Reading Time: 2 minutes “It isn’t what a person says that counts. It’s what they do.” Everyone on the farm learned this from the cradle, and over the years they’ve come to know exactly how sage this advice really is. Being in business puts your values into action. It proves, every day, exactly what your beliefs are, and what […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: It’s all about values
Our toughest marketing challenge
Farmers are losing respect. Now is the time to win it back, before the costs get even worse
Reading Time: 4 minutes Rodney Dangerfield built a comic career on his signature line: “I don’t get no respect.” But for the agricultural industry, loss of respect is no laughing matter. The public perception of agriculture is steadily eroding. Last fall, Harris Interactive asked 2,537 Americans to name the most prestigious occupations. As you might guess, doctors topped the […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: A better marketing idea for agriculture
Reading Time: 2 minutes Marketing is in a class by itself. Nowhere else in agriculture is there so much more noise than information, or so many claims based on untested and untestable evidence. As a rule, of course, the entire financial and business ends of farming let us down in this regard, and I have complained in this space […] Read more
How Australia plans to beat Canadian farmers
A must read from Down Under for coming out on top
Reading Time: 6 minutes You have to admit that for an economic study, this one has a great title: “The Puck Stops Here!: Canada challenges Australia’s grain supply chains.” The new study is by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Center (AEGIC), and it looks into Western Canada’s export grain supply chain. In fact, it looks at our grain system […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Are they right this time?
Reading Time: 2 minutes You’ll find no shortage of things to disagree with in our July/August issue of Country Guide. If you don’t, it means we haven’t worked hard enough. My sense is that the future of farming is going to turn out to be just the other side of incredible. Probably, it’s your sense of the future too. If […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Getting rail back on the political agenda
Reading Time: 2 minutes John Diefenbaker was no longer Prime Minister when I got to shake his hand. Still, there was an election in the air, and my father, who distrusted Liberals every bit as much Dief (especially when they were led by Pierre Trudeau) had hauled his four boys to the high school auditorium to hear the great […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: The question of farm growth
Reading Time: 2 minutes It was a question that went all around the table. I was in Illinois with a group of Canadian and American farmers, and the discussion leader kept track of all their answers on a whiteboard. Here’s the question. In the last 30 to 40 years, how much has your family expanded the number of acres […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Brothers versus sisters
Reading Time: 2 minutes History will judge today’s farm families based at least in part on how they treat their brothers and sisters. At this point, it’s far from clear that history’s judgment will be kind. If you have sons and daughters in your family, they know this and they are thinking it (actually, they are thinking a lot […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Get your mind around it
Reading Time: 2 minutes Of all the sciences, which is the most important for your farm? Is it biology, or soil science, or chemistry, or electronics? My vote is for none of those. My vote is for psychology. I hope that surprises you, because it sure surprised me. I had just finished talking to young wannabe farmers at Ridgetown […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Test the next generation
Reading Time: 2 minutes I can’t help thinking we’d all be better off if some of those exuberant FCC T-shirts that shout “100% Farm Boy” or “Future Farmer” would curb their enthusiasm just a notch. Yes, it’s a great time in agriculture, all things considered, and yes, agriculture is a great place to be, but we should think twice […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
