Reading Time: 5 minutes To put it mildly, sales of new farm equipment were terrible — even worrisome — in January and February, based on numbers tallied by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). Purchases of four-wheel-drive tractors were down an astonishing 55 per cent compared to 2014. Worse yet, new combine sales had virtually collapsed, slipping 60.6 per […] Read more
Used farm equipment sales perk up
As sales of new equipment cool, good used machines are holding their value, and in some cases gaining ground
Grain analyzer gets attention
Soybean Guide: With more soybeans and corn stored on farm, this new analyzer is paying off
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s easy to see why grain analyzers and testers are garnering more attention in ag circles, from the farm all the way up through elevators and even at large-scale processors. With tighter margins and a greater focus on finding efficiencies, but also with more focus on traceability, more interest in new traits, and more markets […] Read more
Minogue: Optimism reigns at FCC outlook meeting
Reading Time: < 1 minute Regina — Despite commodity prices down off recent highs, resurgent transportation problems and crop disease issues across the Prairies, farmers heard all good news at Farm Credit Canada’s Ag Outlook 2015 conference here Tuesday. “The sky’s not falling,” said J.P. Gervais, chief ag economist for Regina-based FCC. Actually, he said, things are pretty good. If […] Read more
Making sense of ag markets
Agriculture can’t escape global economic trends, but farmers can adapt their market plans to key numbers. In this second of five columns, market analyst Errol Anderson tells us how
Reading Time: 7 minutes Grain prices rise, and grain prices fall. Sometimes it’s a straight supply issue. more grain gets produced, or less gets produced, and prices react accordingly. but those movements tend to happen over the short term. Often too, they’re tough to plan for because they’re sparked by either good weather or bad. Other issues hit on […] Read more
Sharpen your pencils
It’s time for a hard look at your rental land. How much does it make sense to pay?
Reading Time: 5 minutes I know I’m not alone. the squeeze is on all across Canada, and everyone can point to sets of numbers like the ones I’m looking at in Ontario, with a short 2014 growing season and with off-the-combine corn well below $4 per bushel. So Country Guide asked the Ontario ag ministry’s farm business analyst John […] Read more
Farm debt ratio in Canada could create an agricultural ‘bust’
Will history repeat itself, with a sell-off fuelled by farm debt?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Are we heading into another bust in agriculture, as happened in the late 1920s and in the 1980s? This is the fear of some farmers, and of some agricultural economists too. George Brinkman, professor emeritus at the University of Guelph, believes Canadian farmers are seriously over-leveraged and that there simply is not enough farm income […] Read more
Editor’s Desk: Who will the winners be as the farm sector evolves?
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you take Canada’s inventory of farm machinery and multiply its working capacity times an average number of days for seeding, spraying or harvesting, how many acres will you top out at? Can the average farm cover 20 per cent more acres than it is actually farming? Or 50 per cent? Certainly it’s more than […] Read more
Our share keeps falling
Farmers’ portion of the consumer food dollar is plummeting. At the very least, it’s something consumers should know
Reading Time: 5 minutes The disconnect between farm commodity and retail food prices is worsening. Throughout 2013, major media warned consumers of rising food costs, with BNN on May 16 reporting, “How much Canadians pay for their food is becoming a major concern.” That same day, CBC added its voice, saying, “Canadian families are planning to cut back on […] Read more
Sticky land rental rates
With other farmers bidding up 2014 rates, your only choice may be to go big or stay home
Reading Time: 3 minutes Grain prices have sunk, but it’s no news in farm circles that farmland rental values don’t look set to follow anytime soon. Nor, perhaps, should it be any surprise. “If we look at the trends in rental rates versus crop receipts… rental rates go up slower than crop income, but then they also take some […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
