Agriculture

The Slave Lake region had total farm cash receipts of $41 million in Census year 2006, accounting for 0.4% of Alberta’s farm receipts.  In that year, there were just over 600 farms in the region with a total acreage of 600,000 acres.  Average farm size was 980 acres, comparable to the Alberta average of 1,055 acres per farm.

The region accounted for 0.9% of Alberta’s total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $43 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was 60,400, most of them beef cattle.  Slave Lake’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 0.9%, of bison 1.2%, and of horses and ponies 1.1%.

Cropland acreage totaled 220,000 acres or 0.9% of Alberta’s cropland.  The region’s major crops include alfalfa, hay, barley, oats, spring wheat and canola.

The global economic crisis had a profound impact on crop prices.  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).

Date Updated:
RDP-2427