Reading Time: 3 minutes We’ve all seen a fuzzy caterpillar make its way across our path. Inching across the pavement makes it vulnerable to the traffic and the weather, but it must get to a cocooning spot. It seems so small and sluggish but it has something more inside it. It will become that something more. It will morph […] Read more
Metamorphosis
Empower the people around you to be transformational leaders
Is western separation a real possibility? The cost of Alberta secession
Why is it farmers will tour countless variety plots and study mounds of test data to find a one or two per cent yield advantage, yet are willing to bet the farm on key structural changes based on nothing more than political slogans?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Case in point: Once again western separation has become a hot topic. Many readers will argue this shouldn’t be taken seriously; it’s just coffee-shop talk. But is it? In February an Angus Reid Institute poll showed 50 per cent of Albertans would support secession from Canada. Since then Premier Jason Kenney on multiple occasions has […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Did farms make the right choices?
We have all heard it before. It’s the saying that most bad decisions get made in good times. So, in the midst of the bull market a decade ago, we wondered what we’d be looking back on in 2020
Reading Time: 2 minutes Here is what I wrote in September 2008: “Somewhere in the land and in the barns that are being bought and sold, and in the equipment purchases, and in the new partnerships that are being formed and the old ones that are falling apart, there are the beginnings of trends that we’ll point to in […] Read more
Trailblazing (Part 3): Family leadership — all together now!
A good leader knows how to deal with feelings honestly without harming other family members
Reading Time: 3 minutes Of our 96 living decedents on my father’s side, most show up for our annual family Christmas party. It is a fun affair with games, crafts, sharing, potluck dinner and a dance. Our history covers the walls of the hall in documents and photographs. It’s our “not to be missed” event of the year. For […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The breathtaking nerve of young farmers
Despite the tangle of current farm issues, nothing matters more in this fall’s federal election than how we encourage more young farmers to get find their feet
Reading Time: 2 minutes It was only a few years ago when, in every group of farmers, someone could be relied on to shake their heads and complain that the upcoming generation of Canada’s young farmers was marked by nothing so much as its sense of entitlement. Too many of us were too fast to see young farmers standing […] Read more
Trailblazing (Part 2)
The curious leader — trailblazing women farmers
Reading Time: 3 minutes When talking leadership for Country Guide, female trailblazers have repeatedly told me it was a real benefit to them that they had a curious parent in their earlier years. They also rank their own curiosity as a key contributor to their success. The value of curiosity also came up repeatedly when I spoke to global […] Read more
Editor’s Note: On deck for 2020 – a Country Guide suggestion
It’s an odd thing about agriculture. Or perhaps I should say it’s another odd thing. In an industry where the short and medium term are so frustrating to predict, the long-term is clear
Reading Time: 2 minutes We’re all shaking our heads about the excesses the weather has smothered us under in the past 12 months. And mostly we agree too about the equally unpredictable political excesses that have roiled global trading patterns and devastated commodity prices. Combined, those two are enough to make us overlook the historic predictability of other key […] Read more
Trailblazing
Women farmers reveal how they have succeeded in agriculture, and how other women can too (Part 1)
Reading Time: 4 minutes Country Guide asked for more on how we define a culture that is inclusive, equal and conducive for a successful female heir or independent business person from within a family unit. In this first part of a three-part series, I went across Canada and asked trailblazers — highly successful women in farming, agriculture and agri-business […] Read more
My 11 steps to making better decisions
What does making a documentary in India have to do with farm management decision-making? As it turns out, a lot
Reading Time: 6 minutes Are the decisions you make based on solid information and knowledge, or are they based on bias and emotions? This is a critical question everyone needs to ask because the basis on which decisions are made ultimately determines the quality of the decisions. In the run up to New Year’s, I realized that 2019 marks […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Get more from the next six months
The further we go with the business focus of Country Guide, the more we believe in the ‘summer business’ concept. In fact, it’s the reason for our April issue
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers have always been decision-makers. It’s been true throughout the generations. But there are three reasons why it’s different today. The first is clear. It’s because of the number of zeroes in play. Farm decisions have always been make or break, but today’s dollar sums are beyond the imagining of farmers of only a few […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
