March 2017—It dawned on me recently that I had a warped view of “connection to the land”. I thought most people would feel a strong family connection to their farm. But really, most land a farmer owns or rents these days does not have a strong connection to family history. And lots of farm families are...
Read More January 2017—Online shopping disrupted the economics of bricks and mortar stores. Uber disrupted the taxi business. We had a neighbour who used to sell the World Book encyclopedia. She doesn’t do that anymore because Google and Wikipedia disrupted – actually killed – the reference books business. Inspired by a tech presentation at the Bayer Agronomy Summit,...
Read More November 2016—I swam in Chain Lakes this past summer for the first time since I was nine. The Chain Lakes I know is a string of three tiny lakes in Southwest Manitoba, just off Highway 21 between Hartney and Deloraine. My family’s farm – the place I grew up and where my brother and his family...
Read More September 2016—Michael Boehlje, the Purdue University ag economics professor who looks well past normal retirement age, lectured — and I mean lectured — at CropConnect in Winnipeg earlier this year. With high energy and a high voice, he rattled off 10 ways farmers can respond to an economic downturn. When giving examples of things done wrong,...
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