Reading Time: 2 minutes The word “entitlement” gets tossed around a lot in agriculture. “Oh,” somebody has always said, “the kids act like they’re entitled to the best truck money can buy.” Or, “Oh, he acts like he’s so entitled to a voice in how this farm is run.” In 2023, we’re sensing the entitlement charge is getting bigger […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Who deserves today’s farm?
Editor’s Note: Will winter really be so quiet?
Reading Time: 2 minutes In its way, this may be the biggest surprise of 2023. It’s that there are so few voices out there promising to tell us exactly what the future of agriculture is going to look like and exactly who the winners and the losers will be now that land prices and net worths are so high. […] Read more
Never stop asking questions
Reading Time: < 1 minute Since Ryan Hofford started converting his organic grain farm north of Swan River, Manitoba, to a conventional operation in 2021, he’s made dramatic changes to the way he farms. Along the way, he’s needed a lot of information and advice. There are lots of workshops and websites helping farmers convert the other way — from […] Read more
Farm advice for his ‘younger self’
Reading Time: 2 minutes Steven Snider was Alberta’s Outstanding Young Farmer in 2003. Twenty years later, he’s still running a successful farm near New Norway, Alberta, growing organic heritage grains and organic pulse crops for the organic milling and food processing industries. He also runs Little Red Hen Mills. Looking back over his career, we asked Steven Snider what […] Read more
Prepping the next generation for success
Are they ready to take over the farm? Here’s how one firm says you can get them there
Reading Time: 6 minutes Any farm family going through the transition process will tell you it’s far from simple. There are so many moving parts. It takes time and energy to work out all the changing roles and the new responsibilities, and also to scrutinize the legal agreements and to figure how these are going to affect family dynamics […] Read more
Finding your farm’s niche
In today’s farm economy, business advisors are hunting new investment opportunities for their farm clients. Here’s how one plans to find them
Reading Time: 5 minutes Let’s say you’re pretty content with the way things are. You feel reasonably successful and you’re at a stage in your farming life where you don’t feel any great need to expand the operation. The value of your assets — especially your land — has been increasing pretty impressively and your balance sheet is a […] Read more
All in it together
Canada’s next-gen farmers are evolving a management model that adapts to every scenario. Not sure? Well, check out this Vancouver farm
Reading Time: 11 minutes Travis Hopcott and his siblings Brad and Jennifer might tell you they have been flying pretty much by the seat of their pants since each of them came back to their family farm at various times over the past 20 years. That is sometimes how they have felt. But, in reality, what they have been […] Read more
Farm managers take to the field (2)
Professional farm managers control huge acres south of the border. Are they coming to Canada too?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Across the U.S., the title “Accredited Farm Manager” is among the country’s fastest growing professional designations, driven by the surge not just in rental acres but also in absentee landowners and in non-ag investors. The question is, are we going to see more farms run by professional managers in Canada too? In fact, the farm-manager […] Read more
A woman’s voice at the money table
More women own farms and have key management roles running them. So why are women still ignored when the talk turns to finance?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Heather Little farms with her husband in Amaranth, Ont., and is a realtor with Royal LePage. She recalls the treatment she received from lenders when she bought her first farm with her husband nearly 20 years ago, a time when the lenders she dealt with were predominately older males and insisted they deal with her […] Read more
HR ideas right for 2023
Six progressive strategies to attract — and retain — the employees you need
Reading Time: 5 minutes Faced with a deepening labour shortage, farm businesses that tailor their jobs, their benefit packages and their work environments to what employees are seeking can expect more success and their choice of the best employees. The question is: is that a realistic goal? Clearly, the nature of farming does impose limitations on what can be […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
