Crop prices drop in January

Friday, March 23, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Higher livestock returns in January offset a tiny drop in crop prices as overall farmers’ commodity prices rose 6.2 per cent compared to a year ago, according to Statistics Canada’s Farm Product Price index released today.

But the decline of one per cent in the crops index was the first one since August 2010. Al Mussell, senior research associate with the George Morris Centre, says this small decline isn’t particularly meaningful. “For all practical purposes it’s probably flat.”

Mussell says Statistics Canada’s index is a snap shot in time and “you just don’t know how that relates to the year.”

The total index has trended upward since August 2010, it says in Statistics Canada’s report. The livestock and animal products index was up 12.8 per cent in January compared to a year ago. There were advances in all livestock commodities, ranging from 3.8 per cent for dairy to 20.9 per cent for cattle and hogs.

Statistics Canada attributes the year-over-year growth trend to low on-farm inventories of cattle and hogs in North America and higher feed grain costs. Mussell says increases in the livestock products index aren’t surprising because during the past year there were very significant gains in prices for red meats.

Factors contributing to the increased prices include strong export market demand and general inflation, he says.

But Mussell says people shouldn’t assume that just because the prices are up that farmers made more money. For example, cattle may have fetched historically high prices but calves were also historically high in price and feed costs were up. People shouldn’t assume farmers had historically high margins just because the prices were high.  

On the crops side, Statistics Canada says the crops index decline was largely due to a decline in the grains index, which was down 9.9 per cent in January compared to a year ago.  But the decline in the total crops index was moderated by an increase in the oilseed index, up 2.1 per cent in January compared to a year ago, and the specialty crops index, up 41.6 per cent in January from the same time last year. BF