Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters – Tyson Foods TSN.N shares were on track for their worst one-day decline in a year on Monday after the U.S. meatpacker warned that consumers are under pressure from persistent inflation and high commodity costs could weigh on upcoming results. The Arkansas-based meatpacker reported second-quarter sales that fell short of analysts’ estimates, though profits […] Read more
Tyson Foods shares sink on worries over consumer demand, third quarter
If you really want it
Can Canada’s farmers launch better business ventures by following Nelson Gibson’s lead at APH?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Two minutes into the conversation, you begin to see the parallels between Nelson Gibson’s job and the job that more Canadian farmers see ahead for themselves. On the farm, that job is ahead partly because of how the land market is curtailing farm expansion plans, and partly too because of the new levels of equity […] Read more
Planning the pullback
[Better Advice] Learning from David Hansen’s graceful exit from Canterra Seeds
Reading Time: 7 minutes Note: On October 2, 2023, Canterra Seeds appointed Brent Derkatch as its new president and CEO. Derkatch has been working with Canterra since 2001, most recently as the director of the pedigreed seed business unit. When a key employee leaves your farm operation, how much notice is best? If they leave too abruptly, you might […] Read more
Direct farm marketing in your pocket
Direct-to-consumer sales are climbing across Canada, but the small farms at the bottom of the market face some challenges
Reading Time: 5 minutes We picture them on the sides of roads and highways. We might think of a fruit stand, for example, or maybe we remember a hand-painted sign pointing to a U-pick farm. They’re what we think of when someone says “direct marketing” because they’re the more time-tested ways farmers have bypassed middlemen and retailers to sell […] Read more
Craft maltster and farmer thrives by sheer determination
How did Matt Enns turn a value-add idea into a thriving venture despite all the other priorities that take up every farmer’s time? More important, could you do it too?
Reading Time: 11 minutes “There’s a lot of different things you could do,” Matt Enns says. Every farmer knows that kind of feeling. There aren’t enough hours. There are way more ideas than time to work on them. “I wish I had eight lives to live to do all the things I want to do,” Enns says. Again, it’s […] Read more
In search of the next big idea
How would you know if there’s an option out there that is just right for your farm?
Reading Time: 3 minutes When somebody wants to sell you something, they have to talk it up. That’s fair. Everyone knows it’s a basic business principle. They also know the importance of buyer beware. Today, though, there just seems to be so much hype around, especially if you’re talking new ideas for differentiating what your farm produces. It can […] Read more
‘It’s all in your head’
Futurology: It takes brain power to farm. It always has, but nothing like the ‘mental machinery’ that will transform agriculture in the next 20 years
Reading Time: 3 minutes This is the second in a series of articles about the future of agriculture. The series isn’t an attempt to forecast next month’s canola prices, but a look at what Canadian agriculture might look like in the long term, 20 years from now. In the first article in the series, we looked at foresight, a […] Read more
Canola crush plants seeing big-time profits
High crush margins mean demand should stay strong, but premiums for growers are scarce
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Canola crush profits are high, but that’s no reason for growers to break out the champagne, say Alberta producers. Crush plants are riding a wave of demand and processed about 794,000 tonnes of seed in September, the most in a year. And with crush margins well above $200 per tonne for futures contracts (more […] Read more
Do you have a plan to learn?
A systematic approach to continuous learning is strongly linked to higher farm success
Reading Time: 5 minutes The 2015 Dollars and Sense study by Farm Management Canada is still among the most comprehensive surveys to look at which farm practices in Canada increase a farm’s business success and by how much. Here are the practices. Which is the best sign that you’re firing on all cylinders? You have a written business plan. […] Read more
Corteva third-quarter loss narrows on demand for agricultural products
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters – Agricultural chemical and seed company Corteva Inc CTVA.N on Thursday posted a smaller-than-expected third-quarter adjusted loss as farmers looked to maximize yields at a time of low global grain supplies. Operating loss was 12 cents per share in the July-September quarter, from 14 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
