Reading Time: 3 minutes “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.” That’s how John C. Maxwell said it, and he might have said it best. It’s easy to look around the ag industry and see changes in the landscape. Suppliers, competitors and customers are consolidating and growing. Yet growth is often met with more scorn in farming than in these […] Read more
The formula for farm growth
Capital + Risk + Execution = Farm SUCCESS
The joy of farm diversification
On more farms across Canada, keeping an eye open for diversification opportunities is part of what it means to farm
Reading Time: 11 minutes Chances are, any reader of Country Guide knows at least some farmers who have diversified in some way. The odds are good, too, that you’ve heard them get talked about. Maybe you’ve done some of the talking yourself? Everyone has an opinion. Are these farmers risk-takers, or are they just ordinary farmers like you who […] Read more
Finding the right agricultural niche
Is niche diversification really the right strategy for your farm? Your best answer may come from answering this: ‘How driven are you?’
Reading Time: 5 minutes The reasons for wanting to diversify the farming operation are almost as diverse as the opportunities themselves. On many farms, it’s because expansion is so costly at today’s land prices, so the only way to grow is to intensify. Or it may be because there are more generations needing to draw income from the operation. […] Read more
Untraditional
Greenhouses may not belong in the traditional farm stereotype, but Chris and Crystal Page reflect a new era of young farmers diversifying for business, and for the challenge too
Reading Time: 8 minutes There can be as many reasons for running a diversified farm business as there are farms. Diversification can add income stability and reduce overall operational risk. It can exploit market opportunities, enabling the farm family to take advantage of a lower cost of entry than competitors who might not have the same access to land […] Read more
Two steps forward
Alberta’s Rhonda and and Brian Headon knew the farm needed diversification. Now, each heads their own very different farm enterprise
Reading Time: 9 minutes It’s the classic Western Canadian love story. Boy and girl meet at a hockey game. Years later, they meet again at Alberta’s Ukrainian Pysanka Festival in Vegreville. They fall in love, they marry, they move back to his family’s farm, and they start a family. Also, like so many farming couples, Brian Headon and Rhonda […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
