Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

Question:
You need capital to start making money. You need money to get the capital. How do you get one without the other?

In the past few years we have been investigating different options on how we can generate more cash flow (and hopefully profit) on our little farm in northern Huron Cty. Currently it is cropped, with the use of borrowed family member's equipment. I personally have a preference to do livestock due to the current building set-up on farm.
One avenue we have looked at is the dairy sector (we like cows for various reasons). When talking with bankers - "so how much quota do your parents have?" Oh, so we need "sponsorship" program in order to start. :-)
Lately, with the drop in the value of quota, we have talked about it again. One former banker suggested borrowing no more than $20,000 per kg quota. Yeah - that works great when quota is $25,000. So we start with 6 cows. Whatever.
This is where young folk have an issue with beginning farming. We have ideas that could improve efficiencies, labour management, productivity gains, reducing environmental "footprints"... etc. But to get the "elder" generation to agree is about as easy as moving Mt Everest.
One example I recall from Prof. Kohl was a 60 year old man walked up at a family succession planning meeting. He was interested in talking more about succession planning. Kohl was thinking "Oh he wants to retire and get his son more involved." No. His father and his son were walking up behind him. He wanted to get the farm from his 80+ yr old father, who was using a cane. So when would his 40 yr old son be able to farm? After he is eligible for retirement?
A few years ago every banker was willing to lend hundreds of thousands for a pig barn fully stocked. We always said no since I felt there was no future in pigs in Ontario for me. They also were willing to lend the same amount for a modern dairy - if my father would "give" his quota over.
In a super-big-box store in London one day a conversation with another customer came around to "taking over the family farm". She thought ALL farmers literally gave the farm to their children. because that is what happened in her family, her in-laws, and her neighbours - in the old country.
Well with that kind of capital, why do we need to worry about the question at the start?

Views: 100

Replies to This Discussion

This raises a lot of great points Wayne - thanks for posting it. I know in our case - we're very fortunate to have parents who WANT us there, and know part of us being there is being owners. It also brings up this video with Elaine Froese on AgVision TV - Barriers to Succession Planning - http://agvisiontv.farms.com/default.aspx?vid=vid_342009135751534

Let's get a good discussion going here. Do you agree with those barriers? Any way to work around those.

I know the thing we really have to watch for is around that conflict. We need to make sure we put those conflicts on the table - rather than trying to avoid them. None of us like conflict, but it is something we are going to have to get better at dealing with.

RSS

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation visits EMILI’s Innovation Farms

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation visited EMILI’s Innovation Farms to discuss AI innovation and get a firsthand look at the important work taking place to advance agtech in Manitoba. “This week in Winnipeg was about practical AI and Manitoba’s place in Canada’s innovation economy,” he said in a post on LinkedIn after the event. “I visited Manitoba Innovates and EMILI Innovation Farms to see how Manitoba is supporting startups, agtech and real-world technology adoption.” EMILI is very proud of the work taking place in Manitoba to drive agriculture innovation, and how the impact is stretching across Canada with the recent launch of the AIVA Network which EMILI is a co-founder of. It was an honour to share details and answer questions about 30+ projects being tested and demonstrated on EMILI’s Innovation Farms this season, including Verge Ag, Cellar Insights, Agi3, Geco Strategic Weed Management, Miraterra, GrainFox, and mor

This is Agriculture: Customer success sales and marketing lead

After entering university to play volleyball, Courtney Kowk found her way into the agriculture program and continued her studies with a masters degree in agricultural economics. While her work experience started during university, her connection to agriculture began with a love for animals and a connection to her grandparents in Saskatchewan. She continued into a role at Cellar Insights, which allowed her to work closely with producer-focused innovation. Where did you grow up? Was it an agriculture or urban environment? I grew up in East St. Paul, a small municipality just outside of Winnipeg. It wasn’t a farming community, but it also wasn’t fully urban, so I got a bit of both worlds growing up. What was your dream job when you were a kid? Thinking back, I don’t know if I ever really had a dream job. I don’t think I spent much time thinking about growing up or being an adult, I was pretty happy just being a kid and not having to worry about those responsibilities yet. At one point

Insurance companies slammed with hail damage claims from summer storms

Member companies of the Canadian Crop Hail Association (CCHA) say they're processing more than 2,000 claims of crop damage across the Prairies. Members of the Canadian Crop Hail Association include Co-operative Hail Insurance Company, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation, Palliser Insurance Company Ltd, Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance and Rain and Hail Insurance Services. The claims stem from storms that occurred June 22nd to July 5th. During that time, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were hit with hail from golf-ball size to baseball size, along with wind and large amounts of rain. President of CCHA Tyson Ryhorchuk says a large area of Saskatchewan was hit by consecutive days of hail. "Alberta and Manitoba are also fairly heavy, especially in southwest Manitoba," said Ryhorchuk. "But there was that large storm that everyone's been hearing about that stretched basically from Calgary all the way down to Swift Current that had a pretty big swath of hail that came thro

Unity's Field of Dreams gets boost from BASF’s Field of Purpose

The Cardinal Diamond Revitalization Project will soon be transitioning into its third year of work, and this year the project received some help from BASF. For the past few years, the committee has had the opportunity to fund the project alongside the North West Terminal, with the sale of the grain being used to pay for the diamond renovations. Several farmers in the area have continued to help with these fundraising efforts following the sale of the local grain terminal, and committee president Cory Wildeman said the group learned about the Field of Purpose program after approaching BASF rep Layna Levorson for a donation of crop protection chemicals. The revitalization project received enough Sphaerex fungicide and Voraxor pre-seed to support 240 acres of soft white spring wheat through the BASF program, which has been operating under the Field of Purpose name for the past two years. Tabetha Boot, head of Communications & Industry Relations at BASF, said the company tries to support

New-Crop Soy Production Up, But Ending Stocks Steady

U.S. soybean ending stocks for 2026–27 were left unchanged in the USDA’s July supply and demand report on Friday, even after a larger planted area raised the expected size of the new-crop harvest. The USDA maintained its new-crop carryout forecast at 310 million bu, unchanged from June and well below the average pre-report trade expectation of roughly 332 million. New-crop soybean production was increased by 40 million bu to 4.475 billion, reflecting a 700,000-acre increase in planted area to 85.4 million acres. Harvested area was also raised by 700,000 acres to 84.4 million, while the national yield forecast remained unchanged at 53 bu/acre. However, the larger crop did not translate into an equal increase in total supply. Beginning stocks were lowered by 10 million bushels to 330 million, leaving total 2026–27 supplies up a net 30 million bushels at 4.83 billion. Meanwhile, the USDA also raised projected soybean exports by 30 million bu to 1.66 billion, citing increased supp

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service