Beginning in 2020, Farm Management Canada is launching a new National Farm Leadership Program, created with LeaderShift Inc. The 11-week course is a blend of online and in-person training, including a three-day residency seven weeks into the curriculum. Participants can expect to spend about four hours per week on coursework, and participants will have their… Read More
Like so many other countries, Canada’s birth rate is less than its death rate. The logical conclusion, then, is that if Canada wants to maintain or grow its population, it will have to not only welcome but also actively recruit people from other countries to live here. The topic of immigration is highly political leading… Read More
In a survey of over 1,300 Canadian farm employers, 47 per cent say they can not fulfill their labour needs, and one in three respondents said they receive zero Canadian applicants when they post an available job. With approximately 37 per cent of the workforce expected to retire in the next 10 years, agriculture’s labour… Read More
Behind the scenes, to front and centre, women have always played a critical role in farming and in the agriculture industry. In this episode of Mind Your Farm Business, host Shaun Haney speaks with three women from unique backgrounds and stages of their careers, to talk about their perspective on the challenges and opportunities that… Read More
Changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations could be on the way, following proposed changes published in the Canadian Gazette. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) are seeking comments from all interested parties on a proposal to amend the regulations to allow temporary foreign workers more flexibility in… Read More
It seemed like a rare opportunity to bring agriculture to the fore when, in 2014, the United Nations’ General Assembly declared it to be the International Year of Family Farming. At the time, it said the declaration was to “raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farming by focusing world attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger… Read More
If you’re quick about it, you may be able to access funding from the federal government to hire a summer student. Earlier this week, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced that the Youth Employment and Skills Program was open for applications. The program offers cost-share of employee wages and benefits at 50%, up to a maximum… Read More
The Ag Women’s Network (AWN) has announced that Farm Credit Canada (FCC) will fund this year’s mentorship program for Ontario women in agriculture. “A mentorship is a valuable tool for leadership development, and we are proud to offer the mentorship program for a second year. Our team has taken feedback from industry and last year’s… Read More
Who learns more from a mentorship — the mentor or the mentee? The answer may surprise you. As Deb Stark, former deputy minister of agriculture for Ontario, explains, a good mentoring relationship has value for all parties involved, but success requires communication and commitment from those involved. In this episode of Mind Your Farm Business,… Read More
If you talk about big picture stuff at the very face-to-face kitchen table, your family is far more likely to successfully navigate the farm transition from one generation to the next. Dr. Tom Deans, author and intergenerational wealth expert, says that when business owners (looking at you, farmers!) visit the topic early and often with… Read More
In agriculture, when we talk about diversity we are usually talking about crop rotations, the cattle herd, or hybrid breeding. Diversity isn’t always a hot topic when we talk about the people working in this industry, but it can make a powerful difference. Dr. Jeneen Abrams is a soybean breeder at Purdue University and believes… Read More
Agriculture as a whole struggles with finding enough workers — from dairy barns, to grain fields, and, perhaps most acutely, in the fruit and vegetable sector. Automation and robotics can most easily solve repetitive tasks, but designing and developing automation for high-value, highly perishable product is also highly complex — and expensive. Part of the… Read More
As we see more autonomy and robots on the farm in the future, will that minimize or reduce the impact of the benefits of being a farm kid? Does it change it? There’s an element of the physical aspect of doing some of the work, which creates some of the long-term character, like picking rocks,… Read More
As we approach the ending of another winter, Mother Nature is not being kind. As some Ontario and Quebec farmers learned last week, wind-whipped snow loads can quickly become too much for even brand new construction. Reports of at least one dairy barn, a hog barn, and a drive shed collapsing in the last week has… Read More
In farming, genetics is critical to success in both growing crops and raising livestock. If you combine top flight genetics and the right environment you increase your rate of success dramatically. In a similar way, growing up on a farm can foster so many great traits and skills in kids that are expressed as adults…. Read More