Reading Time: 3 minutes Crop planning involves decisions on return on investment and cost/benefit, and also cash flow and financing considerations. Some producers now utilize both agronomists and financial consultants to help build their crop budget. Optimizing crop budget planning is increasingly important as crop expenses increase and agronomic options continue to expand. Logistics, opportunity costs and strategy Logistics […] Read more
Summer Series: Build a better crop budget
[Land] Financial management is evolving as fast as agronomy. Your budget can have the best of both
Summer Series: Assessing your farm’s financial horsepower
[Change Management] It’s going to pay to keep your financials in order in 2024, and beyond
Reading Time: 3 minutes Every year, we go through harvest with our grain. Then there comes a harvest season of a different sort — the bookkeeping and the accounting that needs to get caught up to “close the books.” Unfortunately, some accountants can get backed up like grain terminals in winter. Farm files trickle in until eventually the accountant’s […] Read more
The four finance roles every farm needs
Reading Time: 3 minutes Summer is when many farm operations fall behind on paperwork and bookkeeping. It’s understandable. Producers are outside raising crops and animals or trying to fit in a summer vacation. And after spending the winter inside, we all want to get outdoors. But ‘catching up on the books’ post-harvest is increasingly unfeasible. The winter planning season […] Read more
Summer Series: Bank on growth
[Better Advice] Ideas that performance-minded farmers can take to the bank
Reading Time: 5 minutes Even top-performing farmers need advice. In fact, when farmers fine-tune their operations to maximize yield and profitability, they can plan on needing more financial advice than ever before. This is for some very good reasons. Not only do risks grow with the scale and complexity of the operation, but so do the opportunities, and today’s […] Read more
Summer Series: How fit is your farm business?
[Best Advice] Financial fluency helps the farm prepare for anything
Reading Time: 6 minutes Financial fluency can help your farm prepare for anything. To protect your business in unpredictable times it needs internal strength, but what does that look like? Here’s how to understand the dynamics of your business and to find out if it’s fit enough to handle risk.– April Stewart, CG Associate Editor A growing number of […] Read more
Speaking of success
A new cohort of farmers has never farmed with rising interest rates. Same goes for bankers. So what does retiring RBC vice-president Gwen Paddock see ahead?
Reading Time: 5 minutes As she closes the book on a career spanning regional and national leadership roles at RBC, Country Guide asked Gwen Paddock about the level and pace of change she sees in cutting-edge farm businesses. Size, sector and location aside, what traits do the owners of these farms have in common? How do they stay on […] Read more
Thriving vs. surviving
Opportunities and challenges are on the horizon. Is your farm ready? This case study may help
Reading Time: 8 minutes It’s a question farm business advisors are hearing more and more from farmers across the country. “What can I do today to improve my financial position in five years?” While there are a number of reasons why seeking out this type of advice is a good idea, management consultants Gavin Betker and Jacqueline Gerrard find […] 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
Analyzing your farm’s cash flow
Next Steps: Ready to tweak your farm performance? These cash-flow strategies may be the ticket you’ve been looking for
Reading Time: 7 minutes The last three of our Next Steps columns (see the ‘Related Articles’ links further down) covered the why, the when, and the what for ratcheting your farm business up a notch or two. The next logical topic to explore is the “how” of making your plans a reality, i.e. cash flow. I’m not going to […] Read more
Is your farm keeping up with the times?
These eight practices are becoming the standard for smart Canadian farmers. Are you using them all?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farmers across Canada are doing their very best to integrate business practices into their farming operations. They understand that maximizing the success of a farm business takes more than production excellence. But what business practices should they make standard, and why? Let’s first look at where farmers have started from, based on a study called […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
