Reading Time: 5 minutes Like many farms with added complementary enterprises like a trucking company or livestock barn or a seed business, Tomtene Seed Farm at Birch Hill, Sask., has developed systems to juggle all the moving parts. “Maintaining identification and producing seed products of quality merit takes a shift in thinking about the products, about production, about the […] Read more
Governing the farm
On most farms, ‘governance’ sounds like the last thing you’d want to talk about if you hope to keep everyone happy. Steve Tomtene used to think so too, but is glad he changed his mind
Step one to value adding: Evaluation
You’ve got a great idea for a new product. Or maybe not
Reading Time: 5 minutes There are many reasons why farmers are drawn to value adding. You might have excess capacity in the field or the barn, for instance, or maybe if you milled grain into flour, you could retain good staff by providing year-round positions. Or maybe you’re wondering if an on-farm market could solve your problems by creating […] Read more
Hiring refugees
A small non-profit in Belleville, Ont., has helped 90 Syrian refugees find good jobs on farms and in the ag and food sector. Now other regions across Canada are replicating their model
Reading Time: 4 minutes Shortly after coming to power in Ottawa, the federal Liberals announced Canada would help relocate displaced Syrians, and the program has proved widely popular. Across the country, over 350 communities have welcomed more than 40,000 Syrian refugees. In the midst of it all in 2015, details on how this relocation would be achieved were scarce. […] Read more
Unconventional
Maybe it’s time to take Canada’s new crop of non-conventional farmers a lot more seriously
Reading Time: 7 minutes Change is coming to Canadian agriculture, and judging by the numbers, it’s coming fast. Our country’s food supply, our rural landscape, much of our GDP and a major part of our national identity all depend on Canadian farmers. But the average age of those farmers has now reached 55, with more farmers over 70 years […] Read more
Taste the future
Why is a farm that’s noted for its technological innovation suddenly getting involved in an enterprise producing Middle Eastern ice cream?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Dawne and Lloyd Grenkow finish each other’s sentences, if not each other’s thoughts. “Working with family? I love it,” Dawne says, giving her son Lloyd a bit of a sideways glance and a laugh. “Really, though, you give your blood, sweat and tears to it, but everybody does. And everybody benefits.” Dawne founded Grenkow Holsteins […] Read more
Conventional thinking
Machinery manufacturers are offering European farmers new options for in-crop weed and pest control
Reading Time: 5 minutes Walking the 15 kilometres or so of aisles at Agritechnica in November, one trend was hard to miss. It was in the tillage segment, where the number of options and the sophistication of that technology is obviously on the rise. Efficiency has always been the driving force behind farm machinery evolution, but it’s clear that […] Read more
B2B strategic partnering
For the Martin farm in Ontario, building connections with other businesses is a winning formula
Reading Time: 6 minutes At nine years old Quentin Martin became one of five siblings who were shareholders of their family’s Master Breeder pedigreed Holstein farm, which his parents incorporated in 1965. “They gave all of us common shares,” says Martin,“which meant at nine years old I was sitting at the table with the feed salesman and the banker […] Read more
It’s called FarmWorks
This innovative investment fund is creating a new model for getting financial help into the hands of farmers who can make a difference
Reading Time: 6 minutes One of the highest tides in the world enters Jennifer and Kevin Graham’s front yard twice a day. Their 30-acre farm near the seaside village of Kingsport, N.S., runs down to the Minas Basin, an inlet of the Bay of Fundy. This area, like the entire stretch of the Annapolis Valley, is peppered with farms […] Read more
The new consumer value
While farmers take pride in producing high-quality crops at affordable prices, consumers have moved on
Reading Time: 6 minutes In my previous article I suggested that farmers need some fresh thinking about the value they are producing for the consumer. Unfortunately, the majority of North American farmers still value their production only on the basis of quality and price, whereas research shows that only about half of consumers now base their food purchasing decisions […] Read more
Smarter than you think
Here’s what your kids come home having learned about business at ag college. It’s much, much more than even a few years ago
Reading Time: 9 minutes When Colin Penner enrolled as a student in the University of Manitoba’s agricultural diploma program 10 years ago, he had to prepare a business plan for his farm. Today, he is back at the U of M as an instructor, teaching other students how to complete today’s planning assignments, which are miles ahead. Preparing a […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
