Farmers should be encouraged by the recent attention agriculture has been getting in mainstream media.

Toban Dyck: The world is watching us

Trade news brings the media to the farm to talk about agriculture and farming

The nation’s gaze is fixed on agriculture. And while it’s not for great reasons, there is opportunity here. Mainstream news outlets are stumbling over themselves to cover issues such as the global ag trade and how Canada’s current spat with China is affecting farmers. They are trying their best with the resources they have to […] Read more

Farmer in tractor preparing farmland with seedbed for the next year

Toban Dyck: Preparing for a new crop season

All grain farmers know that early spring antsy, “ready to seed” feeling

It’s as though a switch was flicked. It happens every year. The winter meeting season is busy and consuming. Then it ends, the snow begins to melt and you find yourself looking over your farmyard with a zeal for the upcoming growing season that you may not have had the day before. I woke up […] Read more


We need to be careful and smart about what we believe, what we share and what we put into practice in our lives and on our farms.

Toban Dyck: Telling the facts from the falsehoods

It’s never been harder to tell truth from fiction — on the internet or on the farm

Leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, the Russian Institute allegedly began shifting its focus from distributing propaganda in the Ukraine to taking an active role in galvanizing anti-Hillary Clinton sentiment across the United States. It was last year sometime when my wife, Jamie, suggested I listed to the Radiolab podcast entitled “The Curious Case […] Read more

The ag industry is driven by those who show up.

Toban Dyck: Get involved in the agricultural sector

Show up for the AGMs for the groups you’re funding. You won’t regret it


My room was on the fifth floor. I needed to get there. I was bushed (I sometimes say zonked, but I don’t know if that’s a word my family made up or if it’s in the dictionary). The elevator I needed to take was at the end of a long hallway, then to the right […] Read more


Toban Dyck: Keeping the agriculture sector together

As Ag Days kicks off conference season, the media divides the ag community

“You look familiar. We’ve met before,” I said. He nodded. “Yeah. We have. But I know about you. I read your articles. How are you doing keeping everything together?” I’m always a little tickled when people stop by the Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers booth at Ag Days to chat. It doesn’t get old. I […] Read more

Toban Dyck: Formalizing weekly meetings

The owners at Burr Forest Acres settle in to a new Saturday morning routine

Things were weighing on us. We were both carrying stress related to the farm and we were doing so in silence. I was busy and used that as an excuse to put aside the things that needed our attention. In November, it all came to a head. I went first, expressing all the things that […] Read more


Toban Dyck: Some light reading over breakfast

Toban Dyck: Some light reading over breakfast

Consumers groups and farmers are working with separate sets of facts

I read something that fired me up. Actually, Jamie, my wife, did. Jamie knew how I’d react. She read the post out loud to verify that. It was all in good fun. And it led to a great conversation. I sat where I’m sitting now, at the kitchen island. And Jamie sat close by, also […] Read more

Toban Dyck: Putting the hard questions on the table

Table talk topics at Farm Forum hit close to home for conference participants

One of my talents as an adolescent was being able to sleep until noon. It was, at the time, the only real talent I felt confident about. Fast forward to now. I’m 38 and I’m getting up at 6 a.m. to attend a table talk on succession planning at the Farm Forum event in Calgary. […] Read more


Toban Dyck: 2019 will be the year of….?

Toban Dyck: 2019 will be the year of….?

What changes will the non-farming public bring ag?

Curators from the Manitoba Museum toured my farm in the fall of 2018. The USMCA had already been negotiated, but not ratified. Glyphosate had already made headlines. So had neonics. And the U.S. trade war with the China and the rest of the world was in full swing. My dad gave them the tour. It […] Read more

Toban Dyck: Feeding the world

Ag is invited to the Global Forum in Toronto, but it takes a seat in the back

What do you think the median salary is in this room, right now?” asked the journalist sitting next to me. I laughed and said a number, but it was probably low by a couple hundred thousand. I was invited to attend and cover the Fortune Magazine’s Fortune Global Forum in Toronto in mid-October. “This annual […] Read more