Reading Time: 6 minutes Pulling out of the farm gate with a loaded grain truck, a producer can turn right and go to a local elevator that is posting a price that’s $20 a tonne more for your crop, or you could turn left and go to another elevator that’s paying $20 less. Which is the best choice? Reality […] Read more
Looking for more price security when selling grain?
Basic marketing tools can generate some of the quickest paybacks on the farm. Here’s how one advisory company gets its farmers started
Russia takes on the world
Millions of acres in Russia had been waiting for someone to farm them. Now they’re bursting with grain
Reading Time: 6 minutes For many Canadian grain growers, this year’s weather concerns, disease pressure, high input costs, and low crop prices made it seem like we’ve already been facing the perfect storm. However, there is an even bigger threat on the horizon — Russia. In the first week of October, while most Canadian growers were still busy with […] Read more
A cattle company finding its own way
They’re risk takers who hate to lose and aren’t afraid to trust their own instincts, which is why, on the road to diversification, the Blairs have drawn their own map
Reading Time: 7 minutes Kevin Blair has never forgotten what his grandfather told him many years ago: “When everyone else is on the highway, take the grid.” It’s a message he’s made most of his life decisions by, and in the course of it, Blair Ag has learned how to tackle many of the issues that are moving to […] Read more
Challenger tames the tiger
Two transmission outputs drive AGCO’s new 1000 Series
Reading Time: 4 minutes At this year’s U.S. Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, AGCO’s senior VP and general manager for the Americas Bob Crain was clearly enthusiastic about the new tractors he was there to introduce, particularly the 1000 Series very-high horsepower, rigid-frame models that were originally introduced under the Fendt brand last year. Now, they are also […] Read more
Financial analysis and planning
AME Management: These examples show how standardized financial statements can be a powerful source of insight into your operational management
Reading Time: 3 minutes Past columns in this space addressed aspects of strategic planning and financial management. Experience suggests that their close connection is not always recognized by managers. The intent of this column is to show how financial ratios can affect strategic direction and help focus on plans. The Planning Model We follow Harvard strategist, Michael Porter and […] Read more
Plan before you retire
Whether you’re selling or if you’re transferring farm assets to the next generation, tax-smart retirement takes planning… and time
Reading Time: 10 minutes In 2011, 48 per cent of Canada’s farmers were 55 years old or older. Five years earlier, the number had only been 41 per cent. If you draw a straight line, that means 55 per cent of farmers are now 55 or older. And it also means our median age is approaching 65! Whether that’s […] Read more
How financially healthy is your farm?
AME Management: These two examples show how standardized financial statements can be a powerful source of insight into your operational management
Reading Time: 5 minutes Three articles in this space over the last year (see links further down) focused on the management information to be obtained from standardized farm accounting statements. This month, we illustrate it here with two farm examples, concentrating on the operating (profit and loss) statement. The organization of our operating statements is based on three principles: […] Read more
Bad news for ag’s Big 3 farm equipment manufacturers
With three-quarters of machinery makers already planning lay-offs, Brexit’s damage to the EU is creating more worry
Reading Time: 4 minutes On the eve of Britain’s June 23 vote, I was in Hungary eating supper with a group of journalists including a freelancer who is also part of a family farm operation in England. She was the one to correctly predict the “leave” victory. That farmers would vote to leave the EU was astonishing to me. […] Read more
Selling farm-direct to consumers
Small, direct-market farmers are building better business cases for their farms. But will business smarts be enough?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Allison Fenske pulls a reluctant grey cat off her dining room table to make room for her jars of homemade pea-shoot pesto, pickled beets and spicy slices of jicama turnip. She points to the turnips. “Jonathan says he always tells people you can eat them the way you’d eat an apple, and I was like, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Beyond our understanding
Reading Time: 2 minutes Before you click away, read Gerald Pilger’s ‘The target is glyphosate’, even if you think you don’t have time The organization that Gerald writes about is called Avaaz, named after the root that gives us the word “voice” in several European languages. Over 44 million environmentalists around the world now belong to Avaaz, and they […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
