With the volatility in the marketplace, producers need to be actively involved in managing risk. There is a multitude of tools available to producers. Some are simple and some are more complex. One of the more useful tools that is maybe a little more challenging for producers to wrap their heads around is options. Using… Read More
Category: Tradeshows & Events
I have now been to the NCBA twice and both were very interesting experiences. In 2010, the cattle industry was begging for different fortunes while in 2011 the meeting was lifted with significant bullsihness for cattle prices. I can remember meeting with Gregg Doud, NCBA Chief Economist at the 2010 meeting where I asked him,… Read More
In agriculture we constantly talk about the value chain all the time. Do stakeholders all understand the value chain requirements from other stakeholders point of view. In my opinion not usually. I think most understand the value chain from their own perspective and not others. An additional comment would be that if you want to… Read More
Agriculture is always looking for ways to gain better exposure in the public eye. Marketing agriculture to consumers is the challenge of the whole industry with the reality of people getting farther from the farm. There are small steps and small wins all the time but sometimes people have a great idea that has the… Read More
The amount of canola acres in Western Canada has steadily rose over the past decade. Apart of the growth of a crop not only depends on the primary use of the crop but also the by products. Catherine Folkersen is with SaskCanola and she believes that there is a much larger potential for canola meal…. Read More
It’s very interesting to listen to the people that attended the NCBA meeting during the height of the BSE outbreak. They will tell you that as Canadian’s our presence at the NCBA was met with a tiny bit of friction. Now the relationship is on much firmer footing and returning to the strength seen in… Read More
No matter what industry you are involved in, striving for efficiency is critical for lowering costs. If you can gain efficiency and increase productivity you are really achieving a win win. Precision agriculture provides the opportunity to achieve both improved efficiency and increased productivity with the same application. Most of the early focus was on… Read More
One of the highlights of the the NCBA convention every year is the cattle market outlook by CattleFax. As everyone left the session on Friday the consensus of the attendees was, “CattleFax is very bullish.” At the NCBA 2011 convention I had the opportunity to discuss the cattle market with Duane Lenz of CattleFax. Duane… Read More
With the volatility that is in the marketplace it is very critical to try have a handle on your risk management strategy. There are many ways to do this in terms of people and products. Traditionally farmers had to communicate through brokers to eben get updated futures prices. With the advent of 3G networks and… Read More
Farmers are great at growing crops and raising livestock but I don’t know many that really like to crunch the numbers. I feel that farmers are naturally entrepreneurial and tend to keep the farm financial plan in their head. For many farmers this works but it can result in some surprises from time to time…. 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
There is a movement afoot in cereal growing world to push farmers to wider row spacing. Some researchers say that this is a great way to prevent a covered canopy which will naturally minimize crop leaf disease while others are more skeptical. One of the skeptics is David Bergen from GEN Manufacturing. GEN engineers openers… Read More
The global consumer has been evolving as the new consumers get exposed to a beef diet. Even in Canada, our tastes and preferences around our favorite meal has changed as generations evolve. Do these changes mean changes for the beef business in Canada or do they really mean a bright future? For example, as the Chinese… 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
Databases are very powerful tools that can make business decisions more clear, companies more effective and lead to high customer satisfaction. Larry Thomas is working on a very big project that will potentially connect all the dots in the value chain for beef producers. Once this system is live it has the potential to have… Read More