Farm Management Canada, in conjunction with the Wilton Consulting Group, has released a comprehensive report looking at not only stress and mental wellness within the farming sector, but also the impact mental health has on the business side of farming. In the report entitled Healthy Minds Healthy Farms, most farmers reported "undesirable coping mechanisms that... Read More
Category: Finance
The federal government is providing $100 million to Farm Credit Canada (FCC) to administer an Agriculture and Food Business Solutions Fund. The fund is targeted at "proven, viable companies through unexpected business disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic," and will support enterprises in the agribusiness and agri-food sector, including companies involved in primary production, agri-tech,... Read More
As we enter the second month of physical distancing and economic shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions have begun on easing restrictions and potentially allowing some people to get back to work. But we don't know how long that might take, or when it will happen, or what the economic recovery will look like... Read More
As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, people are trying to compare this situation to what's happened in the past. From a health perspective, there are parallels to the 1918 Spanish Flu; but from an economic standpoint, many are bringing up the early eighties and even the Great Depression of the '30s. My grandfathers lived through... Read More
COVID-19 has been an unprecedented situation. People throughout all sectors are going through a lot with their businesses, and it has shed new light on the word "risk" and risk management. When farmers are doing their strategic risk analysis for the year, and they get to the threat portion, a global pandemic wasn't exactly something... Read More
In a time like this, there's so much financial turmoil out there, and many people concerned about what their farm business looks like as we try to get to the other side of COVID-19. We've got major demand deterioration in the protein markets, there's milk dumping going on in parts of the U.S. and Canada... Read More
No one can predict how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last, but a huge focus on social and physical distancing has been effective, at least in part, to "flattening the curve" of infection and critical illness. Tracking on an inverse curve is the local and global economy. Right now uncertainty, social distancing, and shuttered businesses... Read More
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced additional support for farmers and farm businesses, following last week's announcement of $82 billion in various spending measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Parliament will reconvene March 24, 2020, to pass emergency legislation for these previously announced measures, and to release $5 billion in additional lending capacity through... Read More
The Bank of Canada took a step to attempt to soften the blow of COVID-19 on the economy by dropping its key rate by another 50 bps to 0.75 per cent — the second cut in as many weeks. The Bank of Canada also took additional measures with banker acceptances to keep the short term... Read More
For many of the commodity futures in meats and grains, it has been a very rough two weeks of panic selling in response to coronavirus economic impacts. The sell-off has not been isolated to agricultural commodities, as the equity market in the U.S. is now officially in a bear market and down 20% off of... Read More