Commercial feed costs inflate index

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

A 17.2 per cent increase in the cost of prepared commercial feed in Ontario has helped propel the Farm Input Price index to an 0.8 per cent rise in the third quarter of 2012, matching the index’s second-quarter rise.

While animal production inputs were up 3.7 per cent across the country, the advance of the index was tempered by a 1.7 per cent decrease in crop production inputs.

The Statistics Canada index increased in eight provinces during the third quarter. Ontario, with an increase of 1.9 per cent, and Quebec, with an increase of 2.5 per cent, added most to the national growth in input costs. The increases were partially offset by decreases in Saskatchewan of 1.1 per cent and New Brunswick of 0.1 per cent. Higher prices in Saskatchewan were dampened by a 5.3 per cent fall in the cost of fertilizers.
 
Nationally, farm input costs increased 5.8 per cent between the third quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of 2012.
 
Animal production inputs, up by 10 per cent, contributed most to the annual price movement of the index. Animal production has been the main contributor to the annual growth of the index since the third quarter of 2010.
 
The index increased in all provinces between the third quarter of 2011 and the third quarter of 2012. Ontario, up 7 per cent, and Alberta, up 6.4 per cent, contributed most to the annual advance of the index.

Over the one-year period from the third quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2012, annual animal production costs were primarily the result of prepared commercial feed costs rising in both Ontario and Alberta. In Ontario, the annual input cost increase for commercial feed was 24.3 per cent and in Alberta it was 20.4 per cent. BF