Statistics Canada says farmers are adopting more sustainable practices to cope with climate change. Agricultural census data released May 11 shows 64.5 percent of farms reported using “land practice methods” such as winter grazing, rotational grazing, plow-downs of green crops, winter cover crops and shelterbelts or windbreaks. The percentage is up from 53.7 percent in […] Read more
Tag Archives census of agriculture
Ag census finds cow herd growing
Total Canadian beef cow inventories have risen while heifer numbers for slaughter as well as beef and dairy herd replacement numbers continue to decrease, according to the latest data release from the Statistics Canada 2021 agricultural census. Total beef cow inventories rose in 2021 for the first time in the last decade, rising slightly by […] Read more
Ag census data released: farm consolidation continues
UPDATED: added farm numbers graphics – 1435 CST May 11, 2022 – Data from the 2021 agriculture census shows that the trend toward farm consolidation and older operators is continuing. Statistics Canada released the first tranche of data from last year’s census today. The number of farms dropped 1.9 percent to 189,874. However, the definition […] Read more
Bigger is better, according to agriculture census
Costs might be rising, but profit margins on the average Canadian farm were unchanged between 2010 and 2015, according to data from the 2016 Census of Agriculture. Statistics Canada, which collects, analyzes and disseminates the census data, said Canadian farmers, on average, had an expense-to-receipt ratio of .83 in 2015, un-changed from 2010. In other […] Read more
Farm incorporation rate highest in Saskatchewan
Farms continue to incorporate, according to the latest census. One-quarter of all farms were incorporated in 2016 compared to 20 percent in 2011 and two percent in 1971. “Overall we’re seeing a shift to more incorporations,” said Erik Dorff, an analyst with Statistics Canada. That doesn’t mean farms are being run by men wearing ties […] Read more
Wheat acres down but not out, say officials
A few decades ago, Western Canada’s vast grain growing area was known to many as the breadbasket of the world. Wheat was king in the West, and all other crops were minor players by comparison. But times have changed. Today, prairie farmers are more inclined to grow crops that make oil, margarine and soup rather […] Read more
Farmers less likely to own land they farm: census
Canadian farmers are producing more grain than ever and they’re growing it on more land than ever. However, a larger proportion of what they produce is being grown on land that’s owned by someone else. That’s especially the case in Western Canada. “We’re seeing that an increasing proportion of the land being operated by farmers […] Read more
Census offers glimpse into modern agriculture
Prairie farmers are getting older — and younger. More than half are 55 and older, according to the 2016 Census of Agriculture. The 55.5 percent in that category is up nearly seven percentage points from the 2011 census. Bill Brown, head of the agricultural and resource economics department at the University of Saskatchewan, thinks the […] Read more
UPDATED: Farms grow, get grey and remain relatively financially stable
UPDATED – May 10, 2017 – 1535 CST – graphics added Farmers are older, there are fewer of them, farms are larger and canola is king. And when it comes to beef cattle, producers are 12.6 percent fewer and the size of the industry dropped 2.4 percent, based on herd size. The new 2016 Canadian […] Read more
