OTTAWA (Staff) – For most farmers, it is old but good news.
Statistics Canada Nov. 24 confirmed the obvious – farmers are living more from the market, less from government and the bottom line is looking better than it has in years.
Government support for farmers is down sharply, 30 percent during the first nine months of the year compared to last year.
Yet soaring commodity prices have more than made up for it. By the end of September, the $2.13 billion in wheat cash receipts was 21 percent higher than year-earlier figures. Barley sales of more than half a billion dollars were up 37 percent.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
While cattle and calf receipts fell slightly, receipts from hog sales were up more than four percent.
By contrast, during those nine months government program payments fell to under $800 million from more than $1.1 billion last year.
Not all of the higher market returns will translate into profits, however.
The federal agency also reported that input costs for crop production were up 12 percent on the strength of higher fertilizer and pesticide prices.
Interest charges were 22 percent higher than year-earlier levels.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada also reported that for Canadian farmers, 1994 was a banner income year. Net cash income rose 11 percent to $5.9 #billion last year, the highest level since the subsidy-swollen 1988 total of $6.3 billion.
It said cash receipts were up seven percent last year while operating expenses increased five percent to just under $20 billion.
