Slight decline in farm input index reflects stable prices in agriculture says expert

Thursday, July 7, 2016

by SUSAN MANN

Statistics Canada’s data showing a slight decline in the farm input price index for the first quarter indicates prices in agriculture have been relatively stable during the past year, says an Ontario agricultural economist.

The farm input price index decreased 2.1 per cent in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2015, mainly due to lower animal production costs and specifically cattle, according to the Statistics Canada report released Tuesday. Cattle input prices were down 6.4 per cent in the first quarter compared to 2015’s last quarter.

Machinery and motor vehicle input prices were down 4.1 per cent, while crop production was 2.8 per cent lower in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2015, the Statistics Canada report says. Partly offsetting those declines was an increase in general business costs, which rose 1.3 per cent in the first quarter compared to 2015’s final quarter.

Alfons Weersink, a professor in the University of Guelph’s food, agricultural and resource economics department, says the small dip in the input price index “indicates prices, both input and output, have been relatively stable over the last year in agriculture.”

“The decline is largely due to (lower) feed costs for farmers, which are crop production costs. Some of that is due to fertilizer costs going down due to lower oil prices,” he notes.

Feeder cattle and weaner prices have also dropped, and that contributed to the farm input price index decline too.

The Statistics Canada report says the index fell in all provinces. Ontario’s drop was 1.2 per cent, a much smaller decrease than Alberta’s at 3.3 per cent and Saskatchewan’s at 3.1 per cent.

The farm input price index is an indicator of the change in input costs for Canadian farmers, according to Statistics Canada. BF