Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – Say there’s trouble with the automated GIS and mapping features on the tractor, but you can’t find a tech with enough knowledge to offer help. It’s a simple example of the kind of employment gaps that keep farmers up at night, and that prevent their adoption of new technology, said the manager of an […] Read more
Training fills the gaps between agriculture and technology
Program aims to match tech specialists with farmers and industry employers
A better Canada
Guide Canada: Should this B.C. study become a template for other provinces, showing that farming paves the way for better days to come for the entire economy?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s tempting to talk about Canada’s pandemic recovery, but is it premature? Cases of COVID-19 keep making headlines, and the “new normal” Canadians so desperately want still seems remote and uncertain. One thing is absolutely clear, though. Agriculture and the agri-food sector have gotten back to to near normal operations, and they did so with […] Read more
Agricultural Youth Council members introduced
Jobs for next generation also come online
Reading Time: 3 minutes Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau has named the 25 young people chosen to sit on the inaugural Canadian Agricultural Youth Council. Members of the council (see list below) are expected to offer suggestions on government priorities and identify problems and solutions for Bibeau. “That was quite a challenge actually, because we received over 800 candidates,” Bibeau […] Read more
Alberta, Ontario open online portals for domestic ag work
Canadian senators call for support for domestic ag workers
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Alberta and Ontario governments hope to set up “land armies” of available domestic workers to deploy on their provinces’ farms, in the event that seasonal and temporary foreign workers are unavailable. Both provinces this week announced they have set up online portals where residents can connect with farmers in need of workers. Such jobs […] Read more
Gauging employee productivity
Sure, your employees seem busy enough. But are they productive? Better yet, can you improve their productivity?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Of course farmers have an excellent grasp of their input costs. As in any business, the lower the costs, the better the bottom line, so farmers are constantly experimenting with different fertilizer rates, seeding rates, equipment strategies and so much more. And for everything they do, farmers track what it costs, what it produces and […] Read more
Preparing the next generation to take over the farm
How can you be sure they’re ready for the responsibility of running the operation?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Transferring the farm to the next generation is a complicated affair that involves finances, tax implications, legal strategies and good communication among all those affected. With all those balls in the air, the one element that Mom and Dad often think about, but somehow don’t actually get serious about, is whether the next generation is […] Read more
From good boss to great
Saskatchewan farm advisor and HR specialist Marianne Hawkins offers practical tips on making the transition
Reading Time: 5 minutes We’ve all heard the adage “people quit bosses, not jobs.” Maybe you have quit a boss yourself. If so, you’ll remember why. Perhaps they were always complaining, or maybe they played favourites, or they treated you as if they thought you were always trying to cheat them. Maybe, too, they would never admit their own […] Read more
Crafting a new human resources plan for your farm
Don’t wait any longer. An HR management plan to protect the long-term success of your farm business could be worth working on now. Here’s why
Reading Time: 10 minutes Agriculture is changing. Innovation abounds. More new technology and better automation arrive every year. So it’s worse than ironic that our biggest shortfall is people power. But there it is. Without the right people, can our farms even hope to adopt the technological marvels that are supposed to propel them into the future? Mechanization is […] Read more
Tapping into a new source of farm workers
Traditional labour supplies are running short. Why that may not be a bad thing
Reading Time: 5 minutes With farms getting bigger and with rural populations getting smaller, it’s no surprise you’re having trouble finding local employees with the farm skills and the experience you want. That doesn’t mean you have no options, however. The solution may be to look beyond candidates with ag experience and to begin to look in other sectors […] Read more
New hires
On Canada’s farms, the cost of all the work that can’t be done because there are no workers to do it is spinning out of control
Reading Time: 10 minutes Farmers around Carman, Man., know the small convenience store in the town called the Lite Stop Foods. They know they’ll find what they want there — a few groceries, the local newspaper, a snack to tide them over. It also happens to be where Murray Froebe found two very good employees for his farm. Froebe […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
