U.S. versus Canadian farmland prices

The average price for Canadian cultivated farmland was $6,900 per acre in 2025 compared to $8,150 (all figures Cdn$) per acre in the U.S. However, comparing value is a complex calculation, FCC economist Justin Shepherd wrote in an April 15 report.

 WHY IT MATTERS: Historically an advantage for Canadian crop producers, your land ownership costs per acre may not be the competitive edge they used to be.

For example, some U.S. farmland sits in zones with warmer climates and much longer cropping seasons, whereas some Canadian farmland stays snow-covered late into spring.

There are also variations in how Canadian farmland values are calculated.

To address this, Shepherd said, FCC calculated farmland value based on crop acres only and compared it to the equivalent U.S. value.

While U.S. cultivated farmland is more expensive, on average, than Canadian, the dollar per acre gap between the two countries has largely stayed similar since 2000.

Canadian land values have seen fairly consistent growth, averaging 8.7 per cent over the past decade, Shepherd said. U.S. growth rates have seen sharp spikes, such as between 2010 and 2015, followed by flat growth (2015 to 2020). The average growth rate for U.S. farmland was 5.6 per cent.

Since 2020, Canadian farmland values have risen faster than those in the U.S.

Canadian versus U.S. farmer revenue

Despite higher average land prices, U.S. farmers had a slight advantage over Canadians in ability to generate revenue from their land.

Using both countries’ agricultural balance sheets, Shepherd said FCC calculated the average farm is making mortgage payments on roughly 15 per cent of their farm’s real estate value.

Using the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture’s formula for land investment cost, in 2025 newly-purchased Canadian farmland averaged a cost of $367 per acre. Owned land cost $143 per acre.

Using U.S. interest rates, newly-purchased U.S. farmland costs producers $381 per acre and owned land cost $127.

Last year, cultivated farmland payments accounted for 39 per cent of Canadian farmers’ grain and oilseed cash receipts.

“Meaning for every dollar earned, 39 cents went toward land payments,” Shepherd wrote.

The U.S. average was 33 cents per dollar of revenue.

“Although this calculation doesn’t include income from livestock or other sectors, it demonstrates that land costs as a percentage of grain revenues are comparable between Canadian and U.S. farmers,” Shepherd said.

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Producers made strong bids for available land, increasing values by 12.2 per cent in Manitoba, 11.4 per cent in Alberta and 9.4 per cent in Saskatchewan, says the 2025 Farmland Values report from Farm Credit Canada.

In its report, FCC said agricultural land values were “resilient” last year and defied expectations of a downturn.

“The market remained supported by farmland’s long-term investment appeal, tight supply and strong competition from expansion-focused producers,” says the FCC report, released March 24.

“The Prairie provinces drove much of the year’s average increase (across Canada).”

Overall, the value of cultivated land jumped 9.3 per cent from coast to coast, but provinces outside of the Prairies saw weaker gains or losses in value:

• British Columbia, a 1.7 per cent decline.
• Ontario, 2.2 per cent increase.
• Quebec, 4.8 per cent gain.

FCC attributed the modest rise in Ontario to farmers becoming picky. They were willing to pay high prices for top-quality land but avoided marginal properties.

A similar situation has developed in Saskatchewan. Expanding producers are driving demand for the best land in the most productive regions.

In 2025, price increases in northeastern, northwestern and east-central Saskatchewan were around 12 per cent. Those regions produce the highest yields for key crops like canola and wheat.

In west-central Saskatchewan, where yields are lower, farmland values increased 4.8 per cent in 2025.

The average price of cropland in northeastern Saskatchewan is getting close to $5,000 per acre. That’s a massive jump from 2019, when average values in the northeast were $2,000 per acre.

Farmland realtors on the Prairies have also noticed this trend of robust demand for fertile land.

“Good land in a good area is still going up,” said Tim Hammond of Hammond Realty in Biggar, Sask.

In southern Alberta, dryland prices surged upward by a 16.4 per cent in 2025. Irrigated land, which is now at $20,000 per acre in the province, played a role in the value gains in southern Alberta.

As irrigation districts have expanded, dryland acres close to irrigated land have become more valuable, FCC said.

A major theme in the FCC report was the shortage of land for sale in multiple provinces and regions.

This could be part of an ongoing trend, for the last 15 years, where retiring farmers rent their land instead of selling.

Whatever the reason for the shortfall of properties on the market, it’s clear that supply is “tight”, said J.P. Gervais, FCC executive vice-president of ag operations.

