Imagine it’s the year 2030. What will a typical Canadian farm look like? Will the logistical challenges on the Prairies have been solved? How much will farmland be worth? What kind of game-changers will there be that may have increased crop yields? How can you prepare your farm? Anybody can make predictions about the future,... Read More
Category: Farm Management
Farm families from Manitoba and Prince Edward Island have been named Canada's Outstanding Young Farmers for 2014. Myron and Jill Krahn of Carman, MB and Andrew and Heidi Lawless of Kinkora, PEI received the title at the OYF National Event held this past weekend in Quebec City. The Krahns operate a 3,000 acre grain farm... Read More
By Larry Martin and Derek Albrecht After months of steady decline, Chicago grain futures recently rallied to meet or exceed USDA forecasts in its November grain report. USDA forecast carryover of soybeans at the end of the 2014/15 crop year at 12.5 per cent of use, with a price forecast at around $10. This compares... Read More
Is your farm in the realty business? Equity on most Canadian farms is generated in two ways — selling the proceeds from production and by owning property with increasing value. Speaking at the Agricultural Excellence Conference in Winnipeg last week, the head of Canada’s largest farmland investment company argued there are situations where farmers would... Read More
In 2011, a new provincial cost-shared Risk Management Program (RMP) was created for the Ontario agriculture industry. Farmer leaders across commodity groups came together as the Ontario Agricultural Sustainability Coalition (OASC), and worked with the provincial government to design a made-in-Ontario solution to help bring "predictability, stability and bankability to the farming sector." In the... Read More
Ontario is proposing amendments to the Crop Insurance Act, 1996, that, if passed, would mean more types of agricultural products would be eligible for coverage by production insurance. Production insurance, a part of Ontario's business risk management programs, is designed to help farmers manage losses due to events like weather, pests and disease. The costs... Read More
Periods of conflict between family members will make or break a family farm. That’s why it’s important to address conflict like any other risk to a farm business, says a well-known farm family coach from Boissevain, Manitoba. Elaine Froese described the three C’s for managing conflict as part of her presentation at the Ag Excellence... Read More
Finding people to work on farms is a major challenge in much of rural Canada. To understand the labour issues facing the ag sector, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council is asking producers to complete a survey outlining their farms' labour requirements. The Conference Board of Canada is conducting the survey on behalf of the... Read More
Your farm is your business and your career, and just like any other line of work, professional development is important. How do you make sure your farm is running at its most profitable? How do you get up-to-speed on rules and regulations? How to do you keep track of where your farm is at? The... Read More
On November 5, at Agri-Trade Expo, BASF announced the release of Compass Grower, a new web-based farm management tool. The tool was developed by Affinitiy Management Ltd., a partner of Microsoft, and is intended to fully integrate all aspects of farming in their accounting platform, which combines crop, financial and grain marketing management data. With... Read More