Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Grain movement in Western Canada remains faced with significant difficulties, according to Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., which monitors rail traffic and vessel movements in Canada. February’s cold snap resulted in grain movement across the region falling below its three-year average. The most pressing issue has been a shortage of grain to […] Read more
Grain shortage, cold snap cause delays at West Coast ports
'...the vessels continue to arrive'
Value in your farming peers
Could a peer group be right for you? Country Guide talks to one Ontario group to find out
Reading Time: 6 minutes When Ontario’s Janet O’Rourke and her husband Kevin took CTEAM — the executive management program designed specifically for Canadian farmers and ranchers — they got their first taste of peer feedback and the benefits it can bring. As part of the program, their class of farmers met four times over two years and got to […] Read more
Making it their business
A growing number of Western Canada’s farmers are using peer groups to drive their performance. This one is ready made
Reading Time: 6 minutes It turns out that size can matter. It makes a difference. Farming at different scales doesn’t necessarily make anyone a better or a worse farmer, but it does change the kinds of problems you have to tackle every day, the kinds of decisions you have to make and, of course, the kinds of questions that […] Read more
Farmland rentals in Western Canada continue to rise
More and more acres are on the rental market, with land increasingly held by families exiting active farming
Reading Time: 8 minutes The number of acres of rented and leased farmland in Canada is going nowhere but up, and will keep being led by Western Canada, especially Saskatchewan and Alberta. “I would expect that we’ll continue to see more people renting land for a number of reasons,” says Farm Credit Canada’s principal agricultural economist Craig Klemmer. That’s […] Read more
Hanson Acres: A big decision, and a nervous wait
What will her family say, Elaine wonders. And what about all those other farmers?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Elaine Hanson’s laptop glowed at one end of the kitchen table. At the other, Elaine, her husband Jeff, and Jeff’s parents Dale and Donna sat in a cluster, hovering over their coffees and watching the screen. Elaine bit her lip, one eye on the screen and the other on her phone. Her fingers texted continuously. […] Read more
Say it by mail
Send your thoughts in actual writing. It makes them become a keepsake
Reading Time: 4 minutes When you go to the mailbox and find a handwritten envelope among the bills and flyers, chances are it’s the thing that will draw your attention. A handwritten card or letter is a rare treat in this time of instant messages, texts and emails. While being able to Zoom with our family and friends during […] Read more
Ford recalling older-model Rangers over airbag inflators
Deaths, injuries linked to faulty inflators
Reading Time: 2 minutes Washington | Reuters — Ford Motor Co. is recalling 153,000 older trucks that may have had obsolete Takata air bag modules installed in collision and theft repairs after the Takata recall was completed, the automaker said on Thursday. The second-largest U.S. automaker identified about 8,800 Ford Ranger 2004-06 trucks in Canada and 144,340 in the […] Read more
Guide Health: Benzodiazepines and your health
These medications can be helpful, but they should only be used for a short period of time
Reading Time: 2 minutes Discovered in the 1930s and with the first agent, chlordiazepoxide, marketed in the 1950s, benzodiazepines have been part of drug therapy for decades. Until benzodiazepines were introduced, barbiturates were the drugs used to treat anxiety and sleeplessness. But barbiturates were a worry with their narrow therapeutic margin (that is, their small or narrow difference between […] Read more
Cash-strapped pot producers raise billions in market rally
Cannabis firms seen as down in the weeds until recent surge
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — A political shift in the United States has unlocked an estimated US$1.38 billion jackpot for struggling pot producers who have cashed in on a surge in their shares since President Joe Biden’s election in November. Cannabis producers have issued stock worth this amount in the first five weeks of 2021, investment firm Viridian […] Read more
Pot producer Canopy Growth sees profit in 2022
Costs cut, revenue increasing
Reading Time: 1 minute Reuters — Canopy Growth Corp., the world’s largest pot producer, said on Tuesday it expects to turn a profit in the second half of 2022 after aggressive cost-cutting and higher demand for cannabis products helped narrow third-quarter losses. Canadian pot producers have been under pressure from investors seeking returns as profits remain elusive due to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
