Financial Management and Planning Archives

A Farm Family’s Guide to What It’s Worth – By Blake Copley

In my many years of work helping farm families to enhance their businesses, I often am asked questions such as, “How can I justify paying the currently high market prices for (insert agricultural asset here) to be able to grow or maintain my operations?” or “ How are...

Strategic Planning is a Journey; Prioritizing Progress Over Perfection – By Josée Lemoine

On Dec. 31, 2023, Terry Betker, founder of Backswath Management, stopped writing for The Western Producer after 13 years. The team at Backswath has big shoes to fill as we take over the reins from Terry. Our voices will be different than his, of course, but we look...

Farmers can take steps to increase borrowing chances – by Terry Betker

I teach a course in the University of Manitoba’s ag diploma program that has an emphasis on lending and how financial management information factors into lending processes and decisions. Half to two-thirds of the students typically have plans to return to the farm....

Does Green Mean Go? – by Terry Betker

I have the most enjoyable privilege to drive my young granddaughter around Winnipeg, where she and I live. Like every youngster her age, she’s super observant of things and not shy in telling me what to do and where to turn to get to our destination. She’ll tell me...

Making more money doesn’t always fix financial problems – by Terry Betker

There are a couple of principles that apply to many situations on farms. The first is that you can’t borrow yourself out of a problem and can’t borrow yourself to profitability. The second being that focusing on driving revenue growth alone, without attending to all...

Crop price cycles have a habit of repeating themselves – by Terry Betker

My sister sent me a few things recently. She was going through some stuff and figured I would appreciate the “treasures” she had found more than she did. Is that recycling? Perhaps. Anyway, one thing she sent me was a copy she had of the Souris Plaindealer, the local...