Reading Time: < 1 minute Qualifying farmers in British Columbia are now able to buy telehandlers, skid steers and polycarbonate greenhouse panels for farm use without paying the province’s seven per cent sales tax. The province on Thursday announced the additions, effective Feb. 17, to its list of goods, equipment and services for which eligible farmers are PST-exempt. Farmers wanting […] Read more
B.C. pulls PST for farm telehandlers, skid steers
Tomato producer Mastronardi said seeking buyer
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Mastronardi Produce, an Ontario grower and distributor of hothouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, is exploring a sale it hopes could value it at as much as $900 million, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. Privately-held Mastronardi has hired Bank of Montreal (BMO) to run an auction process, the people said […] Read more
Ont. to allow land application of greenhouse feedwater
Reading Time: 2 minutes Spent nutrient solutions from Ontario’s commercial greenhouses will be made more easily available to crop growers for land application starting in 2015 under a new provincial regulatory framework. Greenhouse growers in the province are already required by law to safely dispose of the greenhouse nutrient feedwater (GNF) after it’s been used, circulated and reused to […] Read more
Family brand
In turbulent times, your family brand can be the foundation for business success… like when Jim Hole and brother Bill decided to take the farm in directions no one had anticipated
Marketing experts say your farm already has a brand, and regardless of whether you give it a moment’s thought, and regardless of whether you try to manage it, that brand is your farm’s identity. It’s how you are perceived. Indeed, the people who devote their careers to thinking about these things have an even simpler way of making their point: Your farm is your brand. For most farms, your brand is conveyed by your last name — a reputation shaped and seasoned by multiple generations. The question is, can you manage your brand to give a boost to your farm business? In the case of Alberta brothers Jim and Bill Hole, their greenhouse business has been built on a brand of trust garnered by their much-loved mother. Today, the brothers’ challenge is to leverage that brand in order to build sales among time-stretched, next-gen customers. Here’s how they plan to do just that.
Reading Time: 6 minutes Winter is disappearing in a swirl of warmth and sunshine in St. Albert, on the northwest edge of Edmonton. Airseeders are poised about the countryside, and calves are nuzzling their mothers. This is the kind of day when Canadians rediscover that their heritage rises from the soil, thanks to the sweat of farm families. Across […] Read moreA message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
