Farm cash receipts across Canada tumbled during the first nine months of the year. Grain crops took the biggest drop and Alberta took the hardest provincial hit, according to Statistics Canada.
The Nov. 24 report on farm cash receipts would have been bleaker except for the fact that livestock receipts were up dramatically in the nine months.
Last year, it was the reverse.
Statistics Canada reports that realized net farm income decreased 11.2 percent last year, driven down largely by falling livestock receipts.
“A small increase in crop receipts (in 2009) was not sufficient to offset declines in livestock receipts,” said the analysis.
Last year’s $400 million decline in realized net income (receipts minus expenses and depreciation) to less than $3.3 billion was the first decline in three years.
Falling program payments also contributed to lower net incomes last year.
The statistical story this year is markedly different, according to the government figures.
Market receipts for sales of wheat fell by $1.3 billion with durum and barley recording the most dramatic declines – down 43.5 percent and 47.5 percent respectively.
In contrast, hog sales earned $350 million more during the first nine months of the year, up 15.6 percent. Cattle and calf sale receipts rebounded 5.4 percent from last year’s levels to $4.6 billion.
Statistics Canada says program payments fell by $150 million during the first nine months of the year, mainly because of sharp cuts in provincial stabilization program payments. That was partially offset by a 51 percent increase in crop insurance payments to $868 million, many of them in reaction to weather disasters on the Prairies.
Declining receipts have hit Alberta farmers the hardest hit this year. To the end of September, income was down $500 million to $6.8 billion compared to the same period last year.
Quebec farmers took the second biggest hit, watching receipts fall 5.3 percent.
