Agriculture

The Peace Country region had total farm cash receipts of $635 million in Census year 2006, accounting for 6.4% of Alberta’s farm receipts.  In that year, there were about 5,100 farms in the region with a total acreage of 5.8 million acres.  Average farm size was 1,130 acres.

The region accounted for 5.8% of Alberta’s total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $289 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was 339,000, most of them beef cattle.  Peace Country’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 5.3%, of hogs 1.7%, and of bison 29.7%.

Cropland acreage totaled 3.2 million acres or 13.5% of Alberta’s cropland, the second largest cropland area in the province.  The region is the province’s largest producer of canola, accounting for 20.7% of Alberta’s canola acreage, and of hay, forage seeds and honey.  Its major crops also include spring wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, and field peas.

Very few current agricultural indicators are available for these special geographies.  However, livestock estimates are available for Census Division 19 (CD19), which is part of the Peace Country region1.  Between mid-year 2006 and mid-year 2011, the number of cattle and calves in CD 19 declined by 30%.

In crop year 2009-10 (year ending August 31, 2010), grain and oilseed deliveries at elevators in the Peace Country region totaled about 1.3 million tonnes2, an increase of 5% from 2008-09.  Canola accounted for 52% of total tonnage, followed by wheat (excluding durum) at 39% and barley at 5%.

Prices for canola and feed grain 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 Peace Country region were slightly 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-2426