by KAREN BRIGGS
Canadian agricultural producers and agribusiness owners are optimistic about the future, according to a Farm Credit Canada survey released Tuesday.
Of the nearly 4,500 producers and agribusiness and agri-food operators who participated in the annual national vision panel survey:
• 77 per cent said they were better off today than they were five years ago (up from 67 per cent in the FCC’s 2010 survey)
• 58 per cent said they plan to expand or diversify in the next five years
• 69 per cent said they would encourage a friend or relative to pursue a career in primary production, and 79 per cent said they would encourage another to pursue a career in an agriculture-related field
• 80 per cent think their farm or business will be better off in five years than it is now – the most optimistic response of the past five surveys.
The survey also broke down attitudes province by province.
Residents of Saskatchewan proved to be the most optimistic about the future, with 82 per cent expecting that their businesses will improve over the next five years. Ontarians came second at 81 per cent. Levels of optimism were lower in the Atlantic provinces and in British Columbia (74 and 75 per cent, respectively).
By sector, levels of positivism were highest among dairy (84 per cent), crops (82 per cent), horticulture (81 per cent) and poultry (81 per cent). The least optimistic sector surveyed was hog producers, of whom only 75 per cent expected their next five years to be an improvement on their current status.
Jean-Philippe Gervais, FCC senior agriculture economist, noted this year’s response registered the highest level of option since the survey was introduced five years ago.
“What’s interesting is that there is not a lot of difference in the levels of optimism between regions of Canada and between agricultural sectors,” he says. “Overall there’s a lot of growth, and producers are excited.”
Nevertheless, there remain concerns and challenges as well as factors beyond anyone’s control such as weather, he says. “But we’re experiencing a lot of innovation and growth that we weren’t seeing five or 10 years ago. The producers see a future.” BF
Comments
What will they do when the bubble breaks and corn prices, it goes to $4.25 /bushel and only 8700 farmers out of 28000 farmers has Ontario RMP . Below COP and all those farmers buying land at $8000 to $13000 / acre..
What leaders and governmment people, premier, civil servants will be held legal responsible, accountable? NONE.
None, "Poof goes the magic dragon"
They bailed out Gm and manufacturinng in 2008, we have a Canadian housing price and farmland price bubble so big that young new purchasers can never pay the mortgages off because of paying employment is just not there to offset mortgages.
Todays farmers know they can only pay the interest of farm land mortgages, so who in their right mind will be stuck with these unsecured loans?
Mr Harper states Canada can not afford its staggering cost of future Health care of baby bommers when manufacturing jobs and workers to support future taxes is not big enough.
The 35 year credit Canada bubble is being tested.
With Farm Credit Corp being a government corporation,and being the leader in farm financing today,not a lender of last resort as it was originally,then will not the government be on the hook to bail farmers out??. Im sure there will be enough immigrants flock to Canada to scoop up the land as it becomes available.Having been young and ambitious once myself i understand how easy it is to get caught up in the world of farming. Not too many young people today can imagine paying 18% interest on their mortgages.
As the recipient of the largest milk check in the country and not having to milk one cow for it.......
Of course they are going to say the agriculture business is rosy....
I have always wondered why FCC suddenly supported the run up in quota prices and began embracing quota values as the main collateral when lending. I recall being told they weren t supposed to do that,, but apparently around 2001 they started to.I remember being told by a new agent in 03 that he was lending against the farms quota values first and land values second. Of course the run up in land values has changed dramatically since then. It sure made the job easy for newcomers to the lending sector didn t it. I recommend you look up an article by Ian Cummings that is in the lastest edition of the Eastern Ontario Farmers Forum. It deals with debt issues on farms today.
In the same way that the eternal verities are death, taxes, and the belief that supply management will last forever, the most-basic principle of investment psychology, along with the greater-fool principle, is that things always look brightest to individual investors, just before the market collapses.
The people at the highest level of FCC would appear to be hoping that they will be able to retire before having to deal with the mess they so-clearly helped create.
While Gervais may be able to call himself an economist, I wouldn't trust him to invest my lunch money.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
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