“This is something that has been certainly documented last year, and if I’m not mistaken, the year before,” he said.

“One of the overall drivers of farmland values, how tight the supply, does matter when (it) comes to the valuations that we’re currently seeing…. Generally speaking, very tight availability of farmland (for sale).”

Pastureland also higher

The FCC report had data on pastureland values, which saw a 5.2 per cent increase across Canada thanks to stronger prices for beef cattle over the last few years.

Gains were much higher in Alberta’s Peace region and northern B.C., where values climbed 17 to 18 per cent.

Across the Prairies, Saskatchewan saw the largest increase in pastureland prices of 7.6 per cent.

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Realtors in Saskatchewan have noticed a shift in the market, where some properties are going up in price and others are not.

Buyers are still willing to pay a premium for productive land, but demand is much softer for mediocre cropland.

Tim Hammond, founder of Hammond Realty in Biggar, Sask., described the current situation as a “split market.”

WHY IT MATTERS: After 15 to 20 years of rising values, Canada’s land market may have entered a new phase.

“Good land in a good area, is still going up,” he said.

“Average land in an average area, it’s struggling. It is going sideways and in some cases it’s going down…. I haven’t seen a mix like this since I started in 2002.”

Hammond made his comments March 10 during a webinar hosted by Dan Aberhart, who runs Aberhart Ag Solutions in Brandon, Man.

Aberhart invited Hammond and Trent Klarenbach, a market analyst who turns Klarenbach Research in Saskatoon, to discuss farmland values on the Prairies.

A snapshot of prices will be revealed next week, when FCC releases its annual report on farmland values March 24.

In 2024, values increased 9.3 per cent year over year across Canada, including a 13.1 per cent jump in Saskatchewan.

It’s possible that FCC will report another increase in 2025, but realtors like Hammond say something has changed.

Two or three years ago, when he put cropland up for tender, Hammond would receive 10 offers.

The top three or four bids would be very close on price.

“What we’re seeing now, instead of getting 10 offers, we’re getting two or three,” he said.

“And the spread between the top bid and second highest bid is five, 10, 15 percent.… I’ve always said, land is only worth as much as the second highest bid.”

Other experts have made similar comments about demand and buyer interest.

It remains strong in certain geographic pockets, but less so in other areas.

“Farmland is still very much a regional market,” Justin Shepherd, senior economist with Farm Credit Canada, said last August.

“There could be areas that see (more) farmland value growth … but there could be other areas where there is (less) competition for that farmland, where you could see things slow down.”

Similar market for U.S. farmland?

A comparable situation has developed in the United States, where buyers are driving up the price of productive cropland while demand is weak for less fertile land.

Sellers of land, outside of the best areas, might need to lower their expectations, said a January report from Farmers National Co., a firm that manages farmland across the Midwest and Northern Plains.

It’s not necessarily a buyers market, but buyers are getting picky, said Colton Lacina, Farmers National Co. senior vice-president of real estate operations.

“(They) are carefully assessing soil quality, the percentage of tillable acres, water access and how a parcel fits into their current operations. Those details matter more than ever.”

A plateau in values would be a significant change for Canadian producers, landowners and the psychology of investors because the market has increased for nearly 20 years.

An FCC report on historical farmland values indicates that the average price increase was 10.7 per cent annually from 2007-23 across Canada.

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They discussed their recent policy papers on what Canadian agriculture needs for economic stability and productivity in a recent webinar.

Courtney Anderson, Dislène Sossou and Andu Berha highlighted the financial benefits and challenges of adopting soil conservation practices, the impact of climate change on agricultural production and how federal and provincial farm insurance programs are — or are not — mitigating these effects.

Impact of land values

Anderson took a high-level look at the economics of farmland use — including returns from farmland compared to land purchase and rental costs — and what rising farmland values means for the longevity of the sector.

Overall, Anderson reaffirmed that Canada’s farmland is currently in “long-term decline” from development and other pressures, that farmland rental rates have caught up to farmland value appreciation in most areas of the country, and the appreciation of the value of most farmland alone “does not provide a high-enough all-in discount rate of return for most investors.”

Farmland rentals, says Anderson, offer a strong potential additional return on investment to those owning farmland, but come at considerable risk and uncertainty for the renter. Speaking during the CAPI event, he says statistical data indicates rental costs siphon some 90 per cent of operator income, leaving only 10 per cent to cover all other production expenses. This, he says, indicates strong competition in farmland rental markets.

