Lees insight

Watch for my new book, “Painting in High Risk Situations”…the subtitle for this is “painting baseboards white with a new brown carpet”.  It is a fool’s game. You have to buy the book for all details but here are a few highlights. Start with a good quality paint, but note even though it says it […] Read more

Peace River region farmer Leo Meyer may be a lone voice in the agriculture wilderness, but he is urging Western Canadian farmers not to be complacent about plans by the Swiss-based Glencore International to take over Viterra. Meyer has always been passionate about the agriculture industry. He is a farmer, sells and trucks grain across […] Read more

As a farm boy it still doesn’t take much to impress me. I grew up near an eastern Ontario community of about 1,200 people — Chesterville. And when I moved West for a job in the early 70s, I landed in Cranbrook, B.C. which at the time had a population of 7,000 or 8,000 people […] Read more

A reader, not too long ago, accused me of having no economics or business sense, to which I took great exception because it was true. So as I comment here today about mergers and acquisitions just keep in mind I know nothing about anything. Maybe these questions have popped up for centuries, but as I […] Read more

I had one reader who didn’t necessarily agree with my thoughts on all the new vibes floating around over the new CWB (see February 17 blog).  Blair Backman of Saskatchewan figures it will be a step backwards. Blair explains his point quite well and a couple things he is quite correct on, I know nothing […] Read more

Here was something you don’t see everyday — at least not in the last 70 years or so….the president of the CWB (Canadian Wheat Board, for those out of date), and three leaders of the Western Barley Growers Association (WBGA), all in the same room, all wearing CWB caps and everyone on friendly terms. It […] Read more

If you have any thoughts on the pros and cons of Roundup Ready alfalfa the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association is looking for input. The actual deadline for submitting comments for an upcoming report has just passed, but I bet if you sent your thoughts in over the next day or two they would be […] Read more

I was at the FarmTech conference in Edmonton this past week and I may have crossed over to the dark side. At least I am moving from the bright white light of confident skepticism into a grey area. The dark side may be just around the corner. I am talking about moving over to the […] Read more

I, like everyone else, am delighted the South Korean market is now open to Canadian beef — go forth all you dedicated Canadian cowboys and cowgirls and produce and sell more beef —  but honestly one of my first thoughts when I saw the release about the agreement was of the movie “Dumb and Dumber” […] Read more

I have always ascribed to the theory if you can get your point across with a bit of humor it has much more impact than a hardnosed serious message — unless of course you are selling funeral services, but even then I’m not so sure. So I have to give credit to this Australian company […] Read more