two farmers standing beside a canola field

The farmer’s playbook

Consider these plays to arrive, thrive and survive in 2025

Reading Time: 3 minutes Walmart turns over its on-shelf inventory 9.4 times every calendar year. But farmers only get one kick at the can. In fact, it has been said that over a farmer’s career many will only hit a home run about seven times. That means the variance for errors is very small, and the planning component in […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

FCC’s top economic charts to monitor in 2024

Downward trends for cattle, swine herds; positive bent to feed, fertilizer affordability

Reading Time: 5 minutes As we start the new year amid elevated inflation and major headwinds facing the economy, here are our top charts to help make sense of the economic environment for farm operations, agribusinesses and food processors.



File photo of a potato field in Alberta’s Lacombe County. (COrthner/iStock/Getty Images)

Alberta potatoes chip in $2.9 billion for Canadian economy

New report verifies what many in industry suspected

Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta’s potato industry is making a big impact — not just on that province but the entire country. A new report — dubbed a “landmark study” by the Potato Growers of Alberta — revealed the sector drove a total contribution of $2.87 billion to Canada’s economy in 2022. It also notes the nationwide creation of […] Read more


Should you buy your numbers back quickly, or retain heifers? The answer is, it depends.

Economics of herd rebuilding depend on cull rate, study finds

BCRC study hopes to map out a farm’s best path toward a rebuilt herd

Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – A farm’s best plan when it comes to rebuilding the cattle herd after drought may have a lot to do with how deeply they had to cull, according to the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC). The advice is the result of a BCRC modeling study, which hoped to gauge the best recovery […] Read more

Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil on Aug. 14, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino)

Market value alone is selling nature short, governments told

Economic valuations needed but 'not sufficient,' co-chair says

Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — What is the value of a river? Is it for the nutritional content of the fish it sustains? The economic benefit of the local livelihoods it supports? Or does the river have its own value which humans cannot measure? Such questions may seem removed from the issues the world faces, from deepening climate […] Read more