Reading Time: 6 minutes In September, I challenged farmers to think about how Canada’s agricultural production should be branded. I questioned how consumers and foreign buyers view the commodities we produce. And most importantly, I wanted every farmer to ask themselves if production practices they use add or diminish that brand. That column upset some farmers. Readers felt my […] Read more
Time to take control
When it comes to the future of Canada’s grains sector, no one is steering the ship. We can’t let that continue
Editor’s Note: Be it resolved…
We’re heading into another meeting season, and here’s a topic that’s actually worth making a resolution out of and standing up to move. Clearly, there won’t be progress if you don’t
Reading Time: 2 minutes Obviously, you don’t have to get very far away from the farm to lose sight of the fact that the real energy that’s driving agriculture isn’t some GMO breakthrough, or some new chemical innovation or even some amazingly brilliant bit of electronic engineering. Nor is it the price of grain, or the value of the […] Read more
A new attack on glyphosate
Earlier this fall, some food companies were calling for a ban on glyphosate
Reading Time: 8 minutes Already by October 1, 2018, over 200 products sold under 17 different brand names were displaying the Glyphosate Residue Free symbol on their packaging. And another 50 brands representing hundreds more products are in the process of securing Glyphosate Residue Free certification. Farmers can expect increasing backlash over their use of glyphosate because of this […] Read more
Editor’s Note: How we talk among ourselves
Reading Time: 2 minutes Again I’ve been told our farm business focus means Country Guide has stopped writing for real farmers, which is to say that if you read us, you’re no longer playing for the home team. To be honest, the charge doesn’t come up all that often. I had expected it to come up more. Still, it’s […] Read more
Editor’s Note: In 2018, we know what really works
Who thinks of financial management when we have those road-trip discussions about which innovations should get how much credit for making today’s agriculture so great?
Reading Time: 2 minutes If it was a scientific technology that was adding as much capability to today’s farms as effective financial management, we’d all be quick to sing it’s praises. We’d also have a pretty clear sense of how much value it was adding to the farm. It’s an interesting exercise to think about it in terms of […] Read more
Opinion: Winning with help from a mentor
Reading Time: 4 minutes The editor at Country Guide asked, “After meeting someone who could be a potential mentor, what makes a farmer pursue a full mentorship? When do they make the decision, and why? What is the impact of the relationship for themselves and their business? How do we relate this to leadership?” I didn’t have the answers […] 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
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
Editor’s Note: It’s incredible – the future of farming
Reading Time: 2 minutes Most of what you’ll see below is from a column I wrote three years ago. I stumbled across it recently and asked myself, do I still believe it. More to the point, do you? My sense is that the future of farming is going to be incredible, literally. Probably, it’s your sense of the future […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Six ingredients of an ideal farm successor
Reading Time: 2 minutes Several articles in our May/June issue of Country Guide examine what may be the toughest question of all. Does your farm’s next generation have what it’s going to take to succeed in 2050? Fortunately, science can help. I’ve suggested before in this space that as farms continue their likely evolution in asset value and in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
