Cash receipts up big time

Sunday, May 25, 2008

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Cash receipts for crop sales were up nearly 40 per cent compared to the same quarter the year before, Statistics Canada reports.

In a report released Monday, the federal fact-gathering agency described the total farm cash receipts of $11.1 billion for the January to March period of 2008 as a “record high.”

A surge in grain and oilseed prices was the main reason for the boost, it said, noting there was also a modest increase in supply-managed commodities.

But the gain in supply-managed commodities was clearly overshadowed by the lower prices and escalating feed costs affecting the hog and cattle industry caused, the report said.

In total, livestock receipts decreased more than six per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter in 2007. The report said prices that hog producers received dropped 30 per cent compared with the same time last year. BF