Reading Time: 5 minutes The thing is, you’re going to eat anyway, and probably wear clothes too. When a farmer doesn’t build a salary into their business model, they’ll still spend money on their personal needs and desires. The money just gets sucked out some other way. Of course a salary can take some getting used to, says Julia […] Read more
Above board
Pay yourself, and put the numbers in your budgets right from the start. It’s better for you, and for the business too
Roots and branches
The popular idea is that farming is a closed shop: If you aren’t born on a farm, you will never farm. But it isn’t quite true
Reading Time: 12 minutes Unconventional stories are becoming conventional in today’s agriculture. In fact, they’re becoming surprisingly conventional. Yes, agriculture across the decades has always found unexpected ways to replenish itself. Still, the barriers to entry have never been as astronomic as they are today for anyone who isn’t among the fortunate few to have been born into long-established, […] Read more
Value in your farming peers
Could a peer group be right for you? Country Guide talks to one Ontario group to find out
Reading Time: 6 minutes When Ontario’s Janet O’Rourke and her husband Kevin took CTEAM — the executive management program designed specifically for Canadian farmers and ranchers — they got their first taste of peer feedback and the benefits it can bring. As part of the program, their class of farmers met four times over two years and got to […] Read more
Making it their business
A growing number of Western Canada’s farmers are using peer groups to drive their performance. This one is ready made
Reading Time: 6 minutes It turns out that size can matter. It makes a difference. Farming at different scales doesn’t necessarily make anyone a better or a worse farmer, but it does change the kinds of problems you have to tackle every day, the kinds of decisions you have to make and, of course, the kinds of questions that […] Read more
Digitizing the farm
Digitization got its start with a focus on the agronomic side, but now you’re going to hear more promises of business benefits
Reading Time: 9 minutes Farms that go digital may find a myriad of wins that go way beyond just better agronomic and production planning. All that information can help at the bank too. It can also lead to better business decisions, and it can even help develop new partnership or succession agreements. Of course the agronomic decisions may be […] Read more
From ‘no’ to ‘yes’
How one farmer and his financial advisor persevered to find a route out of financial disaster
Reading Time: 6 minutes American psychologist B.F. Skinner once said: A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. This is a story about a farmer who never stopped trying, even as his finances went so horribly off track that he risked […] Read more
Resilient farmers vs. COVID-19: A ‘cover story’ family farm
For the Burnhams, the lesson of COVID-19 is more of a reminder, really. Family is the core of a farm business
Reading Time: 6 minutes This family deserves special attention, so as we conclude this series with Country Guide we wanted to bring you the story of a family that we call our “Cover Story Family.” In our view, they seemed to pretty much get it right over the past year. Getting it right refers to the bold steps our […] Read more
Managing more, working less
For Lauren and Ryan Maurer, it’s the challenge of 2021. How do they keep from getting personally overwhelmed as the farm gets bigger and more complex?
Reading Time: 7 minutes It was 27 years ago that Lauren and Ryan Maurer moved to Lauren’s family grain farm near Grenfell, Sask., and started with 800 cultivated acres. In 2010 the couple was named Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers, and now Land and Sky Grains seeds 24,000 owned and rented acres. Another 3,000 acres are committed to pasture and […] Read more
Farm planning for what lies ahead
How can a business plan be worth writing when farming is so unpredictable? For Mike and Amy Cronin, that’s the wrong question
Reading Time: 5 minutes If there’s one thing certain about farming, it’s the uncertainty. Prices, weather and other variables are constantly changing and farmers in most sectors are tasked with doing business without being able to predict future outcomes. Research released by Farm Management Canada last year indicated three in every four Canadian farmers are working at mid-level or […] Read more
When farm financial pressures mount
Sleepless nights? Behind on your bills? Avoiding the banker? You aren’t alone, and there can be a path back to better times
Reading Time: 7 minutes Maybe Benjamin Franklin said it best. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” If you find yourself in financial trouble, it’s smart to ask for help. Art Lange is president of AJL Consulting in Edmonton, and in an article from our October 2020 edition, he and an Alberta farm couple worked together to share […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
