Reading Time: 3 minutes New York | Reuters — After historic floods devastated Midwestern agricultural states this spring, some fund managers are evaluating how climate change will affect the long-term value of companies that make or sell products ranging from tractors to fertilizer. The issue is not simply the unpredictability of weather. Instead, fund managers say, they are struggling […] Read more
Climate change has U.S. fund managers adjusting agriculture investments
USMCA deal modestly boosts U.S. economy, trade panel finds
Reading Time: 4 minutes Washington | Reuters — The new North American free trade pact would modestly boost the U.S. economy, especially auto parts production, but may curb vehicle assembly and limit consumer choice in cars, a hotly anticipated analysis from the U.S. International Trade Commission showed on Thursday. The ITC report is a crucial step in the push […] Read more
Regulator rips CN’s use of freight embargoes at West Coast
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canadian National Railway has been found in breach of its service obligations on grain and other traffic by a federal regulator aiming to crack down on the company’s use of freight embargoes. The Canadian Transportation Agency on Monday released its determination on “possible freight rail service issues in the Vancouver area” last fall. The regulator […] Read more
The new AFS Connect Magnum tractor
Digital features dominate in the 2020 models from Case IH
Reading Time: 3 minutes For model year 2020, the new AFS Connect series Magnum tractors from Case IH is getting exterior styling that’s reminiscent of the prototype autonomous tractor that the brand showed the public just over two years ago. The similarity is no coincidence. When Bill Weber, Case IH high horsepower marketing manager, spoke to a group of […] Read more
Lease or buy?
Accountant dispels the tax advantage myth of leasing
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s been offered as accepted fact in more than a few coffee shop conversations that leasing equipment offers significant tax advantages to farmers. Talk to the sales staff at dealerships and you’ll likely hear them make the same claim. Even so, Lance Stockbrugger, a chartered accountant and cash crop producer from Saskatchewan, says the idea […] Read more
Into the future
Celebrated ag tech guru Scott Shearer sees a profitable path ahead, together with some potential bumps
Reading Time: 4 minutes While it’s not exactly as futuristic as 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s no longer such a big stretch to imagine the day when a single operator anywhere in the world can remotely control 25 to 30 tractors, and when our crops effectively send us emails letting us know what they need. As professor and chair […] Read more
Rising diesel prices coming
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Higher diesel prices are on the horizon for Canada and the U.S. in 2019. GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Dan McTeague pointed to an increase in overall demand, combined with a slowdown in heavy oil production and the federal carbon tax as well as pending IMO 2020 regulations — that is, the International Marine […] Read more
New utility tractors for 2019
Deere and Case IH ramp up their offerings in this popular segment
Reading Time: 4 minutes The number of models in John Deere’s 5 Series family of utility tractors has grown by four this year, along with expanded lists of options and available sophistication. The 5090R, 5100R, 5115R and 5125R, which span the 90- to 125-engine horsepower range, will now be available with a list of options that includes a factory-installed […] Read more
Selling hi-tech to farmers
Why is so much effort being put into new ways to sell high technology to farmers?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Several farm machinery writers occupied the two rows of mock tractor seats, each with a control armrest, which lined both sides of a special trailer on a warm January morning. Yes, an actual warm January morning, because the trailer was parked in an Arizona farm field, a location that Case IH had chosen for holding […] Read more
Farm groups see something for everyone in federal budget
Reading Time: 4 minutes Response so far from farm and agribusiness organizations to Tuesday’s pre-election budget suggests the federal government has managed to find at least one line item for everyone in the ag sector. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget pledges compensation for supply-managed sectors facing financial hits from international trade pacts, funding for a new federal food policy […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
