We know that our January 2, 2024 issue of Country Guide only begins to explore the “sweet spot” questions that you ask yourself every day. This was inevitable, we all know, because questions about right-sizing have moved to the forefront for today’s farm management… right-sizing the farm, right-sizing the equipment inventory, right-sizing the amount of debt, the number of employees… so much of farming is tied up in such questions.
If we can give ourselves a bit of credit, we not only recognize there’s more to say but also more ways we need to say it.
That’s why you’ll see right-sizing topics come up more and more often in Country Guide, because we aim to provide content that contributes to your decision-making, or, as our new tagline suggests, that helps you have better conversations about where your farm is going and how it will get there.
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You will also increasingly see us leverage not only print but also a wide range of digital tactics to connect with you as you think your way through your sweet-spot choices.
I talked not long ago with a friend about his experience this spring with a new, heavily electronified corn planter. It was a challenge to learn how to use the technology to manage things he had always managed before, things like seed depth, seed spacing, slot closure, etc.
Even more of a challenge was to learn how to use the technology to manage things he had never been able to manage in past, and to sort out how all these new capabilities can be brought together for optimal performance.
We’re in the middle of that kind of year ourselves, wrestling not only with new ways to produce our print magazine — sort of like controlling depth or seed drop in my planter example — but also how to harness all sorts of new electronic capabilities so we can do the job you need us to do faster, better, more efficiently.
So, like you, we talk about right-sizing and about identifying our sweet spots, and we do it pretty much the way you do. (Yes, we have no end of meetings too!)
We’re concerned about cost and about efficiency, but we always keep circling back to the why of what we do.
I hope you’ll keep that in mind as you read through this issue. As always, we have tried to assemble a list of stories that are both insightful and informative, and that are worth your reading time no matter what size you are or what or where you farm in Canada.
Associate editor Leeann Minogue has taken a strong lead in putting this issue together, and I hope that you will also get a sense as you read the issue that if this is the kind of team that Glacier FarmMedia is putting together to do the print/electronic Country Guide, then the future looks good.
In the interim, just know that we aren’t done yet, not even close to it.
So let me end as always. You might call it our editorial tagline.
Are we getting it right? There’s never been a better time to let us know. Reach me at [email protected].
