Beef drop worst since 1940; pig numbers down 10 per cent
The drop in Ontario’s beef cattle inventory is the worst since 1940, a Statistics Canada report reveals
Clarification: 4:02 PM Monday Feb. 23, 2009
The drop in Ontario’s beef cattle inventory is the worst since 1940, a Statistics Canada report reveals
Clarification: 4:02 PM Monday Feb. 23, 2009
Canada’s farm population is either ahead of trends or behind them, Statistics Canada finds.
But those gains in farm receipts are being made from crop commodities; livestock receipts were still low in the first quarter of 2008, Statistics Canada reports.
Over the past five years operating costs have skyrocketed and hog and cattle prices have plummeted. Nevertheless, according to the most recent information released from Statistics Canada, in 2007 the nation’s farmers saw their net income rise two per cent above the previous five-year average. UPDATED MAY 28
Despite the plunge in livestock prices, farm product prices overall showed an increase of more than two per cent last December over the same month a year before, states a Statistics Canada report.
Last year marked the second full year that the U.S. border was open to Canadian cattle shipments since 2002 and the outlet for exports finally appears to be having an effect on the size of the country's cattle herd.
In its release yesterday of farm product price index (FPPI) information, StatsCan notes that strong gains in crop prices outstripped livestock prices for the same month.