Canadian Farm Manager Newsletter
February / March 2010 - The Money Issue
Profits: Making them, investing them and talking about them!
This edition of the Canadian Farm Manager is about profit – how to increase it and how to invest it. But getting farmers to talk about the P-word isn’t easy: No one wants to be seen as insensitive to the plight of those farmers who are struggling financially, reveal their personal financial situation to the world, or be seen as boasting.
In this Issue
“I think a lot of farmers are almost embarrassed to say publicly that they’ve made money in farming because they’re just going to be ridiculed or accused of bragging,” says Ian Richardson, a dairy farmer from Cormack, Newfoundland. “But if we don’t ever talk about that – if all you hear about is the negative and the horror stories – how will you ever entice anybody into agriculture?
Full Story
While Bill Brown and Murray Rossworn's views are opposed, the two men do agree on one thing: What you do with the profits on your farm has serious long-term consequences.
Full Story
Have clear goals and then chart your own path, says trio who invested off their farms
Full Story
Ian Richardson always wanted to be a farmer but he had no intention of being poor.
“Growing up, things were always so tight on the farm – there was no real money being made,” he says of his parents’ hog and beef operation on PEI. “I just decided that if I was going to be in agriculture, I was going to be in something that made money.”
Full Story
No one has to tell John Molenhuis that not everyone shares his passion for financial analysis.
“A lot of people aren’t interested in this kind of stuff at all,” says the farm business expert with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Full Story
There’s been a lot of talk about the emerging bioeconomy but so far the action’s not making it to the farm. Ethanol certainly made a big splash but it’s struggled lately and we’ve yet to see scores of new biorefineries start up.
Full Story