Given the competition for farmland, Anderson argues a better understanding of what future generations will require to invest in farming — whether through renting, purchasing or other methods of farm investment — is needed. He also points to policies from different regions across the country, which have restricted land ownership, as possible models by which farmland can be conserved in other areas.

What drives adoption of new practices

Sossou’s research focused on what drives the adoption of more environmentally minded production practices in vegetable systems, something she says is ever more important as consumer demand for domestically grown produce spurs growth in the vegetable sector.

Because vegetable production often necessitates the intensive use of inputs, tillage and other elements of production mechanization, says Sossou, soil health degradation is a growing concern. The adoption of soil conservation practices helps remediate these issues, while often reducing production costs for the farmer.

However, many vegetable farmers are still reluctant to adopt soil conservation practices due to financial constraints, implementation challenges, access to information, market access, non-targeted support and general negative perceptions of some practices.

These perceptions are not necessarily unwarranted, given that economic and environmental goals don’t always align on the farm. Sossou details how “there is a potential tension between economic sustainability (via succession planning) and environmental sustainability (via Environmental Farm Plans),” adding policymakers or advisors “need to balance both objectives when designing conservation programs.”

Policies promoting the adoption of soil conservation practices should also account for farmer crop specialization, including recognition of the soil nutrient requirements for the vegetable in question.

Additional recommendations to increase the adoption of effective soil conservation practices include expanding technical assistance and market access for vegetables demanding particularly high levels of soil nutrients, enhancing supply chain integration and connecting farmers with wholesalers or processors preferring vegetables grown with soil conservation practices, designing irrigation and incentives policies for a balanced land-use strategy and implementing policies to sustain an effective workforce for labour-intensive crops.

Different farms, different insurance programs

Berha’s work highlights how a one-size-fits-all approach to production insurance programs is increasingly costly, as well as ineffective at promoting change on the farm.

When the climate is good — that is, when poor and extreme weather has not been the norm — Berha says farmers tend to specialize in a few high-performance crops in pursuit of high returns. This occurs at the expense of greater crop diversity, which, while often being less profitable overall, helps protect farmers in the face of an unfavourable climate. Diversification only happens after the onset of poor conditions.

There is thus “a clear trade-off” between sustainability and productivity, says Berha. The imbalance in that trade-off is costing farmers and insurers a lot of money, with Canadian farm insurance payouts jumping from $1.9 billion in 2018 to nearly $5.7 billion five years later — a cost surge that has occurred alongside more extreme weather.

A means of reducing insurance costs involved is complementing current business risk management programs with “resilience built in.” This would include promoting climate-resilient crop choices and farming practices, as well as addressing different risks faced by farmers in different regions.

Berha identifies four additional means of improving insurance programing. This includes a guarantee of prompt payouts to meet cash flow needs, scaled coverage to better match losses — special mention is also given to the upward adjustment of coverage caps and top-ups to reflect greater risk during more extreme weather — simplified paperwork processes, and greater transparency through the publishing of an annual business risk management performance dashboard, which includes reporting payout times, approval rates and regional uptake.

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But times have changed, with the number of live, on-farm auctions seeing a drastic decline in recent years.

Today’s younger farmers may actually never experience going to one, but they are still very likely to buy something sold through a farm auction.

“The 30- to 40-year-olds are now my buyers,” says Jason LeBlanc, strategic advisor with Steffes Auctioneers.

“And that generation doesn’t necessarily like going to a sale, the environment we used to create.”

And there’s another factor at play working against live, on-farm auctions: as the number of Prairie farms declines, there aren’t as many people living in a local area to attract to a live sale.

“It was nothing to get 500 or 600 people at a sale,” he adds.

“For some of the bigger sales, we’d give out 1,000 or 1,200 bid numbers. That was a normal practice. Now, to get 500 people to a sale, that circle is probably drawing up to 1,000 miles. You just don’t draw those big crowds anymore.

“You have to draw from a large distance now to get a yard full of people.”

However, thanks to technology, farm sales often see large numbers of bidders registered online, following the sale remotely. That online participation is what continues to make farm auctions a viable way to dispose of equipment and even property.

LeBlanc says Steffes, like other firms, still gives farmers the option of having a live, on-farm sale. However, the sale would still be open to online bidders, and he hasn’t seen a significant difference in sale prices if the sale is held live on the farm or timed online only.

