“Budgets are always going to be tight, regulatory issues are always going to be confounding, but creativity is free.” Whether we’re talking about employees at Disney or on a North American farm, financial and regulatory constraints will always exist. How businesses perform within those limitations depends on creativity, stresses Doug Lipp, business consultant and author… Read More

How come we’ve accepted technology in most aspects of growing crops, but we still use job boards and local papers to find hired help? Chances are, the person you’re looking for doesn’t live in the surrounding area, or you’d have hired them by now. Kristjan Hebert, farmer at Moosomin, Sask. and chair of Global Ag… Read More

The federal government has announced it’s dropping the four-year cumulative duration requirement — also known as the “four-in, four-out” rule — from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) effectively immediately. It’s welcome news for agricultural employers and farm groups. “The feedback we received from agricultural stakeholders is very supportive of these changes,” noted Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst, executive… Read More

Last week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) released its report of and 21 recommendations for changes to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. While the program applies to any industry in Canada, it is largely used by the farming and agriculture processing industries…. Read More

A year ago we ran a post describing the grandparent wisdom you should never forget on the farm. This list of five things was very popular, even inspiring several additions to the list through reader emails, twitter and Facebook. All things are not golden though — it’s time to release the list of the things your grandparents… Read More

In what areas does your farm business excel? What are you poor at? And how can you respond to make improvements? Self-assessment and continuous improvement are what separates high-performance farms from the average. Rob Hannam, President and Client Director of Synthesis Agri-Food Network, joins us for episode 14 of the Mind Your Farm Business podcast… Read More

Employees need clear expectations and timely feedback. It might sound simple, but those are the two keys to creating a farm culture where the business gets the most out of its talent and where employees feel like they’re doing a good job, says Barb Dartt, a Michigan-based farm business consultant. “We tend to underestimate the… Read More

Finding good employees can be challenging for many Canadian farmers. The task can be even more daunting for livestock farmers when you consider the fact that the job applicant could be an animal rights activist intending to gather video evidence of animal abuse that will be posted on the Internet or turned over to the… Read More

 

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