Put Working Capital To, Well, Work

Cornie Cudcostembig and Walter Waitnsee are two go-getters in theGrainewsfarm community. We have worked with these two chaps for a couple of years and found their story very interesting. Cudcostembig and Waitnesee farm beside each other and both have experienced good margins in the grain industry. Cudcostembig decided he wanted a big shed. He had […] Read more

How To Use Partial Budgets

As you work on final revisions to yield and input cost projections and tweak cropping plans, I hope you also have your total farm operating budget prepared for the year and your operating credit needs identified and secured. These are typically annual and sometimes tedious tasks, but as a farm manager your financial decision making […] Read more


Checking The Farm’s Financial Pulse

An annual financial review is part of your risk management strategy; it’s is an integral part of business activities. Just like good personal and production health starts with the basics, so does the financial health of your farm. We recognize the importance of regular medical and dental checkups for ourselves, we have regular maintenance schedules […] Read more

Building A Critical Mass Of Wealth

A recent article by Rheal Cenerini (March 14 issue ofGrainews)on what it takes to be successful in farming highlighted the research of Kevin Dhuyvetter from Kansas State University (KSU). Dhuyvetter says most success can be traced back to having a critical mass size of farm where costs per acre or bushel or pound are spread […] Read more


15 Ways To Prevent Or Manage FHB

Fusarium head blight (Fusarium graminearumor scab) will be a serious problem if humidity and temperatures are high (25 to 30 C) from just prior to wheat head emergence through to head fill. Infection will occur at cooler temperatures, if high humidity persists for longer than 72 hours. Given the high moisture level throughout Manitoba and […] Read more

Help For Soil Zone Mapping

The advent and adoption of precision farming has led to the need for maps, maps and more maps. You can map yields, crop density, low spots and soil variation. Layout out where zones should start and end is part art and part science. Tools to help map variation, in this case by an EC (electrical […] Read more


Trouble Overseas: Take Shelter Or Speculate?

We are in the midst of a global financial crisis brought on by the many-layered disaster in Japan and the concurrent series of Middle Eastern crises that threaten the world’s oil supplies. For investors, whether farmers thinking about putting some money into stocks or bonds or mutual funds or older people who want to be […] Read more

Three Reasons For Lower Lentil Prices

The world has been a busy place in the last few months. Civil unrest in Tunisia, then Egypt, followed by Libya, plus significant earthquakes and an ever strengthening Canadian dollar has led to some volatile markets. It’s no secret pulse buyers all over the world have been buying hand to mouth this season, avoiding stocking […] Read more


How To Focus On Management And Goal Setting

We recently met with Billy Bothways who drove home the need to have focused management and strategic planning. He’s a fantastic farmer who has a very profitable operation. In the last couple of years, however, Bothways seems to be struggling with focus. In the past year, he’s called us numerous times asking our opinion on […] Read more

What Happens Now? A Look At Japan’s Disaster

As I write this article on March 17, Japan’s problems are a week old. I will review briefly. First an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit the northeastern part of the country. That caused a tsunami wave of water 30 feet high to hit the northeastern coast and destroy towns and everything else in its path for […] Read more