Decline in Number of Canadian Farms Slows

May 13, 2022

The number of Canadian farms is continuing to decline as the industry consolidates and producers age. But the pace of that decline is slowing.

In its first release of data from the 2021 Census of Agriculture on Wednesday, Statistics Canada pegged the total number of farms in the country at 189,874, down a relatively modest 1.9% from the previous Census of Agriculture in 2016. The trend toward fewer farms has been ongoing for decades, but this past year’s decline was nonetheless the smallest in a quarter century.

Between 2011 and 2016, the number of Canadian farms fell 5.9%, and dropped 10.3% in the previous census period from 2006 to 2011.

“Over time, farms have been evolving to become increasingly sophisticated businesses that harmonize automation, modernization and production operations,” StatsCan said. “As a result, many farms have consolidated and become increasingly larger both in terms of sales and number of employees. Conversely, smaller and mid-sized farms are declining in Canada, thereby impacting the rural landscape and profile of Canadian regions.”

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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