Too Fast – Is Agtech outpacing primary producers in the current market?

  In the latest Farmer Coach sessions, we included members from John Deere in our discussions on equipment efficiencies and optimization. Aside from the clear distain of current market pricing from a primary producer perspective, one…

Don’t Fool Yourself – Why Agriculture has Still Not Caught up on Financial Management

Little known fact about me, I like conflict. Whether in my personal life or business life, getting comfortable with the uncomfortable has always been a skill of mine. Not to say I don’t have emotion; I just tend to thrive off of tension and…

Iron Disease – In an environment of high equipment costs, what is the solution?

The inconvenient truth is that farmers are to blame for the current equipment environment; just as ordinary people are to blame for continuing inflation in Canada. Farmers can take a large part of the responsibility for rising equipment costs…

The Ironic Truth – The very thing agriculture is trying to save, is what is leading to its demise.

The writing is now on the wall; agriculture has branded itself out of the labour market.    When we started Farmer Coach, part of our vision was to not only provide value but also for me to learn as much as possible from the producers.…

Family Ties – How succession and transition in agriculture continue to spin circles.

Frankly, I am tired of hearing the line “agriculture is different”. I think this is the cause of many of our industry’s downfalls as we continue to push the narrative that we are special in comparison to other industries. We choose to…

What’s in a Name – How branding and social media are running the next generation of farms.

This blog was inspired by a recent conversation with a client. One of the aspects where I thought their business could make strides was in terms of branding and media presence.    His answer was simple, “If I drive my truck to…

The Lie You’ve Been Told – Hours Worked is not a Badge of Honour

It’s not possible to work 10X harder and 10X longer to achieve 10X growth – Dan Sullivan, Creator of Strategic Coach   I have a love-and-hate relationship with social media. Some days I read comments and it infuriates me and then…

Getting Creative – How Small Farms Can Continue to Compete

“Do you think a large number of farms would pay for an internal accountant as a contractor?”   I remember the day I sent this text to my current business partner. It was around four months prior to leaving public accounting to…

A Second Chance – Things I Did Wrong the First Time Around

As farmers, we have one of the lowest inventory turns of any retail industry. The majority of grain producers in Western Canada get once per year to get it right, and if you are lucky enough to live this life for 40 years, that is 40 chances.…

A Cause for Concern – Are producers becoming too comfortable to progress.

99% of Warren Buffett’s net worth was earned after his 50th birthday.   I have a new cause for concern in the agriculture primary producer industry, comfort.    Over the last few months, I have had numerous client meetings…

The Farmer Coach Report Card – Year One

Wow, it’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by since we started Farmer Coach last July. Since then, we’ve launched two cohorts of the program and continue to have our participants coming back for ongoing learning sessions.  During…

After the Hangover – Once you recover from the seeding hangover, do you take stock?

It happens on every farm, and we all know it well. That time after seeding when not only do you not want to see anybody from work, but the thought of getting back into a tractor cab has you claustrophobic. It reminds me of the movie The Hangover,…