It’s that time of year when the media is reporting income of farmers.
There are stories about soaring grain prices, a better bottom line and other indications of a strong farm sector.
This week we have a story quoting Statistics Canada figures showing wheat cash receipts (by end of September) were 21 percent higher than a year before; barley sales were up 37 percent; hog sales were up four percent; and net cash income for farmers rose 11 percent to the highest level since the “subsidy-swollen 1988 total of $6.3 billion.”
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
Surely similar stories will be seen in other media under headlines of “farmers making lots of money.”
Whenever our paper runs stories about rising farm income, we receive angry letters from farmers about bad headlines and are accused of not giving the facts.
Any time statistics are presented, reporters must examine them carefully.
Percentages, graphics, pie charts and other information can be misleading. In some cases more background and context should be provided.
For example, in our story of rising incomes, the reporter added the other side: input costs.
In the same time period, costs for crop production rose 12 percent. Interest charges rose 22 percent within a year.
The main thing to consider is that while “cash receipts were up seven percent last year” for Canadian farmers, “operating expenses increased five percent”.
No wonder farmers cry foul at the media: Farmers read that they’re supposed to be growing rich, yet know that when they bought fertilizer and pesticides in the past year they were paying a lot more.
When machinery and parts, farmland costs, taxes, water bills and perhaps fuel, electricity and other input prices are added to the equation, the real picture emerges.
It’s still tough to be a farmer.
