Protect yourself from financial risks

Protect yourself from financial risks

Q & A with Nutrien Ag Solutions

Q: How can I protect my farm business from financial risks? A. Farming is a risky business, but there are a few things you can do to protect your operation. Start with a business plan. A good business plan includes plans to market grain well ahead of actual grain movement to mitigate price risk and […] Read more

Locate underground utilities before you dig

Every year, underground infrastructures and utilities are unintentionally struck across Canada. Unsafe digging could result in serious injury or death, fines and repair costs or interrupted services. Although many underground infrastructures and utilities are found in urban areas, rural areas also have a number of these services. Don’t risk hitting or disrupting an underground utility […] Read more


Field mapping with agronomic data and yield data will help you make better cropping decisions for the coming year.

Taking farm management to the next level – Part 1

For better results: know your own decision-making style and risk tolerance level

Every year is a learning year in the agriculture sector. The trick is to take the lessons learned and turn them into actions. Your success may be production-based, profit-based, financial, or managerial — as in improving the way you monitor your farm’s performance. Or, your success may be becoming a more sustainable and safe business. […] Read more



Society says that we ought to “retire” at 65, that 50 is the new 40... and on it goes.

Froese: Don’t let age be your cage

Pay attention to what decade of life you’re in and what needs to be addressed at that stage

Hopefully you are reading this in full sunlight with the heat of the sunbeams bathing your arms in warmth. #Harvest 2019 is but a memory, yet for some may be now #harvest2020! A podcast guest, a functional medical doctor says, “Don’t let age be your cage,” when folks complain about the aches and pains of […] Read more

Grandpa John Eppich gives Joseph some instruction on hand position on a guitar.

Even with a few surprises, 2020 will be good

Eppich News: 2019 wraps up with the farm settling into winter

So far this winter as of early January, we haven’t had too much snow and the cold temperatures only last a short while. However, one constant has been the wind. It can turn a nice day into a miserable one, no matter what the thermometer says. In early December we put our windbreak panels into […] Read more


The 2019 harvest on the Prairies left little to be desired, with crops still left in fields for a good number of farmers.

Speeding up crop maturity

Consider these nine factors to make sure you have time to get your crop in the bin in 2020

Last season, 2019, was a bad crop-growing season on the Canadian Prairies. There are various estimates of 10 to 25 per cent of all crops left unharvested in swaths or even still standing on cropland. Well, in that case, 75 to 90 per cent of the crop is in the bin, despite the weather. Lots […] Read more

Year and decade financial review: Part 1

Canada started the last decade strong, but wound up weaker than the U.S. Why?


2010 was a good year, but from all the gnashing of teeth, it didn’t seem that way. The world had narrowly escaped another Great Depression, only experiencing the Great Recession. The financial crisis emanated from a U.S. housing crash, quickly spreading to Europe and around the world. Canada stood strong, and by comparison, the 2008 […] Read more


At the time of writing, Toban Dyck was days away from finalizing the purchase of 120 acres of cultivated land – and he has a few thoughts on it.

Toban Dyck: Taking the plunge and writing a cheque for farmland

Even for those who want to be risk averse, buying land is a test of attitudes

My wife and I, the corporate collective registered as Burr Forest Acres Ltd., are not averse to risk. This is the adage we repeat to ourselves regularly on the hope that one day we’ll believe ourselves at a deep, foundational level. We are days away from finalizing the purchase of 120 acres of cultivated land. […] Read more