Strong livestock prices and government program payments pushed Canadian farm cash receipts to record levels for the first six months of this year.
Alberta led the provinces with a 14 percent increase over the same period in 1999, mainly due to higher livestock prices. Livestock receipts also reached record levels, mostly because of higher hog prices.
All other provinces recorded increases except Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. The national increase was 9.8 percent.
In Manitoba, receipts were up 6.9 percent.
In Saskatchewan, receipts were up 3.6 percent, mostly due to a whopping 209 percent increase in program payments, said Dave Boehm, director of the agriculture department’s statistics branch.
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Saskatchewan farmers received $374 million from programs, up from $121 million in the same period last year.
Crop receipts were down eight percent and livestock proceeds were up one percent, Boehm said.
“It just points to the issue that the crops (sector) is still the negative factor,” he said.
This is especially noticeable in Saskatchewan, he said, where producers are highly dependent on grain and oilseed production.
Crop receipts dropped for the fourth consecutive year.
Across Canada, program payments reached $1.3 billion, up from $697 million. Most of the increase came from the one-time payments designed to help prairie farmers adjust to the elimination of transportation subsidies.
Boehm said although it is impossible to know how those payments helped individual producers, they apparently bridged the gap.
“At least at a provincial level it appears the programs have had the desired effect,” he said.
Manitoba producers received $154.3 million from programs in the first half of the year, up from $40 million, and Alberta farmers received $220.6 million compared to $80.5 million last year.
Saskatchewan producers withdrew $99 million from their Net Income Stabilization Accounts in the first six months of this year, compared to $85.3 million last year. Manitoba farmers took out $31.9 million, up from $25.5 million, and Alberta farmers withdrew $33.8 million, up from $28.8 million.