With more than 30 years in the auction business, he says the on-farm sales still hold an appeal for him.

“We’d love to do them. We’re cut from that cloth. And we like to do the online live auctions. We’ve done a couple of them this year and they’ve been very successful. We have a couple more coming up in October. Lots of people like them and come to them, but I can’t say they produce more money or anything different. Sometimes farmers just like an outing.”

Steffes Auctioneers used a different blend of live and online-only bidding to handle a particularly large sale this spring. About 200 of the large lots and machines were sold live, while smaller items were grouped into lots, tagged with a QR code, and buyers could use their smartphones to digitally bid on them through the online-only portion of the sale website.

“We tried that and it worked great,” says LeBlanc.

“You put your phone up to that item, and it will take you right to the bids. It’s new technology. Steffes brought that in, and it’s been a good move.”

Over the three-plus decades LeBlanc has been in the auction business, he has also seen a significant change in the total earnings from a farm sale.

“When I first started, if you had a farm auction that hit over $100,000, you were doing something. Then you’d have the odd farm sale that would hit $300,000. Now we sell a Case Quadtrac for $550,000. That’s one item, and then go on to the next one. The numbers have grown so large.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also drove a lot of changes in farm auctions. Large gatherings were not permitted during that time, so online sales suddenly became the only way to conduct one.

However, COVID changed other things in the auction business as well. The number of online auction companies proliferated to take advantage of that new online business opportunity.

“Everybody got into the auction business when it became just an online format,” LeBlanc says.

“People even tried it on their own because it’s pretty simple to do. But now when the equipment is under pressure, we’re seeing prices dropping, that’s when the auction companies come into play. Who has the marketing? Who has the clientele? We started noticing that change last October and we’re really seeing it now.

“People really have to pick who they can hire for an auction because not every (company) is the same. You need to look at what they do. When COVID hit, you could sell anything. The market was just eating up anything that was available. That’s what’s changed. The companies that didn’t spend on infrastructure and marketing or build their databases up are really falling behind.”

LeBlanc garnered most of his auction experience working with a large auction firm that has a significant international footprint, but he is now leading Steffes Auctioneers’ Canadian effort as it breaks into the Prairie market, beginning in Saskatchewan.

Steffes started in North Dakota about 65 years ago and now operates in multiple U.S. states, so it’s not a newcomer to the auction business.

The company has now been conducting farm dispersals and real estate auctions for about a year on the Canadian Prairies and is also handling other heavy equipment sales here as well.

“We’re in a growth mode,” LeBlanc says.

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Harry and Susan want to keep the farm intact. Their solution is to convey it to their neighbours. As well, they want to help Luke pay off his tuition bills. They approached Nathan Heppner, a certified financial planner, and Erik Forbes, a registered financial planner, both of Forbes Wealth Management Ltd. at Carberry, Man., to develop a plan for transferring the farm to future ownership and management while ensuring the continuity of their retirement income.

Harry and Susan live modestly. They spend just $4,000 per month. They have no debts and want to continue living as they do now when retired.

Their retirement assets total $780,000 composed of two tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) with a total value of $280,000; Susan’s $75,000 RRSP; her $35,000 locked-in retirement account (LIRA); and $390,000 in non-registered investments. Assuming they can generate a 6.54 per cent rate of return and allowing for a 2.1 per cent rate of inflation and combining that cash flow with their Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security benefits, they can make their target, Heppner estimates.

The more complex part of their dilemma is how to handle the generational transfer of their farm. However, sale for top dollar is not their concern. They will have sufficient funds for retirement, Forbes notes.

Let’s do the math. Harry and Susan bought their land for $1,115,000. The present total estimated value of their eight quarters is $3,840,000. If they can sell for that price, they could have a $2,725,000 capital gain. They have a lifetime capital gains exemption as follows:

• Market value: $3,840,000
• Book value: $1,115,000
• Capital gain: $2,725,000

Take off their combined lifetime capital gains exemption, $2,500,000, for a net capital gain of $225,000, and allow a 50 per cent inclusion rate. The result is taxable income of $112,500.

There are tax issues, Heppner notes. Canada has no estate tax, inheritance tax nor gift tax, but there is a tax liability on the $112,500 capital gain. Harry and Susan would gain nothing by selling the land to neighbours at less than fair market value. Any disposition of the land would leave the capital gain as a liability.

What to do?

