*10-year growth compares 2017 to 2008. Example, Royal Bank’s 2017 dividend was 1.8 times larger than in 2008.

Sorting through the mumbo jumbo of financial investments

Herman VanGenderen puts his model portfolio to the 
test for Grainews readers

There is a lot of mumbo jumbo surrounding the stock investing field, and quite frankly a large amount of horse exhaust as well. Let’s cut through a bunch of that, in this and the next column, to illuminate what’s really important to us as independent investors. I have taken the portfolio I described in my […] Read more



Cropped image of handsome businessman in casual wear using a laptop and examining documents while working in the office

Seven summer financial bottlenecks

In biz-speak, a bottleneck is a point of congestion that causes delays or inefficiencies, leading to higher costs. It’s a perfect metaphor for farm finances at a time of year when the bottle we’d rather be thinking about might have something cold in it, with us sitting on a dock. Yet summer is a too-good-to-miss […] Read more

grain bins and barley field

Would your farm pass the stress test?

When you pencil out 
your farm budgets, 
calculate some “what if” 
scenarios as well

New provincial guidelines for estimating 2017 crop production costs are being released across the Prairies. These guidelines can help producers predict their operating costs, breakeven yields and profitability. Producers should also be doing a “stress test” to see how much deviation from those predictions the farm can actually bear without losing money, is the advice […] Read more






Investing for tough times ahead

Investing for tough times ahead

Guarding Wealth: When you have to change your strategy from “making money” to “not losing money”

We are coming to the end of the longest bond bull market in history, a 32-year trend of falling interest rates and rising bond returns. Marked by a final decade of global stagnation and, recently, inflation rates virtually at the doorstep of deflation, the next step is expected to be a small rise in short […] Read more


male hands typing on a laptop

Editing transactions with AgExpert: Pt. 1

Even the best bookkeepers don't always get it right the first time. Here's how to fix it

Making corrections to previously posted AgExpert Analyst transactions is something every user will inevitably need to learn how to do. My mistakes in data entry often happen when I’m trying to multi-task, in a rush, or working late at night. Most busy producers can relate! Thankfully, making corrections and changes to an account number or amount, changing […] Read more

Pay off debts before selling the farm

Farm Financial Planner: This Manitoba couple can pay off their debts and look forward to a reasonable retirement

In south central Manitoba, a couple we’ll call Herb and Cathy, both 64, are looking ahead to their future. They have farmed grain for more than two decades and have two children, a son age 40 and a daughter, 42. Each has a career off-farm and neither has an interest in returning to the family […] Read more