Noel McNaughton

A few years ago, I produced a series of video programs for Alberta Agriculture on marketing grain and livestock. I interviewed a feedlot operator about forward pricing cattle and he said the farmers he bought barley from made the same mistake continually, which cost them money and him aggravation. When he ran a little short […] Read more

In the summer of 1996 Elizabeth and I went on a study tour of Amish country in Ohio’s Holmes County. Before the tour, all we knew about the Amish was that they wore plain clothes, travelled in horse-drawn buggies and farmed with horse-drawn equipment. We assumed there was a religious reason why they did not […] Read more

We make sense of our lives with stories. When something happens, good or bad, we tell ourselves a story about how it affects our lives to give the event meaning. You’ve been there: a family gathering where people sit around and reminisce about the early days on the farm. How old Uncle Bill got his […] Read more

Every business that is serious about success has advisers. The same goes for non-profit organizations. These advisers include, at the minimum, an accountant and a lawyer, assuming there is neither on staff, but others can also be immensely helpful. Sales and marketing consultants, management advisers, tax planners, human relations experts and technical geeks are all […] Read more

I have been speaking at farm meetings and conferences for 30 years and I hear the same story whenever I talk to farmers and ranchers about working together, and even forming alliances with processors and distributors, to keep more jingle in their jeans. The reason they don’t work together, they say with a certain amount […] Read more

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, Thumper, the little rabbit in the Disney film Bambi, came out with the line that every parent loved to lay on their children: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” It sounds OK on the surface, but we little ones […] Read more

Sarah was 68 when her husband died. She sold the farm and moved to town, but still lives alone. When she goes to the co-op cafe for lunch or coffee, she always tries to get a table in Cindy’s section. Sarah thinks she likes Cindy to wait on her because Cindy is so cheerful and […] Read more

If you want to make a man panic, put him in the presence of a woman who is crying. The poor guy will have no idea what to do. He will get all fidgety and embarrassed and maybe even angry and upset. Men like to be able to fix things and we don’t know how […] Read more

A while back I was talking to a woman whose second parent had died the year before and she said it may sound strange, but she felt a bit like an orphan now. “Margery” had grieved a lot when her father died seven years before, but at least she still had her mom. When her […] Read more

Most of the time we try to avoid stress, but it can have a pay-off that some folks seek out. Some people hurry about, striding here and rushing there, always having too much to do and making sure everyone knows it. This busyness can make a person seem important. (Gosh, she has all that to […] Read more