The commodity bull run has over-inflated fixed costs,” says CEO Grant Kosior. Yet it also takes above-average input costs to produce top economic yields, creating the opportunity for GARS margin insurance.

Unrisky business

GARS goes private with a government program, and looks to win with farmers on both sides of the border

Reading Time: 6 minutes Whole-farm margin insurance has been available through Agristability since the Growing Forward programs were first launched. However, the program was plagued with complexity, its reputation fell, and five years ago it was trimmed significantly. Yet farm risk is on the way up with rising input costs, higher debt levels, and volaltile weather and prices. Now, […] Read more

Calculating your break-even cost is as challenging as any field job, and according to agronomist Greg Stewart, it’s just as valuable.

Determining your true break even point

What market price do you need to break even? The answer depends not just on your costs, but your goals

Reading Time: 6 minutes Every winter, talk turns to production costs, with a focus on how to get your break-even price even lower. But what is your break-even? Most of us believe it’s a reasonably simple figure to calculate: just divide your yield by your expenses, including the cost of seed, fuel, fertilizer, herbicide and fungicide applications, a possible […] Read more


Placing standing cash price orders may be a wise move in a corn market that may yet see some bounces because of USDA reports and international events.

Watch those corn prices

Sometimes it seems prices are stuck in neutral. But keep your eyes open. Global demand is enormous, and shocks can emerge overnight

Reading Time: 5 minutes Corn is a brilliant crop to grow. Its productivity is amazing, with a planting season here in North America that starts in February in Texas and ends in June somewhere in Canada. With genetics that fight off all kinds of pests, it’s almost like there’s an explosion in the field as the crop heads into […] Read more

Using futures and options in uncertain times

AME Management: Every year has its unique events, but with this strategy, farmers can provide profit opportunities that an “ordinary” year simply wouldn’t make available

Reading Time: 4 minutes Already, 2017 has been a year of uncertainty due both to unpredictable weather and political patterns. (We won’t speculate on which is the less predictable!) Uncertainty breeds large amounts of price volatility. Many farmers argue that using futures and options is too hard and carries the risk of cash-flow drains. They prefer to use the […] Read more


The price you set for your product has to be fair to you, but it also has to give retailers enough room to build in costs that are invisible to most shoppers.

Setting the right price for the grocery shelf

Canada’s grocery stores are eager for more producers to fill their shelves with great straight-from-the-farm products. To win, though, you’ve got to price them right

Reading Time: 7 minutes From the outside, it looks likes a huge opportunity just waiting for you to grab hold of it. And maybe it really is. We’ve all been there. You already have an idea of what it costs to grow your crops and raise your livestock, and one day when you’re pushing your cart down the aisle […] Read more

Aerial photo of the Shuler dairy farm in Michigan.

These American farms

It turns out we’ve got as many misconceptions about U.S. dairy farms as they’ve got about ours

Reading Time: 8 minutes Bill Shuler’s last year has been a revelation for the Michigan dairy farmer, turning everything he always thought he knew about the family’s dairy farm completely upside down. “In the last year, my life has been amazing, incredible,” Shuler says. “And that’s an understatement.” Shuler and his family operate a small dairy farm near the […] Read more


Canadian wine industry in southern Ontario.

To play in the big leagues

Investors with deep pockets are asking, “Why aren’t Canada’s ag entrepreneurs taking the world by storm?” Now they think they’ve figured out how to join in making it happen

Reading Time: 6 minutes From his desk in San Diego, former farm manager turned corporate investor Arama Kukutai has been pitched 822 times in the last year by farmers, ag scientists and entrepreneurs, all of them wanting to use his money to grow their brainwaves into the next Apples and Amazons of the world’s $3 trillion ag market. Almost […] Read more

Winning at the border

Winning at the border

It may be Donald Trump who is re-opening NAFTA. But today, more farmers north of the border are seeing some solid wins for Canada

Reading Time: 8 minutes Ron Davidson calls in from a hotel room in Washington, D.C., with NAFTA on his mind. As senior vice-president of international trade and public affairs for the Canadian Meat Council, he’s no stranger to the U.S. capital. And with the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in process, there are more cross-border trips […] Read more


The Brousseau family of St. Paul, Alta.

Finding a way to say ‘Yes’

Saying ‘no’ to a multi-generation corporation has helped Richard and Nicole Brousseau find their own route toward succession, with a clear focus on family

Reading Time: 8 minutes The road to farm succession can have many twists and turns. And every farm is unique, so it can be easy to lose your way in all the options, or to fall into somebody else’s cookie-cutter solution. Yet being true to your own business and family needs should always come first, as the Brousseau family […] Read more

After the CWB

After the CWB

Whether you farm in the West or East, looking at how Prairie farmers are managing their sales after five years on their own will make you a better marketer

Reading Time: 9 minutes Maybe you mourned its demise, or maybe you danced on its grave. Either way, five years after the federal government put the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk six feet under, it’s clear there will be no resurrection. How have farmers adapted to marketing wheat without the single desk? Where are they excelling, and where not? […] Read more