A focused male farmer sits in a car trunk, working on his laptop against a twilight sky, with silos and a lush field in the background. Pic: SimonSkafar/E+/Getty Images

Seven ways to streamline your farm transition

Farm Family Coach: It’s not hard to find parallels between this process and your day-to-day business

Lyle Wiens, who coaches farm families and advises on grain marketing, sees parallels between marketing and farm transition planning — two decision-making areas in which farmers can feel overwhelmed.


(Manitoba Co-operator file photo by Alexis Stockford)

Editor’s Rant: Reward v. risk

Where’s the incentive for early adopters?

A new report suggests Canadian farmers need to proactively focus on reducing the risks now covered by government-backed business risk management (BRM) programs — but will need supports to do so.



Farm building code updates will drive insurance increases

Farm building code updates will drive insurance increases

Added costs such as fire separation areas and bracing affect replacement value

Glacier FarmMedia — An unintended consequence of planned upgrades to Canada’s National Farm Building Code (NFBC) may be higher farm insurance rates. That’s because, regardless of how the insured structure is built, if destroyed it will have to be rebuilt to the new and more complex code. An Ontario member of the Canadian Farm Building […] Read more

hail

U.S. hail insurer looks northward

Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. of Iowa has made its first venture outside the U.S., buying the 80 per cent of Prairie crop hail insurance firm Palliser Insurance it didn’t already own, for an undisclosed amount. FMH CEO Shannon Rutledge said in a release in February that Palliser’s “regional expertise, knowledge and accomplishments…will contribute to […] Read more


farm family

Great questions to uncover inheritance expectations

Seeds of Encouragement: Keeping a farm intact can complicate the process, but not insurmountably so

One of the key fears of aging farm founders is the conflict they anticipate when the farming heir has access to millions of dollars of land, and the siblings who are off to other careers do not have the same net worth opportunity in their future. Or do they? Firstly, where it is written that […] Read more

Drought has meant more demand for forage insurance, but accuracy of measurement based on local conditions is challenging.

Satellite-based insurance may be future of forage risk management

Analysis from above could be an accurate, timely way to measure forage growth

Glacier FarmMedia ­— Satellite-based insurance technology could be a way to protect beef producers during times of drought. There’s more interest in forage insurance during recent droughty times on the Prairies, but evaluating local forage risk is challenging. “Weather events are becoming more acute in severity and frequency, you know the drought of 2023, 2021,” […] Read more


File photo of sunset over port facilities at Odesa. (Mixarde/iStock/Getty Images)

Ukraine announces ‘humanitarian corridor’ for other stuck ships

Moscow not yet commenting on plan

Kyiv | Reuters — Ukraine announced a “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea on Thursday to release cargo ships trapped in its ports since the outbreak of war, a new test of Russia’s de facto blockade since Moscow abandoned a deal last month to let Kyiv export grain. At least initially, the corridor would apply […] Read more

Liberia-flagged bulker K Sukret, carrying grain under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, waits for inspection in the southern anchorage of Istanbul on May 17, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Mehmet Emin Caliskan)

Insurers seen reviewing Black Sea ship cover after Russia quits deal

Last ship covered under deal left Sunday

London | Reuters — Insurers are reviewing whether to freeze cover for any ships willing to sail to Ukraine after Russia on Monday quit a UN-backed deal that allows the export of grain through a wartime Black Sea safe corridor, industry sources said. The agreement, brokered by Turkey last July, aimed to alleviate a global […] Read more