Canadian net farm income grew 7.6% in 2016: StatsCan

StatsCan has released its net farm income report for 2016 and the results may surprise you considering the livestock and commodity market that producers faced. According to the report, revenue held fairly stable while it was declining operating expenses that allowed net farm income to rise.

A full breakdown of the report, including provincial comparisons, livestock vs crop production, can be found here.

Some of the details of the net farm income numbers:

• Realized net farm income rose 7.6% in 2016 to $8.8 billion. This marks the third consecutive year and the sixth time in seven years that realized net farm income has increased.
• Realized net income is the difference between a farmer’s cash receipts and operating expenses, minus depreciation, plus income in kind.
• Slightly lower operating expenses together with a small increase in farm cash receipts contributed to the gain in 2016.
• Realized net income grew in six provinces — Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta — with Quebec recording the largest percentage increase (+65.7%).

See Shaun talk about the StatsCan income report with Christina Loren on RFD-TV

As mentioned above farm receipts were held relatively flat posting their weakest annual increase since 2010 by totalling $60 billion (up 0.5%).

Program payments grew 13.8% to $2.4 billion in 2016, with increases in provincial stabilization and private hail insurance payments driving much of the rise.

Total expenses, which include depreciation charges, edged down 0.6% to $51.3 billion. The 1.0% increase in depreciation charges was the smallest since 2010. Total expenses decreased in four provinces, with Alberta posting the largest decline at 2.8%. Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and Manitoba were the other provinces to report a drop.

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