Reading Time: 6 minutes Farming without some startup help from your family can definitely mean an uphill climb. But getting the gift of a farm inheritance isn’t always such a blessing either. Many farmers will tell you it would have been impossible for them to get started in the business if it hadn’t been for a “hometown discount” from […] Read more
Inheriting the family farm as a gift
Succession in Agriculture: High land prices are driving innovation in how to distribute your land
Succession planning: Deciding who gets to farm
The buzz these days says that succession is a journey, not an event. But who has the map?
Reading Time: 6 minutes An entire industry has built up to support farm succession planning. And for good reason. With a typical farm in Canada worth millions of dollars and requiring numerous staff, and with so many farms having related businesses and supporting two or more families, transition of the business to the next generation involves a lot more […] Read more
Heritage on the move
How to keep farm and family together when you uproot after 170 years on the same ground
Reading Time: 7 minutes Farm succession is never easy, but for the Johnston family, bringing the next generation into the dairy business has meant extra challenges. You might even say it has meant miles and miles of challenges. After their family had farmed near Brampton for 170 years, Frances and James Johnston figured the time had come. Toronto was […] Read more
Great expectations
Faced with their own succession crises, ag businesses are drafting tomorrow’s star players, like Pioneer’s Andrew Lauver
Reading Time: 6 minutes Across the country, agriculture has evolved at blinding speed. Today’s farms operate on a scale and at a pace that no one could have imagined 20 years ago, not to mention the sophistication of their financial and business management, or the sheer value of the assets they must command. It’s why all eyes are on […] Read more
Too young to grow?
Canada’s next generation of farmers are smart, ambitious — and trapped on small acreages
Reading Time: 7 minutes As land prices ride high across Canada, it’s a struggle for young and mid-career farmers to compete against established farms and outside investors to buy land, or even to find it. They also need to ask themselves some tough questions. How much can I afford to pay? Can I service the debt? And then there’s […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
