Reading Time: 10 minutes What happens if you squeeze a few extra drops out of an orange while making juice? One small extra sip, of course. But what if you squeezed out a few extra drops from 1,000 oranges? You’d get a lot more orange juice at no extra cost. Could the same be true of food production? Why […] Read more
The math checks out
A theory once applied to cycling can help your farm make big gains
‘There’s no place like first place’ says billionaire cattleman
Just how differently do you have to think to succeed like Bob Funk?
Reading Time: 9 minutes What does success mean to you? If you posed that question to billionaire cattleman Bob Funk — who grew up on a small, impoverished family farm and went on to earn fame and fortune — you might be surprised by his response. “Money is not my motivator and never will be,” Funk says. “Entrepreneurship is […] Read more
Taking the bull by the horns
Western Canada’s beef producers have taken control of their industry, achieving a level of stability that seemed gone forever. Here’s part of that story
Reading Time: 8 minutes Statistically, at least, it seems the long, sharp decline in Western Canada’s cattle business has stabilized. To say it’s closing the book on one of the most momentous stories in the entire history of Canadian agriculture (or for that matter, of agriculture anywhere in the world) is perhaps going too far. But it’s been an […] Read more
Honest to goodness
More brothers and sisters: For the Noble family, success means learning how to change open communication from a threat into a strength
Reading Time: 4 minutes Brothers and sisters are working together on more farms all the time. More and more too, there are multiple siblings on these farms, not just one of each. To outsiders, it can seem like so many more chances for family to get in the way, and so many chances for old rivalries to flare up. […] Read more
The business of being young
Ryan Boyd believes regenerative agriculture is the right strategy to get him off the expansion treadmill
Reading Time: 5 minutes About 10 years ago, Ryan Boyd came to his father Jim with some new ideas, and Jim knew it was time to listen. Ryan talked about a new strategy, adopting regenerative and sustainable approaches in order to enhance their productivity. “Dad was more than willing to try something else,” Ryan says. “He’d always believed the […] Read more
The business of beef in Canada
There’s no such thing as commodity beef anymore, says Alberta feedlot producer Ryan Kasko. It’s an attitude that is transforming the heart of Canada’s beef country
Reading Time: 13 minutes Canada’s beef industry seems like it’s built on a contradiction. It’s a sector living right on the edge of the future. Every aspect of production is undergoing change. New technology is revolutionizing how herds are raised and managed, and new consumer preferences are raising the bar in their own way too, perhaps faster in beef […] Read more
Study finds Canadian beef’s GHG footprint shrunk over 30 years
Reading Time: 3 minutes Efficiencies in cattle production and feeding have allowed Canada’s beef industry to produce the same weight in beef as 30 years ago with smaller breeding herds, less land — and smaller greenhouse gas (GHG) output, a new study finds. The study, led by research scientist Tim McAllister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, with […] Read more
Cattle herd still shrinking in StatsCan estimates
Reading Time: 2 minutes The size of Canada’s cattle herd is still in decline and almost a quarter smaller than its peak in 2005, Statistics Canada reports. The federal statistics agency on Thursday released estimates showing the herd at 13 million cattle on farms on July 1 this year, down 2.1 per cent from the same date in 2014. […] Read more
Five-year beef plan seeks boosts in demand, efficiency
Reading Time: 3 minutes A new strategy from national and provincial cattle producer and beef marketing agencies has set five-year percentage benchmarks for the industry’s productivity, added value and cost-effectiveness. Canada’s beef sector groups on Wednesday formally released their National Beef Strategy, a guiding document for “how the organizations can work together to best position the Canadian beef industry […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
