I wish you could have been there to see it. I was speaking to a farm couple and when I asked, “when is it your wife’s turn to get what she wants?”, I saw the farmer’s wife poke him in the arm. Older farm men usually hate it when I ask that question—they’re very content […]
The Farmland Dilemma: Help! The Siblings Who Don’t Farm are Getting Farmland!
I could feel the frustration and pain as I read her lengthy email describing an all too common scenario for farm families on the topic of inheriting farmland. It looks like this: Aging parents have been pressured to be “fair” to the siblings who don’t farm. And the non-farming siblings also seem to have noticed […]
Keeping Farm Transitions Fair
Farm transitions can be tough. And they’re only tougher when there’s a lack of fairness during the process. The daughter of BDO’s Jim Snyder (now retired) thinks farm families will be more successful if they view fairness as “helping everyone be successful” rather than merely “being equal”. I’ve been challenged to create a session on […]
10 Things Millennial Farmers Want
Do you know what millennial farmers really want? I recently had the privilege of meeting a group of the Alberta Young Farmers.They were young, energetic and positive about their future in agriculture. Here are ten things I learned from them about what millennial farmers want in life. To be heard. Millennials have ideas and opinions. […]
How to Build a Strong Relationship: Marriage Fitness for Farm Couples
This article was originally posted on October 17, 2017, and has been updated. Does it ever feel like your spouse pays more attention to crop production than they do to you? These cracks really start to show when farm couples don’t build strong partnerships. I’d like to challenge you to get your marriage/partnership into better […]
Evolving Farm Family Roles
This article is an excerpt from Elaine’s book Farming’s In-Law Factor. At different stages of our lives, we need different things. These needs vary for each of us, but there tends to be a pattern. This is especially true for members of a farm family. With each stage of our lives, tasks and needs that […]
My 9 Top Tips for Loving a Farmer
This article was initially published on April 26, 2016, and has been updated. I want farm couples to be happier in their relationships; as love partners and as farm partners. Sometimes I ask the hard questions that irk people. But they know they need to deal with making their marriage stronger. “Elaine is a marriage […]
Farm Mom: The Important Lessons She Has Taught You
I am looking at my bare garden, waiting for the soil to warm up. The guys are busy in the fields, we’ve been seeding since April 26th. We are celebrating having our family close this weekend. I wish my farm Mom was still alive, she passed away in 1998 at age 65, but I think […]
The 5 Ways of Dealing With Conflict on the Farm
This article is an excerpt from Elaine’s book Farming’s In-Law Factor. What comes to mind when you hear the word “conflict”? Is it negative or is it positive? If you’re like most people, you’re thinking, “Of course it’s negative! How could conflict be a good thing?” Yes, as crazy as it sounds, conflict can be […]
Embrace Love and Let Go of Loneliness
February is typically a month of love. Couples being happy and embracing the love between them. But what do you do if loneliness is on your farm? Did you spend February lonely or embraced in love. Her sniffles were clear on the phone line, she said “He used to spend so much time with me […]
