Many crop analysts are hoping the feast of data they receive from Statistics Canada doesn’t get slimmed down by federal government cutbacks to the agency and other federal bodies.
“I think the collection and processing of data is very, very important,” said Winnipeg analyst Marlene Boersch.
However, most analysts, including Boersch, think fundamental agricultural data such as that contained in last week’s seeding intentions report will be safe from cutbacks because it is a prime location for updating with modern methods.
Data gathering is an area that has generally seen incredible gains with new technology in recent years, but Statistics Canada hasn’t seemed to fully embrace the potential productivity gains.
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“I don’t think we have seen a lot of increases in efficiency there,” said Boersch.
No cuts to Statistics Canada services have been announced recently, and staff layoffs and job changes for the agency were only set to be unveiled April 30. However, its work produces some of the only independent and deeply surveyed and researched data that all farmers, analysts and companies can easily access and base decisions upon.
It is the Canadian version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s closely watched surveys and analytical reports. They can move the markets when they contain numbers that are significantly different from what people expect.
Accurate information helps farmers because it gives them a way to assess the production situations of the crops they are growing. As well, analysts have no better source for assessing the basic size of the crops seeded, growing and harvested in Canadian fields.
Companies rely on the data as a starting point for additional analysis and for checking against their own internal numbers.
Ross Purdy, manager of the Bank of Montreal’s agricultural lending in Alberta, said he uses Statistics Canada’s numbers when assessing businesses.
“The information I get from Statistics Canada, I really value,” said Purdy during a conference call last week with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
“It’s one of the few places you can go get which is unbiased information.”
Canadian analysts have long complained about Statistics Canada’s numbers, as Americans complain about the USDA.
Statistics Canada comes in for particular criticism for the time lag between when it gathers data and when it releases its analysis. The real world situation can change greatly in a couple of weeks for seeding, crop situation and production reports, but often, as with the seeding intentions report released last week, weeks go by between when Statistics Canada surveys farmers and when it releases its results.
And for smaller crops, analysts often say the Statistics Canada sample size is too small to accurately reveal acreage.
However, analysts often follow their criticisms by grudgingly adopting the numbers as a baseline, with the comment “it’s the numbers we have.”
CFA president Ron Bonnett said he wasn’t too worried about Statistics Canada dropping agricultural reports or reducing their accuracy.
“Agriculture was singled out as one of the areas where the government still felt it was important to collect that long form data,” said Bonnett.
“So I think there’s an understanding of the importance of that data in decision-making.”
Boersch said she believed Statistics Canada could become more efficient with fewer staff because she has seen that happen across the agricultural and analytical industries. When she began her career at Cargill in 1983, “you had all sorts of support staff for analysis. You won’t find that in the companies anymore,” she said.
“People in certain positions are expected to do that.”
She also said recent information technology improvements should allow a much faster flow of information from surveys to analysts and then out to the public with fewer people.
“I really think we could do a lot more with what we have.”
However, she said she did not know what the federal government was going to cut or how, so she didn’t know if potential Statistics Canada cuts would be done in a manner that would improve the agency’s speed or efficiency.
Bonnett said he also saw great room for efficiency improvements in agricultural data collection from farmers, going beyond just Statistics Canada.
“You may have a farmer that fills out crop insurance reports, income reports for Revenue Canada, reports for other government departments, and one of the things we’re suggesting is finding ways to streamline that so that you don’t have this huge burden of paperwork that you have to fill out,” said Bonnett.
