Reading Time: 5 minutes Of all the global ag input suppliers, Dow AgroSciences has arguably changed the most, transitioning from a company whose Canadian presence was dominated by Treflan, a herbicide that nobody sprays today, into a diversified operation with a strong national presence and significant market share in crop protection, plant genetics, traits and more. There’s just as […] Read more
Genuinely in business: How Dow Agro built its company culture
Guide Insight: OK, so it’s a cliché that business means people working with people. It’s also how you create success. Just ask Dow’s Brad Orr
Reap the value of personality testing
AME Management: Understanding who you and your people are can help your business reach its goals
Reading Time: 3 minutes Understanding ourselves and others is one of the increasingly important skills needed to be effective in agri-business organizations. In order to harness the full potential of their organizations and to hit the financial, strategic and operational goals of their businesses, the best managers report that they need to know how to get the best from […] Read more
It’s not ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to team building on the farm
It might seem something only office workers should waste their time on, but team building fits farming too
Reading Time: 4 minutes The options are endless. Companies send their employees out rock climbing. They hire fancy consultants to host trust-building days. They send their executive boards fly fishing, or arrange a day of more traditional community service work where everyone can work side by side and roles are often reversed. Less adventurous businesses can even do the […] Read more
Five big ideas to help take your farm in the right direction
It's time to be a game changer. Choose the right business priorities and make your move
Reading Time: 11 minutes The year is at half-time, and you’re the coach. Most of the crop is in the ground, the spring rush is coming to an end, the team is winded. It’s a time when you can make a difference. You can be in charge; you can draw up new plays, analyze your strategy and motivate your […] Read more
One Ontario family’s joint path to farm succession
“Succession planning here is like hitting a moving target,” says Jim McGregor, but it’s also the family’s greatest opportunity
Reading Time: 8 minutes A mile from the Ottawa River, the McGregor family has lived and farmed, and they have loved and built for five generations, to the point where their produce business has mushroomed to 15 stands, a pick-your-own business and four farmers’ markets. Theirs is a story about embracing change, and about how, in the midst of […] Read more
What’s your communication fitness level?
What kind of meeting athlete are you? Check out this new take for meetings your family will be proud of
Reading Time: 6 minutes Are you a couch potato when it comes to talking to your family about critical farm decisions? The comparison isn’t so far fetched. In a way, family communication is a lot like physical fitness. Even the best of us have areas that need a little toning, while many more of us need to spend serious time […] Read more
The mother-daughter farm team of Blythe Brae Farms
By embracing the belief that leadership is a skill you can get better at, this mother-daughter team is smoothly integrating two generations in a complex farm
Reading Time: 6 minutes Go with your strengths. Then find resource people to help you fill in the gaps. That’s one of the guiding management principles of mother-daughter duo Sharon Hart and Valerie Hobbs who own and manage Blythe Brae Farms near Woodstock, Ont. Hart and Hobbs share responsibility for operations, finance, human resources and marketing at Blythe Brae […] Read more
Talking things out is the key to a successful farm
Guide Thrive 2015: It’s simple enough to avoid discussing the big things and the little things that really matter. It’s just that most farms will never really thrive until you do
Reading Time: 8 minutes Megan McKenzie has observed elections in Congo, she has documented human rights issues in Columbia and the Middle East, she has worked at a reconciliation centre in Ireland, and along the way she has earned a doctorate in conflict resolution and international peace studies, along with mediation training. All this despite growing up on a […] Read more
Better family meetings
Increasingly, the best way to thrive as both a family and a family farm is to hold structured, effective meetings
Reading Time: 5 minutes With bigger farms, communication among everyone on the farm team gets more critical every year. These are multi-million dollar businesses, after all, and it is becoming painfully clear that our farms need to give serious thought to how they operate, just like other businesses that generate the same kinds of receipts. “We can’t just wing […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
