Reading Time: 5 minutes More ag companies are testing the winds of change. They believe agriculture is on the cusp of another technological revolution, this time fueled by digitization and online connectivity. This revolution will bring risk, and it will bring opportunity. And, for sure, it will bring disruption. It will change what it takes to be successful, both […] Read more
Our ‘Amazon moment’
As Wade Barnes sees it, farms and farm suppliers can either embrace today’s tech disruption, or get ready to sell to those who will
Pest Patrol: Dealing with bias in pest management research trials
#PestPatrol with Mike Cowbrough, OMAFRA
Reading Time: 2 minutes I have biases. Perhaps that’s a surprising statement coming from someone who is supposed to be impartial, but experiences lead to biases. It’s human nature. The bigger question is how does one account for and neutralize those biases when evaluating something such as a weed control program? That’s the topic that I wanted to tackle […] 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
Guide Health: Your nose – nothing to sneeze at
Reading Time: 3 minutes We all take our noses for granted. We breathe through them and smell odours with them, but you really only notice them when your’s doesn’t work well. Yes, you can breathe through your mouth, but you miss the warming and filtering of the air that your nose normally provides. And you may miss being able […] Read more
NYC equity firm to buy Xplornet
New investment expected to speed up rural broadband rollouts
Reading Time: 2 minutes A Manhattan private equity firm deep in “middle-market infrastructure” has committed to buy, and help improve service from, Canada’s single biggest rural broadband provider. New Brunswick-based, privately held Xplornet Communications announced Thursday it has signed a deal to sell majority control itself to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners. The two companies’ announcement didn’t put a dollar figure […] Read more
Editor’s Note: The price of farm innovation
Among the emails that flow into my in-box, I can always expect to hear from farmers who are concerned about our farms becoming too different from one another, to the danger of all
Reading Time: 2 minutes Their concerns are valid. It is getting more and more difficult to frame national policies that are supported across the farm sector. Over the decade that I’ve been at Country Guide, we’ve made a stab two or three times at doing a story on whether there is such a thing as a Canadian farmer. Or […] Read more
The open source farmer
For Dorn and Sarah Cox, building an ag internet will bring the power back in farmer’s hands
Reading Time: 7 minutes About 10 years ago, New Hampshire farmer Dorn Cox was thinking how agriculture will need new ways of tackling such huge challenges as climate change, biodiversity loss and depleted agricultural soils. In the past, the collaborative approach had always saved agriculture. Farmers have pooled their ideas, shared their results and found big solutions much faster […] Read more
Family through succession: Putting the Hunter plan into operation
"The best thing you can do to protect your legacy is to be a part of planning what it will be.”
Reading Time: 7 minutes We wrap up the Hunter family succession story with this final article in our five-part series. It has been a remarkable venture for our team to share with Country Guide readers the transition-planning journey undertaken by this family. The process took just over one year, from the start to the finish of the plan, and […] Read more
Farming in 2030: Big data
The last time there was a change this big in farming, it was mechanization. The question is: are you open to exploring how it can work for you?
Reading Time: 5 minutes If you’ve got a cell phone anywhere close to you as you read this, you’re part of the data revolution in agriculture, whether you realize it or not, and whether you want to be or not. That’s probably a good thing. Certainly, the potential benefits are amazing. “The smartphone is going to be one of […] Read more
Train your brain
HR management: Skeptical farmers like to scoff at talk about mindfulness. So how do you account for the success of this U.K. farm project?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Over the past decade, a growing number of CEOs in North America have embraced mindfulness and meditation to cope with stress and increase their productivity. Now, science proves they’re onto a good thing. Research shows these ancient techniques actually do boost concentration, memory and creativity while reducing the negative effects of stress. So, why isn’t […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
