Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — For years, the financial stability of Canadian farmers was the envy of their U.S. counterparts, but rising costs, drought and a dispute with China have weakened their bottom lines. Net incomes plunged last year, and that setback was followed in March by China’s halting purchases of canola, Canada’s biggest crop. Now […] Read more
China, drought, debt shake Canadian farm finances
Timing not yet set on expanded advance payments for canola
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — With no clear end in sight to the dispute between China and Canada over Canadian canola, producers are anxious to know how and when they might access support programs to maintain cash flow. Since plans to help canola growers through expansions to the federal Advance Payments Program (APP) were announced May 1, there […] Read more
APP pumped up, AgriStability deadline extended against China canola ban
Reading Time: 4 minutes The federal Advance Payments Program’s loan limits and interest-free portions will be raised and the deadline for AgriStability enrolment extended in a bid to help Canadian canola growers with cash flow. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr on Wednesday announced the expansions and extensions along with plans to engage other […] Read more
B.C. grants late AgriStability enrolment for 2018
Reading Time: 2 minutes Fire, flooding and a drop in raspberry prices in 2018 have spurred the federal and British Columbia governments to trigger the AgriStability late-participation mechanism. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and her provincial counterpart Lana Popham, at an event Monday in Vernon, B.C., invoked the new late-participation rule for the 2018 AgriStability program year, “to help farmers […] Read more
Business risk management options for Canadian farmers in 2018
Government farm business risk programs are evolving, especially in Quebec
Reading Time: 7 minutes As farmers know well, risks to financial success in any year are many. Weather, crop and livestock health issues, market factors and spiking input costs are perennial threats, and they are all as large or larger than ever in 2018. It’s why business risk management (BRM) programs are so very important. Federally, AgriStability provides support […] Read more
You’re the ‘leader’?
Even if you farm on your own, these CEO strategies will make your operation more successful, and more sustainable too
Reading Time: 8 minutes No one would really question whether any farmer serving on a commodity or other type of farm board might need some leadership skills. After all, that’s what those farmers are doing, right? They’re being farm leaders. The same goes too for any farmer who manages a large operation with multiple employees. Obviously, if they’ve got […] Read more
Risk warning
Inside the campaign to get better risk management programs for Canada’s farmers
Reading Time: 8 minutes Ask Keith Currie where the biggest risk lies, and he’ll point to the sky. “We’re seeing much more severe weather systems, whether it’s cold snaps, dry snaps, wet snaps. The weather patterns are moving differently,” says Currie, who grows hay and sweet corn near Collingwood, Ont., where he is president of the Ontario Federation of […] Read more
Outside panel named for farm risk management review
Reading Time: 2 minutes A panel of 11 “external” experts from across the country has been picked to offer guidance and feedback on a federal/provincial review of farm business risk management (BRM) programming. The panel’s appointment follows an agreement by federal, provincial and territorial agriculture ministers back in July to launch a review of BRM programs, assessing those programs’ […] Read more
Unrisky business
GARS goes private with a government program, and looks to win with farmers on both sides of the border
Reading Time: 6 minutes Whole-farm margin insurance has been available through Agristability since the Growing Forward programs were first launched. However, the program was plagued with complexity, its reputation fell, and five years ago it was trimmed significantly. Yet farm risk is on the way up with rising input costs, higher debt levels, and volaltile weather and prices. Now, […] Read more
Ministers agree on new ag funding framework
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial ministers for agriculture have agreed on the bones of a new five-year policy funding framework, committing them to a review of its business risk management (BRM) programming. The ministers came out of three days of meetings Friday in St. John’s with the “key elements” of a five-year, $3 billion framework, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
