Have you ever heard the saying, “hope is not a plan.” This is a great saying that is very applicable in agriculture. It is very critical to ensure that you are creating the proper roadmap. This should include projections on production, prices and yields. This also includes plans for capital expenditures in the coming year…. Read More
Category: Finance
Farming is a unique business. It involves every aspect of business you can imagine from shovelling to marketing. It’s that diversity that can make successful farming a challenge. Many farmers may be good at one or two aspects of the buiness but not so good at the others. This can have devastating consequences if you’re trying… Read More
We have all heard the saying, “what goes up must come down,” but does that maybe not apply to land values? This week FCC released its newest version of the Farm Credit Canada Farmland Values Report and the results continue to verify the upward trend of land values. It is becoming ever more difficult to… Read More
For a lot of farmers marketing wheat can be a lot like playing “Let’s Make a Deal”. You pick what’s behind door number one and hope it’s better than what’s behind doors two and three. It’s guesswork and a lot of luck. For other farmers, it feels like you’re preparing to write a thesis, with… Read More
When agricultural commodity prices rise there are expected effects. Costs like fertilizer prices and machinery costs are always natural to rise in a rising commodity market. One of the costs that has not been discussed much is rising farmland rent costs. Ontario has some of the highest land rent rates in Canada for the major… Read More
In the short term the financial picture for agriculture looks very good. Both farmers and livestock producers are very excited about the possibilities in 2011. With profit comes bullish behaviours of expansion and growth. In different areas of Western Canada there has been some reports of very steamy land rental rates based on the prices… Read More
Creating a business plan and making sure you execute the plan is a very big challenge for farmers. In fact it is a great challenge for all business owners. Agriculture can even be tougher because of the underlying industry foundation of the “agricultural lifestyle.” Added on top of this is the increased amount of un-controllables… Read More
If you are interested in politics and economics like I am there is no more interesting fodder every night on the television than in the United States. I love debates and conflict on topics and the US has no shortage of them right now. Whether you are right, left or moderate you cannot deny the… Read More
The last seven years have not been kind to the income statement and balance sheet of the cattle feeder in Canada. With that has come a harsh reality for many small to mid €“sized feeders that were dealing at schedule one banks. Many on the schedule ones have decided to focus on the larger feeders… Read More
By Dick Haney At the risk of sounding like the Saturday Night Live character Debbie Downer, there is a potential evil that lurks among us; it is how we leverage equity in our operations to buy more agricultural farm land. I think it would be useful to examine the similarities between Las Vegas and financial… Read More