Cities and towns are approving land development now that may not happen for a decade. If we're to protect farmland from being swallowed by ever-expanding municipal boundaries, we need to act now to stop it, says Keith Currie, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) . Currie's organization is one of 16 farm groups... Read More
Category: Land prices
In the past, farms looking to grow simply bought more land, but that's not as easy as it used to be. Rising land prices are forcing producers to be creative in finding opportunities for growth, which in some cases leads to joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions — the topic of this episode of the Mind…Read More
The majority of respondents to the Saskatchewan government's farmland ownership review this summer said they oppose foreign ownership and investors such as Canadian pension funds purchasing farmland in the province. More than 3,200 people submitted their views during the consultation process that ran from May 20 to August 10. The results were published on Wednesday.... Read More
According to Statistics Canada, over half a million acres of productive (class 1-3) farmland was "settled" between 2000 and 2011. This "settled area" on dependable agricultural land grew by 19 percent in Canada, with the largest increase happening in southern Ontario and Quebec. The loss of farmland isn't a new phenomenon (the last time people... Read More
How does that old saying go? Crop prices take the stairs up but the elevator down. It could be said that crop input prices do the exact opposite. Price trends of both variable and fixed inputs seem to march to their own drum. Variable input prices are slow to back off highs; fixed costs can…Read More
There was a time when it was hard for farmers to access credit — so much so that it spurred the creation of a farm credit corporation, now known as Farm Credit Canada. Those old enough to remember FCC’s creation are also old enough to recount the hardship that was farming in the early 1980s.... Read More
As expected with lower crop prices, new data from Farm Credit Canada shows the red-hot market for farmland cooled off in 2014. According to FCC's annual Farmland Values Report released April 13th, the average value of agricultural land in Canada rose by 14.3 percent in 2014 — down from an increase of 22.1 percent in... Read More
(Yuma, Arizona) – From the desolate, moonscape-like look of the surroundings here, complete with a never-ending vista of foreboding mountains, scattered rock, tumbleweeds, cacti and dirt devils, it’s hard to imagine this part of the world is popularly called America’s winter salad bowl. But it’s true. Farmers in the vast and sparse extreme southwestern part... Read More
While tile drainage has been a part of farming in the U.S. Midwest and Ontario for decades, a growing number of producers in Western Canada are finding they can justify the cost of installing tile in their land. Take Craig Shaw for example. Speaking at FarmTech in Edmonton, the Lacombe, Alberta grain farmer gave three... Read More
Have you recently taken over the farm? Or are you about to begin the hand-over to the next generation? Or, just maybe, your New Year's resolution was to up your farm business management game. Whatever your reasons, Jacqueline Gerrard, of Backswath Management, will be presenting some top management tips at Crop Connect '15. The second... Read More