When federal officials sat down to analyze farmers’ tax returns for 1999, they discovered some farm income realities that many in the farm community figured they already knew.
There also were a few surprises.
Saskatchewan farmers, on average, reported the lowest net operating income of any farmers in Canada — just $17,184 for the year, or $47 per day.
In contrast, farmers in Prince Edward Island and Quebec recorded more than twice as much net operating income as their Saskatchewan counterparts.
No western province reached the national average of $22,758.
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One of the surprises was that in 1999, potato farmers had the highest net operating income — $78,601.
The cattle industry was at the other end of the scale with an average net operating income of just under $10,000, reflecting the fact that many in the cattle industry have small herds as a sideline to other income.
The grains and oilseeds sector had the second lowest average income — $21,000.
Supply-managed sectors of poultry, eggs and dairy are among the highest income earners.
The high-income potato sector was the engine behind P.E.I.’s leading farm income status. Low grains and oilseeds prices are blamed for Saskatchewan’s bottom status, since grains and oilseeds represented 72 percent of the province’s farm economy.
The 1999 tax returns also revealed that despite consolidation and the growing average size of farms, close to half of Canada’s farmers reported less than $50,000 in revenue from farm product sales.
A quarter of tax filers who were classified as farmers reported gross revenues of less than $25,000.
Fewer than 14 percent of farmers claimed agricultural sales of more than $250,000 and just over 35 percent reported agricultural revenues of more than $100,000, which many economists consider the threshold for a commercial farm.
