Farm cash receipts have fallen dramatically in prairie grain sectors during the first nine months of this year.
Statistics Canada said that barley receipts were down 47.5 percent, durum wheat down 43.5 percent and all grain receipts down 34 percent compared to last year.
Overall across Canada, farm cash receipts were down 3.2 percent over the nine months and crop receipts were down 8.8 percent.
Only sharply higher hog and beef receipts in 2010 have kept the overall farm picture from being more negative.
Ironically, Statistics Canada analysts reported last week that while net farm income fell 11.2 percent in 2009 to $3.3 billion, the first decline in three years, the main culprit was declining livestock revenue while grain prices kept the average higher.
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It was the reverse of this year’s nine-month result.
In both years, program payments declined.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett said declining program support is the real story in the numbers.
“On the surface, what these numbers show is the impact of volatility in agricultural markets,” he said in a Nov. 26 interview.
“There is volatility on both the input cost and output return, neither of which the producer can control.”
Meanwhile, program payments have declined by $2 billion since 2005, said Bonnett.
“Incomes are going down and program payments are going down,” he said.
“That tells you that programs are not responding to the need out there. The core issue is that farm net income numbers are declining and programs are providing less support, getting us to the discussion about whether programs are designed to deal with farm profitability. They are not.”
Danny Foster, director general of business risk management program development at Agriculture Canada, told the federal agriculture committee Nov. 25 that business risk management programs have paid out $6.4 billion to farmers since 2007.
That number includes Ottawa’s 60 percent funding share and the provinces’ 40 percent funding share.
Foster said payouts to the livestock sector could be more than $1.1 billion for 2009-10.
Critics note that many of those payouts are for earlier years’ losses since government payments typically are one or two years behind current year conditions.
