Reading Time: 3 minutes Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise By Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer Harvard Business Review Press / 320 pages / $38 From the very first sentence on the first page, you’ll recognize this book’s relevance and value to a family farm business. The book can be best summed up […] Read more
Family Business Handbook: How to Build and Sustain a Successful, Enduring Enterprise
Guide Books Review: “Your role in the family business will ask much of you — your intellect, your emotional intelligence, and even your courage.”
Hanson Acres: The big day is here, but does it matter?
On the Hanson farm there’s a new rule. COVID-19 doesn’t always get to win
Reading Time: 5 minutes “They’d had lunch, and Donna Hanson was finishing her cup of coffee at the kitchen table, flipping through the latest mail and trying to decide what to do with her afternoon. “I’m heading out to the shop,” her husband Dale called from the porch where he was playing a fierce game of tug-of-war with his […] Read more
Double team
It can be a roller coaster ride if your farm spouse is highly entrepreneurial. It is in other business sectors too. Now we can all start learning from each other
Reading Time: 11 minutes No matter what sector a person works in, and whether you’re husband or wife, if you’re an entrepreneur’s spouse, you are along for the ride, strapped in with no control over the steering wheel or the brake. On the farm, of course, both partners are dedicated, energetic and business-minded. But that doesn’t necessarily change the […] Read more
Montreal longshoremen to strike on weekends
Exporters again call for feds to step in
Reading Time: 3 minutes Exporters of Canadian crops and other goods have amped up calls for federal intervention after longshore workers at the Port of Montreal declared a “partial” strike affecting weekend and overtime work. The Syndicat des debardeurs du port de Montreal (SCFP/CUPE Local 375) said Saturday they had filed 72 hours’ strike notice, to take effect Tuesday […] Read more
Me? I’m not biased!
We all have unconscious biases. Acknowledging this isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s smart too
Reading Time: 6 minutes The truth is, it has probably happened to all of us. We meet someone for the first time and we walk away saying, “Wow, they’re a lot different that I thought they’d be.” Maybe we don’t think there’s a reason, but if we probed just a little, we’d often find it’s a sign our unconscious […] Read more
Aiming for better, faster farm improvement
This P.E.I. project is pioneering a new way of helping farmers and researchers work together instead of apart
Reading Time: 4 minutes Farming on Prince Edward Island is unlike farming anywhere else in Canada. Rolling hills, a moderate climate and sandy red soil provide unique opportunities for farmers, but also challenges for the environment. Now there’s a collaborative effort to help the island’s agri-food sector generate innovative solutions to issues such as climate change and water contamination […] Read more
Guide Health: A little dab will do you
A little can go a long way when it comes to topical medications
Reading Time: 3 minutes The saying “a little dab will do you” really is true when it comes to applying creams and ointments to your skin. These creams are termed topical agents because they are applied directly to your skin where they act. At any one time, it is estimated that 75 per cent of Canadians are using a […] Read more
Serious about mentoring
The idea of mentorship is catching fire in agriculture, with new programs popping up all the time. Should you sign on?
Reading Time: 8 minutes Lance Stockbrugger always knew he wanted to farm. “It was going to be my career,” he says. “It was just a matter of how I was going to get there.” When he was 11, Lance’s father was killed in a motor vehicle accident. The family — Lance, his mother and his three siblings — were […] Read more
Your CEO interview — six years on
12 questions to ask yourself to discover if you're continuing to fulfill your role as a leader
Reading Time: 12 minutes Let’s say you’re going to interview someone for your job as the CEO of your farm. Or maybe you’re considering someone in the next generation for the job. Or you might even be looking in the mirror, asking yourself where to focus your energy over the next year. What questions would you ask? That was […] Read more
Capitalizing on co-operation
Agricultural co-ops are chasing new goals with the times. Could it be time for you to join a land-trust co-op? Or a branding co-op?
Reading Time: 6 minutes At first, this example might seem on the edge, but it illustrates a bigger point. When Chris Bodnar and Paige Dampier started farming in 2007, finding affordable land was a major roadblock. So, as founders of Close to Home Organics, they purchased a share in the Glen Valley Organic Farm Co-operative, which provided them affordable […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
