In Canada this year, cash receipts from all agricultural harvests will deliver $35 billion into the economy, an amount nearly equal to Cuba’s gross national product. Harvests will support hundreds of thousands of farmers directly on about 240,000 farms and millions of Canadians indirectly in support, processing, transportation and distribution industries. They will also feed millions of people around the world.
Wheat was planted on 27 million acres of Canadian farmland, an area slightly larger than Cuba. Canola bloomed on more than 10 million acres, bringing in more than $1.7 billion in revenue.
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Lentils, a growth industry for western Canadian harvests, were threshed from nearly 1.4 million acres this season.
Cattle, despite experiencing a difficult harvest due to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis, number 15 million with an annual birth rate of more than five million animals.
Year over year most crops and forms of livestock are increasing or maintaining long-term averages.
Fruit and vegetable harvests have nearly doubled over a dozen years, with revenues topping $1.86 billion in the 2001 Canadian Census of Agriculture.
Harvest receipts from farms in Canada grew by $14 billion in the decade ending in 2001. The number of farmers declined over the same period by more than 15 percent.
Yields from individual crops remain relatively steady on a per acre basis, with much depending on rain and other weather factors.
Western Producer reporters and freelance contributors have recorded a portion of this year’s harvest with their cameras. Their photos can be found on pages 66-69 in a special feature called Harvest on Stage.
