Froese: Can farm dad become mentor coach?

Froese: Can farm dad become mentor coach?

Try not to be a micromanager as you let go of your CEO role and transition to mentor

Dick Wittman, a longtime farm management consultant and farmer has transitioned from being the CEO of a 22,000-acre Idaho farm to being his daughter’s mentor coach. His session at Ag Excellence’s 2021 conference was “How to get out of the way without going away.” Google the session and invest 90 minutes towards having better transition […] Read more

(Jenifoto/iStock/Getty Images)

Feds pondering more self-reliance in Canada’s food

'Even if we are already in a good position, we can always do better,' Bibeau says

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is looking for ways to make Canada’s food supply more autonomous. In an interview Thursday, Bibeau pointed to her minority Liberal government’s pledge in the throne speech to further support the food value chain. That could mean a review of food infrastructure across the country, according to Bibeau. Specifics aren’t yet […] Read more


Mentors (and work) help with successful tillage project

Mentors (and work) help with successful tillage project

Where there’s a will there’s a way

Our farm has always done the impossible. Most of the time, the motivation of being told we cannot do something is all that’s needed. Added to that is a whole lot of faith that it needs to be done. This spring my daughter and I presented my son with a need. We needed a sizeable patch of soil turned black. Apparently, […] Read more

Alison Anderson, the director of Succession Matching.

How to find a successor for your farm

If you don’t have anyone interested in taking over the farm 
Succession Matching may be able to help

It often happens at my succession communication seminars that a weary farmer approaches me with a problem. “Elaine, we don’t have a successor for our farm.” The look of worry and wear on their face makes me want to just sit and listen to their story. When I spoke in Biggar, Saskatchewan a few years […] Read more



Mentors are in our lives for a time and a season; at some stage such a relationship should become one in which each person "co-mentors" the other.

Being a compassionate farm mentor

Things on our farm are changing again — an employee moving on. In Stephen Poulter’s book The Father Factor, he talks about the fathering style of a “compassionate mentor.” This is a great style for farm founders to embrace over the winter months as they train the next generation for success. Smart farm dads and […] Read more