If they gift the land to neighbours, there would be tax liability and payment would erode their retirement capital. If they gift the land at book value, they could not make use of their lifetime capital gains exemption. If they gift the land at less than fair market value, they would be double-taxed by the Canada Revenue Agency. And if they make use of an imaginative solution to defeat the Income Tax Act, CRA could apply the General Anti-Avoidance Rule and related penalties.

The planners recommend sale of the farmland to the neighbours at fair market value. That allows Harry and Susan to use their lifetime capital gains exemption. The neighbours lack cash for payment in full but Harry and Susan can use a vendor take-back via a promissory note for the full value of the land. The promissory note is a private mortgage on the land. It would have to be accompanied by a schedule of payments — say, $50,000 per year indefinitely. In a bad year, the agreement could allow for deferral of payment. When Harry and Susan have sufficient payments, they can elect to stop future payments or even cancel the loan.

There is flexibility in this plan. If the neighbours decide to sell the land, they would have to pay back anything outstanding on the loan. The administration of the loan would be in the hands of Harry and Susan. They could even draft a provision forgiving the loan when one or both die.

“The couple’s life of dedication and diligence has put them in a great financial position,” the planners explain. “They can achieve their retirement goals.”

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“Demand for farmland remained strong in the first half of the year regardless of lower commodity prices,” said FCC chief economist J.P. Gervais in a news release.

“Buyers continued to invest, driven by long-term confidence in the agriculture sector and the limited supply of available land.”

The overall range of sale prices per acre has increased “only modestly,” the farm lender said. Provinces that had seen strong growth in recent years are seeing softening farmland prices while regions that had previously seen more modest growth are seeing solid gains.

“Overall, the market appears to be stabilizing,” FCC said in the news release.

Where and why values are growing

Farmland values gained 10.4 per cent year over year between July 2024 and June 2025.

That compares with 5.5 per cent growth in land values in the first half of 2024 and a 9.3 per cent annual increase that year.

Manitoba led all provinces with 11.2 per cent growth in the first half of 2025, with the Parkland and Westman regions seeing the strongest growth. In the Parkland region, large grain operations are building their land bases, FCC said. Alberta and Saskatchewan saw growth near the national average with 6.6 per cent and 6.0 per cent respectively.

New Brunswick saw the second-highest growth with a 9.4 per cent increase January to June. Strong growth in southern New Brunswick, particularly the dairy farming region, drove the increase. Gains in the other Maritime provinces were more modest with Nova Scotia at 1.0 per cent and Prince Edward Island at 2.3 per cent.

British Columbia and Ontario land values remained flat, and Quebec saw 2.6 per cent growth.

Cash receipts steady

FCC noted that farm cash receipts, interest rates and the overall supply of farmland are key drivers of values.

In the first half of 2025, cattle receipts were up 18.3 per cent on record prices. This pushed total mid-year cash receipts up 3.3 per cent. Grain and oilseed receipts rose slightly in early 2025, though this varied by region.

Grain and oilseed receipts are expected to fall by six per cent in 2025 compared to last year. Increased production, the effects of China’s tariffs on Canadian canola and peas and tariffs between the U.S. and China are expected to weigh on commodity prices.

However, easing interest rates and healthy balance sheets carrying over from the record crop years of 2022 and 2023 should lend support to farmland values.

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A University of Manitoba soil scientist is using AI and satellite data to explore how Prairie landscapes respond to long-term stress — and how they bounce back.

At a recent presentation, Nasem Badreldin, who teaches digital agronomy at the U of M, explained how his team is using simulations to study landscape resilience. The model they built uses 25 years of daily satellite data to show how vegetation and soil systems shift under pressures such as drought, erosion or the loss of organic matter.

Landscapes move through zones of stability, recovery, degradation and vulnerability. Over time, repeated stress causes ecosystems to become less predictable and more fragile.

The key, Badreldin says, isn’t just understanding how ecosystems degrade. It’s also about identifying early signs of transition, when a system begins shifting from one state to another. For example, a system might shift from grassland to shrubland or from productive cropland into a degraded state where native vegetation or invasive species take over.

In some cases, there isn’t much of a transition — the changes can be immediate and dramatic, like a landslide or flood wiping out vegetation. These “sudden death” events, as Badreldin calls them, also provide useful information.

The challenge is understanding what’s driving the change. What seems like a drought effect might actually be due to declining soil carbon, resulting in reduced water-holding capacity — less obvious, but potentially more impactful. This gap in clarity is one of the hurdles keeping the research from practical application.

