Many people look at services like Google from just the front end which is search. Google is really more about the back end application of data. The search engine allows them to collect infinite bytes of data so that they can make advertising revenue from the searcher. The better the data set that Google has… Read More
Category: Farm Management
When we think about the threat to family farms we might talk about industry consolidation, farm commodity depreciation, access to qualified workers, rising input costs or market volatility. All of these things are threats to the survival of Canadian family farms but maybe the biggest threat was not included in this above list. In my… Read More
The Canadian Dollar is known as a commodity currency but as of late the European Union financial situation is playing havoc with the Canadian currency. Many feedyard and cattle ranchers are really getting stressed out by how violently the dollar has moved in the recent months. As we have mentioned before on this website, it… Read More
When we read about innovation in business magazines we commonly see companies like Apple that produce cool gadgets and personal devices. We frequently see car companies or advertising agencies with flashy designs or cool strategies getting recognized for innovation but why not agriculture? What do you think? As a farmer do you consider yourself innovative?… Read More
By Shaun Haney With the advancing average age of the North American farmer we have a critical situation at hand. We need to get more young people in the business of farming. Now I am not talking about getting more young people into the ag-industry. I am talking about getting them on the… Read More
So far in 2010, the only decision being made on farms is to be indecisive. It has been an unbelievable spring of yes…no…maybe…no….yes….i have no idea!!! Sometimes I wish that farmers had the decisiveness of cattlemen in their unshattered confidence that things will get better and having conviction is allowable. The early cropping favourites in… Read More
At the Syngenta G32 Summit I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Allan Gray from Purdue University. With the increased volatility in the marketplace producers must be much more aware and conscious of the risk dynamics. I have always found that risk is a very difficult topic to discuss because everyone has a different risk profile. What seems risky… Read More
While in London Ontario for the Innovative Farmers of Ontario meeting I listened to a keynote speech given by Dennis DesRosiers. Dennis is a highly respected automobile industry analyst and he gave a breakdown of what has put the auto sector behind the financial eight ball. The purpose was for farmers in attendance to draw… Read More
In early January, I was fortunate to be invited to be involved in a panel discussion on AgVisonTV hosted by Kevin Stewart. The topic was farm debt and was it was a great experience. I was joined on the panel by Dr. George Brinkman, a retired agricultural economist at Guelph University and Dina Cover, an Economist at… Read More
At the International Livestock Congress (ILC), Dr. David Kohl spoke about some of the things the top performing farmers and ranchers are doing to survive in this extreme market volatility and global recession. Dr. Kohl also comments on the differences between Canadian and American farmers. Check Out More ILC 2009 Content
This is part 1 of 2 of my interview with Lloyd Dyck, CEO of Brett Young. Brett Young is truly unique because it is family owned and provides a a very diversified product line to the marketplace. In this video Lloyd discusses how the future growth of the company is in biologicals like PodCeal and… Read More
There is much speculation around canola acres for 2009 in Western Canada. Farmers are hesitant to order canola seed, retailers are hesitant to speculate on inventory, distributors are cautious, and seed companies will not treat on speculation just to make sure seed is available for spring. What we have here is a system that is… Read More
When I took economics in University, one of the concepts that I was taught was economies of scale. This concept is defined as obtaining cost advantages that a business obtains due to expansion. In farming there is a constant thirst by farmers to add land or head space to their operation. It is quite common… Read More
Risk is well known board game, played on a map of the world, in which players effectively bet (take on calculated risk) and play to take over more and more countries and ultimately rule the world. I am just musing here, but if you were taking stock of countries and their respective currencies, would it… Read More
If you really examine the issues that family farms face you might conclude that they are set up to fail. I am not talking about challenges like low commodity prices or high input costs. What I mean by this is that families that farm together really face tough battles that are different than regular corporate… Read More