Reading Time: < 1 minute Current snowpack conditions are looking pretty good in all of the head works for Alberta irrigation districts except for the southern tributary as the St. Mary’s River is currently tracking below-normal levels. The Oldman and Bow river systems are tracking at normal and higher-than-normal levels, said provincial irrigation water engineer Lloyd Healy. Reservoir levels in […] Read more
Alberta water supply looking good
More producers eligible for livestock tax deferral
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa has announced additional regions where livestock producers are eligible for tax deferrals. This allows producers who faced feed shortages to defer a portion of their 2015 sale proceeds of breeding livestock until the following year. The cost of replacing the animals in the next year offsets the deferred income, which reduces the producer’s taxes. […] Read more
How’s business? There’s an app for that
Free online tool can tell you exactly how your farm is doing financially and create a financial plan for the coming year
Reading Time: < 1 minute An online tool for analyzing the performance of your farm business has been upgraded, along with some additional user assistance for the software. The Agricultural Business Analyzer is a set of Excel spreadsheets designed for a farm business. It helps producers prepare the three key financial documents: a balance sheet (that measures net worth), income/expense […] Read more
Accentuate the positive in modern farming
FarmTech: Croplife CEO says farmers ‘will never win’ the debate about farming practices if their message is all about science
Reading Time: 2 minutes Watch your language. That’s the advice of Ted Menzies for dealing with people who are fearful of modern farming practices. “We all face this challenge, it’s very complicated to explain,” said the president and CEO of CropLife Canada, an organization which represents the plant biotech sector. “We lead a very scientific life on the farm, […] Read more
Look past farming — you’re in the food business
FarmTech: Pulse leader says improving health and the nutrition of people who eat your food should be a top priority
Reading Time: 2 minutes Focus on food, not farming. Health is both a huge global issue and a deeply personal matter, and farmers should be focusing on that and nutrition, said Pulse Canada CEO Gordon Bacon. “The variety registration program covers 50 tests to have a variety registered for production — none has to do with nutrition, let alone […] Read more
The dilemma of transferring land
FarmTech: The successor needs land to farm, but the parents need money for retirement and a way to keep everyone happy
Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s a perfectly good reason why so many farmers are reluctant to hand the reins to the younger generation. “With land, you need it for the farm and you need it to run the business, but it’s also your largest contributor to the family wealth,” said Greg Gartner, a partner at Moodys Gartner Tax Law […] Read more
Jobs minister ‘uninformed’ about ag labour crisis
MaryAnn Mihychuk says packers should step up recruiting, but there are 1,000 jobs that Canadians don’t want
Reading Time: 4 minutes The new federal jobs minister simply doesn’t understand the labour crisis faced by the country’s meat-packing industry, says the co-chair of an industry labour task force. Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk says meat packers don’t need temporary foreign workers because there are tens of thousands of laid-off workers who could be recruited. “In the present circumstance, where […] Read more
A quick and easy crystal ball? Popular books
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ever wonder if there’s a way to predict what’s going to happen in commodity markets? John DePutter has a quick and easy method that won’t cost you a cent. “Look at when oil was over $100 (a barrel),” the president of DePutter Publishing told attendees at FarmTech. “Books were on the shelves in Chapters saying the […] Read more
Hang on, market turbulence ahead
FarmTech: Currency wars, actual wars, China, ocean freight, Russia, and oil are just a few of the things roiling grain markets these days
Reading Time: 4 minutes Tough times are here to stay. This was the message that Errol Anderson delivered to a silent, sombre room during a session at FarmTech. “There is no sense kidding ourselves about what is going on,” said Anderson, a market analyst and president of ProMarket Communications. “What we’re going through right now is a correction. There’s […] Read more
Farmers tangled in red tape
Reading Time: < 1 minute Government rules and paperwork hit farmers harder than other small business owners, according to a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Three in four farmers surveyed cited government regulation and paperwork as serious concerns for their business, versus 69 per cent of businesses in other sectors. Among the “alphabet soup of regulations and […] Read more