One early tool emerging from Badreldin’s Digital AgroEcosystems Lab is a web app his team informally calls TerraQuest.

Still in early development (version 0.2), the tool was built using Google Earth Engine. It lets users draw a custom area anywhere in North America to access satellite data, including NDVI, leaf area index, precipitation and solar radiation. While it’s currently designed for researchers, a future version could plausibly support on-farm monitoring of changing field conditions.

But to be useful on the ground, models must link cause to effect — and that remains elusive.

“The models up to now can’t catch those two,” Badreldin says. “We are trying to find a way to do that. We don’t yet know how — but we will.” — D.N.

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Rollins said the administration wants a 100 per cent American workforce and suggested some people receiving government aid could replace immigrant workers.

“Ultimately, the answer on this is automation, also some reform within the current governing structure. And then also, when you think about, there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program. There are plenty of workers in America,” she said at a press conference outside the Department of Agriculture headquarters.

Most adults on Medicaid work full- or part-time or are not working due to illness or disability, caregiving, or school attendance, according to a May brief by the health policy organization KFF.

The farm sector has warned that mass deportation of farm workers would disrupt the U.S. food supply. In June, the Trump administration signaled it might pause raids on some farm worksites. It has since reversed course.

Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill, passed on July 3, introduces work requirements for Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office has said is expected to leave nearly 12 million people uninsured.

Later on Tuesday, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said at a cabinet meeting at the White House that the Department of Labor had developed a new office to work with farmers and ranchers, but did not provide more details.

The Labor Department oversees the H-2A program, which provides seasonal visas for agricultural workers.

Farmland owned by ‘adversaries’

Rollins also said at the press conference that the USDA will curb farmland purchases by “foreign adversaries,” including China, and terminate agreements and contracts with people and entities from those countries.

Asked about land already owned by Chinese-owned companies Syngenta and Smithfield Foods, Rollins said the administration is still considering its options.

“You’ll likely see an executive order on this very soon from the White House and we’ll be looking at multiple different authorities within the federal government to begin to claw that back,” Rollins said.

In 2023, Arkansas ordered Syngenta to sell 160 acres (65 hectares) of farmland under a state law barring some foreign entities from acquiring or holding land.

Twenty-six states limit or ban foreign businesses, governments or nationals from owning private farmland, according to the National Agricultural Law Center, and some of those laws have faced legal challenges.

Only about 3.4 per cent of U.S. farmland is owned by foreign entities, and Canada owns the largest share, about 30 per cent, according to the USDA.

Rollins said she will be a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, “as of this afternoon.” The interagency body reviews foreign investments in the U.S. for national security threats.

Bipartisan lawmakers have supported limits on ownership of farmland by foreign countries, citing national security concerns.

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The value of the sector totalled $832.5 billion as of Dec. 21, 2024, up by $38.9 billion or 4.9 per cent from the same date the previous year. That compares with 8.5 per cent growth in 2023.

Farm equity rose in every province but gains in Saskatchewan and Alberta accounted for more than two-thirds of the national increase.

Lower crop values weigh on current assets

Farmers’ total assets grew by 6.3 per cent in 2024 to reach $991.5 billion with most of the growth due to the rise in farm real estate value. Farmland value rose 7.0 per cent to $713.3 billion in 2024.

The value of current assets (short-term assets like cash and crop or livestock inventory) fell by 0.8 per cent to $57.9 billion, mostly due to lower values for crop inventory. The value of crop inventories was down by 17.9 per cent to $21.9 billion as crop prices fell by 14.6 per cent, StatCan said.

Poultry and market livestock inventory value grew by 26.6 per cent to $16.5 billion on sharply higher prices. However, inventory fell by 4.9 per cent.

Farmers’ ability to pay interest declines

Canadian farmers’ total liabilities grew 14.4 per cent to reach $159.0 billion at the end of 2024. This was the largest percentage increase in total liabilities since tracking began in 1981 said StatCan. Most of the rise was due to long-term liabilities. Rising liabilities in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec accounted for more than two-thirds of the national increase.

At the same time, farmers’ ability to meet interest payments fell for the second consecutive year. The interest coverage ratio settled at 2.12 at year’s end. This was the lowest ratio since 2007.

A lower ratio indicates that farms are less able to service debt obligations.

The interest coverage ratio continued to deteriorate because of the decrease in farm income, said StatCan. That decrease was due to a decrease in crop inventories and higher interest expenses, it said.

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