Reading Time: 3 minutes Today’s farmers are confident. They are finding their voices and they are finally becoming viewed as the powerhouses they are. Farmers are hungry to learn and they are also hungry to educate others. They are educating politicians, society and industry on the strength of their operations and on the economic contributions they make. Today’s farmers […] Read more
A farmer’s appetite for learning
Continuous improvement: The next generation of farmers is ready to lead
Simplifying data management
Now into its second year, FieldView is helping users learn more, and do more for themselves
Reading Time: 5 minutes Precision ag is such a patchwork today. It seems to offer the potential to achieve so many great things on the farm, yet it can create almost as much bother and anxiety for the grower, i.e. the very individual it was created to help. With the number of systems, designs and platforms that can collect […] Read more
Our data road map
Is the ADT initiative in the U.S. the right way to put Canada’s farmers in control of their data too?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Canada is awash in agricultural data that’s not being used to its full potential by farmers, researchers, or the government. Now, work has begun to try and improve that situation. “There’s a lot of information that exists electronically, but we need to give farmers control of their data so they can use it and flow […] Read more
The new AGCO strategy
The company gets serious about launching FENDT as its high-tech brand in North America
Reading Time: 6 minutes When I received my invitation from AGCO to attend a media event earlier this summer, I was told there would be a surprise. It was, said the company’s PR agent, to be the unveiling of the new IDEAL combine. Hardly a surprise, I muttered to myself. AGCO had debuted the IDEAL in Germany last November, […] Read more
How we market today
Smart young Millennials are bringing an incredible new level of intelligence and energy to commodity marketing on a growing number of Canada’s farms. But not on all
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s obvious that today’s farmers have upped their financial management game, working with professionals including accountants and lawyers to build on and execute plans that are miles more sophisticated than ever before. But when it comes to marketing, are our farmers as good at roping in top advice? It depends on the farm, of course, […] Read more
Canada’s agricultural brand has fizzled
Canada used to be known as the top producer of the world’s best food. Now, if we’re lucky, we’re considered second-rate
Reading Time: 5 minutes As you sit in the cab of your combine, swather or truck this harvest season, a point to ponder is how Canadian agriculture will be remembered by the next generation. I think back to my grandfather’s farming days when Canada was considered part of the “bread basket of the world.” Grain buyers depended on the […] Read more
Benchmark your marketing
How good are you at marketing? Or maybe more to the point, how bad are you?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Does it necessarily mean you’re poor at marketing if you aren’t actively engaged in daily trading? What if you have never done a paper trade, or if you haven’t ever locked in a private contract with a processer? Does that mean you’re a bad farmer? Obviously, the answer is no. It doesn’t have to mean […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The way we think about markets
As new crops of young farmers help fill their families’ bins this year, will it be agronomic skill that decides if they succeed, or the farm’s asset strength? Or will it be marketing?
Reading Time: 2 minutes All of us complain about our memories, I’m told. None of us complain about our common sense. At least, I think that’s how it goes. We aren’t always as humble as experience tells us we should be about our mental judgments or our mental aptitudes, and for good reason. We can sound awfully good when […] Read more
Strategically grass-fed
In the heart of Alberta feedlot country, this farm secures its future in value-add
Reading Time: 8 minutes The story of Trail’s End Beef reads like the script for a reality television show. First, there’s a female protagonist — city-raised, private-school educated, a show jumper with an MA in history, a book author. She’s tall, lanky, blonde, engaging, a go-getter. Vegetarian. Then, there’s the male lead, also tall, also lanky. Raised on a […] Read more
Taking on the market
Options, futures or forward contracts? Two farmers search for sustainable income
Reading Time: 9 minutes Options, futures or forward contracts? Two farmers search for sustainable income Dennis Pashovitz calls it his ’67 Cougar moment. It was the late 1990s and the grain farmer at Arelee, an hour west of Saskatoon, needed cash to open a trading account. The only way to learn about marketing, he was convinced, was to play […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
