Reading Time: 6 minutes You have to admit that for an economic study, this one has a great title: “The Puck Stops Here!: Canada challenges Australia’s grain supply chains.” The new study is by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Center (AEGIC), and it looks into Western Canada’s export grain supply chain. In fact, it looks at our grain system […] Read more
How Australia plans to beat Canadian farmers
A must read from Down Under for coming out on top
Are Canada’s farm organizations actually listening to their members?
Amid the falling commodity prices and rising input costs, one question is getting louder. Who do our farm organizations really represent?
Reading Time: 7 minutes The last few years have been tumultuous for Canadian grain farmers, especially in the West. Not only have we seen the end of the single-desk CWB monopoly, but we also watched as Ottawa passed Bill C-18, the Agriculture Growth Act (which included the approving UPOV 91) and as major changes were made to AgriStability. Farmers […] Read more
The business of owning farmland
Farmers are land investors too, but are we any good at it?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Of course, farmers integrate their real estate into their production business, with land and buildings used for the growing of crops and production of livestock. Importantly, too, the asset value is used as collateral to secure financing. As well, farm real estate is often the main retirement fund. There is no question, too, that farmland […] Read more
Moving Canadian products to China – by railway
Is it really so impossible to think about a rail line linking Canada with the economic hubs of Asia?
Reading Time: 6 minutes What if Canadian farmers had a choice of more than just CN and CP rail to move their grain? Imagine the opportunities our agriculture would have if we weren’t restricted because of the limited trackage to the coasts, a shortage of hopper cars, a lack of pulling power, and increasing competition from oil and other […] Read more
Our failing price system for grain
Many growers feel a corrupted basis is underpaying them for commodities
Reading Time: 7 minutes Farmers need to be asking tough questions about how our grain is priced, and we must not be satisfied without full answers. Farmers continue to be confounded by “basis.” Their complaints include the volatility in basis as well as a lack of transparency in how basis is calculated. As well, many farmers believe that the […] Read more
Canada meets climate change
It’s time to stop unscientific denials, and to get on with the job of preparing our farms for the real changes that are coming
Reading Time: 6 minutes How will climate change affect Prairie agriculture in the future? This was the question the Alberta Institute of Agrologists presented to a trio of University of Manitoba (U of M) researchers last year, including Brian Amiro, a soil scientist specializing in agricultural meteorology and climatology; Christine Rawluk, research development co-ordinator with the National Centre for […] Read more
More to grain marketing than price
Making your product available to customers is likely more important than price over the long-term
Reading Time: 6 minutes Correction: Mar. 6, 2015 – Without a doubt, the biggest fallacy about Canada’s grain producers is that they are good marketers. I would argue instead that few grain growers actually have real marketing expertise, and even fewer actually market what they produce. Grain producers who have spent many hours or days attending marketing groups, courses, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
