Agriculture

The North East region had total farm cash receipts of $683 million in Census year 2006, accounting for 6.9% of Alberta’s farm receipts.  In that year, there were nearly 5,000 farms in the region with a total acreage of 5.1 million acres.  Average farm size was 1,040 acres, comparable to the Alberta average of 1,055 acres per farm.

The region accounted for 9.1% of Alberta’s total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $453 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was 629,000, most of them beef cattle.  The North East’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 9.9%, of hogs 3.5%, and of bison 14.6%.

Cropland acreage totaled 2.4 million acres or 10% of Alberta’s cropland.  The region is one of the province’s largest producers of canola, accounting for 12.8% of Alberta’s canola acreage.  Its major crops also include spring wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, hay, field peas and mixed grains.

Very few current agricultural indicators are available for these special geographies.  However, livestock estimates are available for Census Divisions 10 (CD10) and 12 (CD12), which contain most of the North East region1.  Between mid-year 2006 and mid-year 2011, the number of cattle and calves in CDs 10 and 12 declined by 31%.

In crop year 2009-10 (year ending August 31, 2010), grain and oilseed deliveries at elevators in the North East region totaled about 750,000 tonnes2, down 12% from 2008-09.  Wheat (excluding durum) accounted for 57% of the total tonnage, canola for 27% and barley for 11%.

Prices for canola and feed grain had more than doubled between early 2006 and the summer of 2008, but fell sharply by about 40% through early 2009.  Crop prices rebounded strongly between spring 2010 and summer 2011, but recent global uncertainties have led to modest price declines during the past few months.  Prices for red spring wheat fell sharply in August and September, but recovered some of their losses in October 2011.  The recent weakening of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar will benefit Alberta crop and cattle growers.

In 2011, Alberta crop production was significantly higher than in the previous year, with record harvests of canola (4.8 million tonnes) and spring wheat (7.6 million tonnes).  Crop conditions in the North East region were also better than normal that year.

  1 A map of Agricultural Census Divisions can be found in: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/ca-ra2006/m/car-rar-eng.pdf
  2 Deliveries at grain elevators are not representative of production as not all grain is shipped to local elevators

Date Updated:
RDP-2424