Reading Time: 5 minutes Family ties and farming operations have long been intertwined. Indeed, family forms the backbone of many of our agricultural traditions, and today, it is often the reason why navigating farm succession is so complex. In fact, we can say even more. In an important way, family is making succession planning even more difficult in 2024 […] Read more
Summer Series: The challenge with family rental agreements
[Land] Family rental agreements are getting big attention in 2024. Just don’t rely on them as the foundation of your succession plan. They’re one piece in the puzzle
Summer Series: Choosing who gets to rent your farmland
[Land] With commercial owners purchasing more farmland, farmers need to know how to win them over
Reading Time: 5 minutes For Robert Andjelic, the largest farmland owner in Canada, this has become the top priority when he’s looking to decide who he will rent that ground to. It’s how he thinks those farmers treat the land they are renting. It isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s the core of his business model, Andjelic says. “Soil is […] Read more
Summer Series: So many landlords
[Land] Can a long-term business be built on short-term contracts? Jeff Barlow keeps his farm business stable while renting land from 43 different owners
Reading Time: 7 minutes Jeff Barlow’s 4,200-acre farm is near the town of Binbrook, about 30 km south of Hamilton, Ontario. “Technically, within the city limits,” he says. Barlow and his father grow soybeans, corn and soft red winter wheat with help from employees, Jeff’s three teenage sons, and support from Jeff’s wife, Dianne, who works off the farm […] Read more
Summer Series: The dark market of farmland rentals
[Land] It’s not getting any easier to follow the market for this key farm expense
Reading Time: 5 minutes Somehow, how farmland rental rates get set remains one of the mysteries of the universe despite being so hotly debated in social media. Whether you’re a renter or a landlord, everyone is endlessly fishing for details about what the neighbour is charging or paying, although it’s easier to crack a bank vault than pry that […] Read more
Summer Series: Choosing the right time to quit farming isn’t easy
[Land] Rumours flew when Bobbie and Mark Bratrud decided to leave the farm. But sometimes an exit is a carefully considered decision
Reading Time: 8 minutes The second that Mark and Bobbie Bratrud started telling people they were done farming, the news travelled faster than a Saskatchewan wind. “It was a rotating door through our house,” Bobbie Bratrud says. “Everyone was coming by to ask, ‘are you guys okay?’” Mark recalls three of the most common rumours: “Somebody’s sick, you’re getting […] Read more
Renting land better than buying for cash flow: FCC
Each farm needs to make the decision themselves, but a bit of analysis can help when choosing
Reading Time: 3 minutes Rising farmland values and higher interest rates have swung the affordability pendulum in favour of renting, not buying, farmland.
Editor’s Note: meet the new renters
Reading Time: 2 minutes By and large, Canada’s farmers have adapted to all the changes in farmland renting over the past several decades. This is very good news because a lot more change is coming. Not everything is perfect in today’s rental markets. There is never enough land, for one thing. And there’s never a perfect way — or, […] Read more
The other option to renting farmland
[The Rent Shakeup: Investors] The decade’s big news in farmland renting is why not to do it, as these investors won’t hesitate to tell you
Reading Time: 9 minutes No matter where they farm and no matter what they grow or produce, farmers lose sleep over the same questions, because no matter who they are, there aren’t any simple answers. How do you expand? How can you pick the right new technologies and invest in them? And, perhaps the most anxiety producing of them […] Read more
Share of rented land increasing
Reading Time: 2 minutes Between the 1975 Census of Agriculture and the most recent, 2021, Census, the share of rented farmland has increased from 30 to 39 percent across Canada. This percentage comes from Census numbers, as the share of “area rented or leased” compared to the total of the “area rented or leased” plus the “area owned.” A […] Read more
Who owns the land?
Farms are consolidating, and non-farmers are getting aggressive
Reading Time: 5 minutes It isn’t always easy to get a clear picture of how the pattern of farmland ownership is changing across Canada, particularly in the Prairie provinces. In Alberta, land titles data is expensive to purchase and in Manitoba, the provincial government has to give permission for access, even for research purposes, and that can take several […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
