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
Gauging employee productivity
Sure, your employees seem busy enough. But are they productive? Better yet, can you improve their productivity?
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
Does Canada have enough young farmers?
The country has lost 70 per cent of the farmers in its under-35 category in just 25 years
Reading Time: 17 minutes There are encouraging signs all across the country. At the University of Manitoba’s School of Agriculture convocation this spring, 58 graduates took home their two-year diplomas. At Ridgetown Campus of the University of Guelph in Ontario, 267 crossed the stage in late May, and at Olds College in Alberta, another 81 diplomas were handed out […] Read more
Alberta extends deadline again for farm trucker training
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta farmers who want the Class 1 license needed to drive commercial-scale tractor trailers but haven’t yet met the new training requirements can now apply for another extension to do so. The provincial transportation department on Friday announced further extensions are now available for farmers and farm workers seeking Class 1 licenses and for school […] Read more
More lost sales forecast in new labour market forecast study released June 25
Nearly half of Canada's farmers with jobs unfilled have delayed or cancelled farm business expansion plans
Reading Time: 2 minutes Workforce challenges are having a worsening effect on farmers’ ability to meet their production and marketing goals and contribute to the economy according to new data published this week. Farms across the industry are poised for lost sales worth $2.9 billion in potential sales due to unfilled job vacancies, up from a previous forecast of […] Read more
Who’s too old?
Farm families know that age diversity makes them stronger. But did you know that a spread of ages in your employees adds strength too?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Diversity in the workforce is a good thing, but diversity doesn’t mean just diversity of gender or ethnicity. It also means age diversity. Increasingly, older workers aren’t retiring gracefully to play golf and potter in the garden. Instead, they are making a conscious decision to change careers later in life, when the experience and skills […] Read more
Is agriculture ageist?
We tend to respect our elders more in agriculture,” says Tracy Biernacki-Dusza. Even so, ageism is one of the last and most common areas of bias
Reading Time: 3 minutes More than four in 10 Canadians feel that ageism is the most tolerated form of social prejudice, according to the Revera Report on Ageism: Independence and Choice as We Age, released in May 2016 by Revera Inc. and the Sheridan Centre for Elder Research. This is more than double the number who rated racism or […] Read more
New Alberta labour standards for paid farm workers tabled
Reading Time: 3 minutes Waged farm workers in Alberta will be allowed to unionize and get new rules governing vacation pay and youth employment, under a provincial labour bill tabled Wednesday. The new rules are tucked into Bill 17, the Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act, which went through first reading Wednesday and, if passed, would take effect Jan. 1, […] Read more
Proposed labour rules for Alberta farms go public
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Alberta public will get about a month to speak its mind on proposed changes to provincial labour laws, with the goal of applying those changes to farms and ranches. The province on Monday released a pair of reports from technical working groups (TWGs) reviewing farm and ranch operations’ status under the Employment Standards Code […] Read more
California first state to promise overtime to farmworkers
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sacramento | Reuters — California will become the first U.S. state to require farmers to pay overtime to field workers and fruit pickers under a bill signed Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. The bill would phase in overtime pay for farmworkers from 2019 to 2022. In an industry where a workweek during the harvest […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
