When Louis Balcaen began to look at advisors as an investment, not a cost, the next step was to build them into a team

Reading Time: 2 minutes Be sure you get yourself a quarterback, Balcaen says. It s essential to have someone with those talents. You usually get what you pay for, Louis Balcaen says at the start of our talk. It s his summary of a dozen years of bringing together a team including his banker, insurance agent, lawyer, and accountant […] Read more

Finding The Right Advisors – for Apr. 14, 2009

Reading Time: 2 minutes Start with word-of-mouth when selecting farm advisors but insist on professionals with an ag backgound Liz Robertson Liz Robertson, executive director of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA), likes the idea of team meetings, which she thinks minimize the back-and-forth phone calls between professionals. Robertson says that opposing views arise in meetings that can […] Read more


to manage your value chain better

Reading Time: < 1 minute In truth, few of us really even consider it. Despite all the talk about refocusing our businesses on the consumer, it s a tough sell. It already takes all our time to get as efficient as possible in the field and in the barn, plus looking after all the endless demands of farming, from working […] Read more

Something Ventured… Much More Gained

Reading Time: 2 minutes Peace River farmers Joe Friesen (l.), Kevin Peters, Russel Friesen and Jason Neudorf say their joint venture makes each of them more efficient, and more profitable. Joint ventures are gaining ground across farm country What were they thinking? After all, it s not like there s a shortage of feed mills in Canada. It s […] Read more


What’s The Fit For Ag? – for Apr. 14, 2009

Reading Time: 2 minutes Other sectors use joint ventures much more often. In the construction industry, for example, smaller subcontractors team up to form a larger general contractor that they all perform work for and then bill for their services. In Alberta s oil and gas industry too, companies often partner on projects but maintain their own separate businesses. […] Read more

Wave Of The Future? – for Apr. 14, 2009

Reading Time: 2 minutes Through a company called AgStream, Gary Pike of Calgary s Pike Management Group was among the first to actively court joint-venture arrangements with growers in Western Canada under which outside investors provide operating money to farmers to produce canola, in exchange for a portion of the crop. Pike says growers showed a fair amount of […] Read more


The company that’s most famous for what it doesn’t make tells us why it thinks farmers across Canada will want to watch the next moves it makes in agriculture

Reading Time: 2 minutes Why does the world s largest chemical company want to muck about in the small, fragmented and highly specialized world of Canadian agriculture? The commercials were so offbeat, they instantly broke through the blur of me-too television advertising. At BASF, we don t make a lot of the products you buy, the velvety voice said. […] Read more

Young Turk Rural Saskatchewan’s Murad Al-Katib Plots His (And His Province’s) Path As A Global Pulse Leader

Reading Time: 2 minutes Let’s say your family owns a grain trading house in Turkey. It’s been good business, especially the market you’ve built up over the past 50 years trading pulse crops. But lately, the farmers around you have stopped planting pulses as weather conditions and government programs persuade them to grow other crops. In desperation, at first […] Read more


Laptop Terms Like Business-Rugged, Semi-Rugged, And Fully-Rugged Are Much More Than Advertizing Hype. They’re Technical Standards To Help You Buy The Right Electronics

Reading Time: 2 minutes Panasonic’s Toughbooks 52 and 74 or Dell’s Latitude E6400 ATG are examples of laptops that rank in this group. They will do well in less-than-perfect conditions, like those inside a barn or machinery shop. But as durability rises, so does price. The Toughbook 52 starts at $2,595 and comes with a 15-inch screen. The 74 […] Read more

Every Minute Counts On Today’s More Complex Farms. Our Maggie Van Camp Checks Out The New Office-In-A-Truck Options From Ford, Toyota, Dodge And GM. Each Could Make You More Efficient. Here’s How

Reading Time: 2 minutes If the dog in the back lets you peek in the window of our pickup, you’ll see a farmer s office on the go. The visor is stuffed with invoices, grain receipts, sunglasses, keys, a rent cheque waiting for delivery and a label from some vaccines. The dash is coated with dust, pens, more bills, […] Read more