Ontario Farm Input Prices Drop; Farmers Spending Less On Machinery

Jan 08, 2016

By Joe Dales

Farm input costs in Ontario were down in the third quarter of 2015, compared to second-quarter numbers.

Stats Canada this week released data showing a 0.4 per cent drop in costs, but third-quarter numbers were still up a full two per cent from 2014.

While costs were down in Ontario, the nation-wide Farm Input Price Index (FIPI) rose 0.4 per cent in the third quarter.

The national increase was mainly attributable to animal production (+1.7 per cent).

A deeper look at costs related to farm machinery and motor vehicles shows that Canadian farmers spent 4.9 per cent less on those categories in the third quarter of 2015 versus one year ago.

Other inputs factored into the index are buildings, general farm business costs, and crop production.

Stats Canada’s FIPI is an indicator of the change in input costs faced by Canadian farmers. As such, the FIPI can be used to monitor price changes, which are considered in the operations of marketing boards and in price stabilization programs.

Governments use index data to develop national and regional economic policies related to agriculture.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.