Reading Time: 7 minutes Using customer knowledge to outperform the competition has been a critical survival strategy for small-town businesses as they struggle to fend off competition from mega-retailers. Now, those mega-retailers are showing they can get to know their customers too. They can even get to know them better than the small shops. Don’t believe it? Then just […] Read more
How agricultural marketers are using your data
You farm better by studying the stacks of data you collect about your crops. Ag suppliers sell better by studying the stacks of data they collect about YOU
FCC to offer breaks on loans in Sask., Alta.
Reading Time: < 1 minute Customers of Farm Credit Canada in parched areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan may be able to get breaks on their outstanding loan payments. FCC on Monday announced it would work with affected customers on “solutions for their operation(s)” such as deferral of principal payments and/or otherwise amending their loan payment schedules. The offer applies to […] Read more
Six numbers in agriculture to make you stop and think
It isn’t as quiet as you might think on the home front. Yes, today’s farms seem stable, but the next evolutionary wave is gaining energy
Reading Time: 6 minutes The spring rush is over, so now is the time to take a moment and reflect. As you gaze across fields flush with new growth, think about how much things have evolved in the last few years. Although that lone tree out there still leans to the east, and the sun still sets in the […] Read more
Has the price of farmland flatlined?
It may seem like the life has gone out of land markets, but don’t call the morgue just yet
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you get most farmers and landowners to talk about it candidly, most will admit to being a bit awestruck by just how far and how fast land prices have risen. Simon Ellis, a young fourth-generation farmer from near Wawanesa, Man., says he and his neighbours have watched over the past decade as land prices […] Read more
Who’s buying up Canadian farmland?
Are non-farmers snapping up too much Canadian farmland? Nobody knows, especially in Ottawa
Reading Time: 5 minutes Again this winter, ownership of farmland is a heated topic in coffee shops across rural Canada. Rumours abound. Sometimes, it’s foreign buyers who are said to be gobbling up huge chunks of prime farmland, paying prices that Canadian farmers can’t afford. Other times, it’s pension funds or rich non-farm investors. Whoever tells the stories, the […] Read more
Building a better bridge between farmers and consumers
The gap between producers and consumers is still way too deep, but new programs are proving they can make a difference
Reading Time: 5 minutes Although public and private marketing campaigns aimed at bridging the gap between farmers and consumers are making real strides, two studies conducted in 2014 point out just how far apart the two groups are in their attitudes to modern agriculture and food production. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) commissioned a $100,000 qualitative research study from […] 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
What’s next for crop apps?
We’ve come a long way, but there’s a lot further we can go
Reading Time: 6 minutes “There’s an app for that!” They’re among the most often heard words in this data-driven world of mobile devices and services. Yet with the launch of app after app, not to mention all the buzz about the Cloud, new questions are cropping up, including several that we might never have thought we’d be asking. Have we […] Read more
Real-time financial management for farmers
Is it good, or too good to be true?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It sounds like a dream come true, placing current financial data at the fingertips of everyone involved in the farming enterprise so you can make better, more efficient on-the-spot decisions at critical crunch times. And it might not be a pipe dream any longer. “It’s just the way the world is working,” says Lance Stockbrugger, […] Read more
Too young to grow?
Canada’s next generation of farmers are smart, ambitious — and trapped on small acreages
Reading Time: 7 minutes As land prices ride high across Canada, it’s a struggle for young and mid-career farmers to compete against established farms and outside investors to buy land, or even to find it. They also need to ask themselves some tough questions. How much can I afford to pay? Can I service the debt? And then there’s […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
