Reading Time: 3 minutes What is your playbook going into this year’s crop? Not an easy question to answer right now, given the global trade turbulence. As Evan Shout writes in The Farmer’s Playbook, volatility is likely to be the most-used word in agriculture this year. But, he writes, it’s also during down times that some farmers are able […] Read more
Editor’s Note: No pressure
What’s your ‘best advice’ for the farm?
Reading Time: < 1 minute The theme of our Summer Series for May is best advice – and what a pair of loaded words! Because what seems like “good” advice to one person might feel outdated or unapplicable to another. And advice taken in good faith from someone you respect and admire might not turn out as you had hoped. […] Read more
Welcome to our Summer Series!
Reading Time: < 1 minute Are you headed to the field? So are we! Country Guide is all digital, all summer. We’ve got stories from farmers across the country who share their insights about how to meet the challenges and opportunities of today’s agriculture industry. We’ve got advice from Canada’s top ag experts on topics to grow your business. We’ll […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Leadership – yes, it is a science
Reading Time: 2 minutes So often when we’re putting the finishing touches on your next Country Guide, I find myself pausing and thinking, “If only we could get this issue into the hands of every Canadian… Imagine the impact if they leafed through even just this one issue and saw farmers as we see them all the time.” In […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The real thought leaders in agriculture
Reading Time: 2 minutes Once again, the big revolutions in agriculture are taking us in directions that no one really expected, led by people that so many said would never be leaders — our farmers Our days here at Country Guide are spent trying to keep pace with Canada’s farmers. It’s a bigger challenge — and a more relevant […] Read more
Editor’s Note: More than a crystal ball
Reading Time: 2 minutes In all of Canada’s history, will this be the most important winter ever for scoping out what you’ll need your farm to look like in five and in 20 years? I’m always saying that the thing consumers don’t know about farming is that it’s a life of decision- making. When you factor in the value […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A valuable change in our thinking
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reinventing the farm can feel like a concept that’s being pushed down the throat of today’s agriculture. Instead let’s call it what it really is: “reinventing the farmer.” Change is never simple on the farm. It’s so much easier to keep doing things the way you’ve always done them than adopt something new. “Easier, and […] Read more
Editor’s Note: What will you read tomorrow?
Reading Time: 2 minutes It rarely gets said in print but it’s true. One of the things Canada gets right about its agriculture is its farm media. We did it well 100 years ago. I’m convinced we still do. Now we’re asking, where do we go from here? I’m not talking only, or even mainly, about Country Guide when […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Knowing the value of the job ahead
Reading Time: 2 minutes Success at business is success at putting your values into action. In farming, that’s good for the world, and it’s going to continue that way as long as family farming survives. One of my personal distractions this spring will be planting sugar maples and white oaks that we’re acquiring with the help of the local […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A bigger question than COVID-19
Reading Time: 2 minutes Agriculture is racing into the future. We all agree on that. But what will farms look like in that future? And who will farm them? I can’t say for sure, and I don’t think you can either. Here’s an interesting assignment for a snowy March evening. Make a list of your current machinery inventory and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
