culture” is where this series of columns has led us. That’s because, at the end of the day, when we talk about continuous improvement, it’s not just about changing our business but also our behaviour. It’s about the older generation creating environments where the next generation feels comfortable sharing their opinions and making mistakes. […] Read more
Tax change: Depreciable purchases written-off faster
For farmers and agribusinesses the new measures will provide a larger tax write-off sooner
Reading Time: 3 minutes This past fall the federal government introduced the Accelerated Investment Incentive, giving Canadian businesses the ability to write off capital expenditures faster. Encased in its 2018 Fall Economic Statement, this incentive allows farmers and other businesses more depreciation in the year an asset is purchased … a lot more. The idea is to spur business […] Read more
Filling in the knowledge gaps for consumers
Understanding the science of why consumers get so much wrong about agriculture can help us put them right
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s not an earth-shattering revelation to those working in agriculture that there is a farm-to-plate knowledge gap. We know that most consumers are generations removed from the farm and have misconceptions or a lack of accurate information about agriculture. The Knowledge Gap theory is that information has traditionally been more accessible to those with higher […] Read more
Chipping away
Tinkering with the environmental control systems on your new tractor or combine could cost a whole lot more than the $3,000 chipset
Reading Time: 6 minutes A few months ago I was talking with Jim Wood, chief sales and operations officer, at the Rocky Mountain Equipment dealership chain. He voiced concern at the time about equipment owners who were deleting the emissions systems in their late-model equipment. Aside from the issues this creates at dealership service departments, he expressed concern that […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
