By Dori Modney

Crop and farm cash receipts up in first three quarters of 2021

Dec 7, 2021 | 11:42 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB. — With the majority of western farmers having to deal with higher-than-average temperatures, drought conditions throughout the growing season, and forest fires, it might be expected that the crop year was a disaster.

However, while the weather events are responsible for reduced crop yields and higher feed costs for all provinces, there was some positive news.

Over he first three quarters of 2021, farm cash receipts for Canadian farmers were up 11-per cent or $5.8 billion, to a total of $58.0 billion. Higher receipts for livestock and crops were driven primarily by increases in prices and high demand.

Direct payments remained unchanged, at $2.4 billion.

Every province had increases in total receipts, with Alberta up $1.8 billion and Saskatchewan up $1.0 billion, accounting for half of the total increase.

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International demand and lower inventory pushed prices higher, resulting in all grains and oilseeds (with the exception of soybeans) having positive receipts. Based on strong 2020 crop production, crop receipts were up 9.6-per cent to $33.5 billion through the 2021 third quarter.

With the exclusion of cannabis, crop receipts would have risen 9.9-per cent.

Canola receipts, which were up $1.3 billion, represented almost half of the increase in total crop receipts. Strong prices of 40.9-per cent, more than offset lower marketings which were down 16.3-per cent.

For wheat, total wheat receipts were up $1.1 billion and represented almost 40-per cent of the increase in total crop receipts. Excluding durum, wheat also recorded strong price increase by 24.6-per cent, while marketings fell 7.9-per cent.

Durum wheat receipts increased in both price (+31.9%) and marketings (+0.4%).

Specialty crop receipts dropped by 3-per cent to $2.5 billion from the first three quarters of 2020. Despite a 30.2-per cent increase in prices, lentil receipts dropped by 15.1-per cent to $1.1 billion, while marketings fell 34.8-per cent. The receipts were down slightly from the record high in the first three months of 2020.

In addition, mustard seed also saw a decline in receipts. The remaining specialty crops recorded minor increases in receipts.

Cannabis receipts rose 6.0-per cent to $2.3 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, representing 7.0-per cent of total crop receipts.

In terms of livestock, receipts increased 14.8-per cent to $22.1 billion during the first three quarters of 2021. Half of the increase is credited to total hog receipts, which were up $1.5 billion. The remaining increase in receipts comes from slaughter cattle, which were up $699.1 million and supply managed was up $644.5 million.

Total cattle receipts were up 9.7-per cent to $6.9 billion, with the credit going to slaughter cattle receipts, which were up by 15.1-per cent. Slaughter cattle receipts were up thanks to both increases in the number of animals slaughtered and increased prices, which offset the decreases in international export of cattle where the number of cattle and prices fell.

Total crop, livestock and direct payment receipts as a proportion of total farm cash receipts, January to September, 2011 to 2021

The full impact of the growing challenges will be made clear in future releases of Farm Cash Receipts and Net Farm Income. The next quarterly release of Farm Cash Receipts will occur on February 28, 2022 and will include data for January to December 2021.