Reading Time: 7 minutes As land values and input costs continue to rise, alternative lending is becoming more common. Farmers are looking for more creative and flexible options to finance their business expansion, transition or diversification projects. Country Guide explored some of the options available with the proviso that there is no one-size-fits-all-solution, just as there is no one-size, […] Read more
Alternative financing options to cash flow your farm business
These days farmers have a lot more options when seeking alternative lending arrangements for farm business projects
Information sharing on the family farm
Like it or not, it makes a lot of sense to get much more formal about who you show your business numbers to, and when
Reading Time: 5 minutes Affectionately, on the farm, it gets thought of as “the boardroom.” It’s the kitchen table, but the conversation around it isn’t always so affectionate, or so gentle. The kitchen table can also be host to plenty of uncomfortable questions and conversations, especially if the person asking the questions isn’t getting to see the numbers they […] Read more
Summer Series: The lease-back business of farmland
[Land] The future according to Bonnefield CEO Tom Eisenhauer
Reading Time: 6 minutes “Every other business in this country has access to outside investors and outside capital; why shouldn’t farmers have that too?” asks the CEO of Canada’s largest provider of land-lease financing for farmers. “Farmers should have all the same financial tools that a tech company or a mining company does,” Tom Eisenhauer tells us. “That’s what […] Read more
Summer Series: Building a better farm business
[Best Advice] Is Trish Fournier creating the new template for how Canada’s farms will inject cutting-edge financial skills and strategic business acumen into their mid- to large-size operations?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hiring farm business advisors isn’t a new concept, but the creative ways some of them are approaching consulting is worth a second thought.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor Today’s farm operations are growing ever more complex. There are crucial production, financial, human resource, marketing and other management decisions to be made, and it is impossible […] Read more
Summer Series: Building a new farm
[Best Advice] There’s always good luck and bad. For the Friesens, though, building the farm is too important to stop
Reading Time: 9 minutes Forced to pivot as they were starting up their farm, the Friesens did what most farmers excel at: finding solutions, workarounds and innovative approaches. Read on to find out what the rest of us can learn from their story.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor It was the summer of 2015 and Christi and Kelly Friesen […] Read more
Selling the farm
It’s the biggest decision of your life. More than ever, it takes planning, skilled advisors … and a resilient mindset
Reading Time: 8 minutes You only sell the farm once. Obviously, you don’t get to this point lightly. So, what is your first step? Do you sell the whole farm, or go piecemeal? How can you be sure you get the market price? Will you get nailed for taxes? You’ve spent a lifetime — and there’s a good chance […] Read more
A word about your farm
Financial fluency is paying off for farms who learn the lingo
Reading Time: 7 minutes A growing number of financial advisors are talking a different language today than they were 10 or 15 years ago. Increasingly they see that the financial health of the farm goes way beyond the numbers on the balance sheet or income statement. They know those numbers are underpinned by some basic fundamentals that require sound […] Read more
From bad to worse, to better again
How one farm couple and their financial advisor restructured significant debt to dig them out of dire financial circumstances
Reading Time: 6 minutes Art Lange, left, walks the field edge and says that in an ideal world, every farm would make money every year and every farm manager would always make the best financial decisions. But it’s not a perfect world. Well-kept financial records help. So do staying on top of production costs and following a budget, but […] Read more
Family through succession: Moving succession to a financial discussion
As we look into concrete financial options, a sense of excitement replaces the family’s initial worries
Reading Time: 7 minutes Many of you have been following our journey with the Hunter family. To recap, the Hunters are a fourth-generation farm family with a mixed crop and dairy farm in southwestern Ontario. Mary’s husband Jack passed away two years ago. She is 80 now and continues to live on the farm. Her only child, Bruce, works […] Read more
Follow the five per cent rule
Incremental changes can have a big impact on your operation
Reading Time: 4 minutes You may have heard the saying, “Take care of the small things and the big things take care of themselves.” This is a great piece of advice for life in general, and it also very much applies in the context of running a farm business, where even small changes can have a big impact on […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
