Reading Time: 3 minutes Maybe your partner is your parent, in-law, sibling, cousin or friend. It doesn’t matter. At some point, says advisor Andy Junkin, there is bound to be tension in the relationship. In fact, if you dig into any farm, that kind of tension is something you’re bound to see, which explains why he calls his service […] Read more
How to become the partner everyone wants to work with
On today’s larger farms, the partners are up close. They’re your relatives. They farm out of the same yard. Shouldn’t they recognize what you bring to the farm? Maybe not, says cross-border farm advisor Andy Junkin
A new path to the farm’s future
Today’s farm families think in terms of transition, not succession, and they’re setting new goal posts too
Reading Time: 8 minutes The questions may be the same, but the tone has changed, says Kent Gulash, longtime farm family coach from Saskatoon. When families meet their transition advisors these days, they’re coming from a different place. “That’s because the dynamics around the value of farms have changed,” Gulash says. There’s trepidation now, he explains. Will the farm’s […] Read more
Better at change
Just because change is a constant on the farm doesn’t mean you can’t get much better at it
Reading Time: 8 minutes Farmers understand change: The weather changes, markets change, economics change. Technologies change too and, through it all, farmers keep farming. You always have. You always will. Change is inevitable, but we can learn from how other farmers navigate their own big changes, and we can adapt to the next major shakeups on the farm. “Change […] Read more
The Succession Advantage – Balancing growth and harvest
Reading Time: 3 minutes Following along with our series, The Succession Advantage, we have covered the first two critical stages for family farm transition planning. The Communication Advantage comes from respectful conversation and results in aligned vision and agreed upon goals for the farm’s future. Financial Advantages become more tangible when starting succession planning early and include tax savings, […] Read more
Taking stock before your farm succession
Before jumping into transition planning, gather this information and have a conversation with your spouse
Reading Time: 5 minutes Transition planning requires complicated professional tax and legal planning plus deep communication and strategic decision-making. It’s definitely not a do-it-yourself (DIY) project. However, there are some things you can do yourself ahead of transition planning to make it go more smoothly. They will save you time, money and headaches in the future. Many of us […] Read more
The Succession Advantage – Finding your family’s advantage point
Reading Time: 3 minutes Succession is more than passing the farm to the next generation. It’s about setting the farm up for ongoing success through a continual discovery process, examining every aspect of the farm and its operations, pulling out the very best, and incorporating them into best practices. It’s about having conversations with your family that get to […] Read more
Tory MP’s bill on farm transfer tax treatment moves ahead
Private member's bill now awaits Senate approval
Reading Time: 3 minutes A Manitoba Conservative MP’s bill to standardize the tax treatment for sales of farms and other small businesses has cleared the House of Commons and is en route to the Senate. Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire’s Bill C-208, which was introduced for first reading in February last year, passed third reading in the Commons on Wednesday. […] Read more
‘You can’t hand it to them’
Every transition is unique. This one is too. But inside Kyle (left) and Bryan Maynard’s experience are nuggets that can transform the process for farms across the country
Reading Time: 10 minutes It all makes perfect sense. When, two days before their eighth and 10th birthdays, brothers Bryan and Kyle Maynard lost their dad, Kent, in a tragic farm accident, of course the future of the farm was thrown into disarray. Kent had grown up nearby on a Prince Edward Island dairy and hog farm, but in […] Read more
Selling the corporate farm
Darren and Carmen Sterling made the hard decision. 2019 would be their last crop. Then they would retire. But that’s when the real work began
Reading Time: 10 minutes When we talk about Canada’s aging farm owners, we generally talk about how best to pass the agricultural torch to sons and daughters or, more recently, about creative contortions to move the farm into the future with those who are not family — in short, succession planning. But is it still called succession when there […] Read more
Working with change, instead of fearing it
Non-farm family businesses are in the throes of succession planning too. With the help of Chris Clarke, here’s how they’re elevating their team skills for superior succession planning — and why it’s driving their business performance as well
Reading Time: 5 minutes By now, every farmer has encountered more than a few articles on succession planning, and maybe the thought of even one more doesn’t seem all that appealing. Indeed, you’ve probably read the first few paragraphs of quite a few of these stories and paused, wondering if you’ll learn anything new. Well, this article is a […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
