Farm cash receipts, January to March 2022
Released: 2022-05-25
$23.3 billion
January to March 2022
17.6% 
(year-over-year change)
Farm cash receipts for Canadian farmers totalled $23.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022, up by $3.5 billion (+17.6%) from the same quarter in 2021. Program payments (+$2.3 billion), livestock receipts (+$975.8 million) and crop receipts (+$193.9 million) increased from the same quarter in 2021.
Record program payments, in the form of crop insurance, were paid to producers to compensate for reduced production resulting from dry conditions in Western Canada. Commodity prices were high for livestock and crops. From March 2021 to March 2022, the Crops Products Price Index and Animal and Animal Products Price Indexes went up by 46.9 and 18.8 points, respectively.
Chart 1
Total crop, livestock and direct payment receipts as a proportion of total farm cash receipts, January to March, Canada, 2012 to 2022
All provinces had increases in farm cash receipts, particularly Alberta (+$1.8 billion or +37.8%), which represented more than half of the national increase. Increases were also seen in Ontario (+$406.2 million or +11.1%), Saskatchewan (+$398.3 million or +7.6%) and Manitoba (+$295.2 million or +13.4%).
Chart 2
Farm cash receipts by category, by province or region, January to March, 2022
Livestock receipts are increasing in all provinces
Livestock receipts rose by 13.9% to $8.0 billion in the first quarter of 2022 since most of the commodities brought in higher receipts. Higher prices helped push cattle and hog receipts up by 18.1% and 13.8%, respectively. All provinces reported higher livestock receipts compared with the same quarter in 2021, led by Alberta (+$309.0 million) and Ontario (+$208.0 million).
Cattle receipts rose by $382.3 million to $2.5 billion on higher marketings and price as demand for cattle continued to trend upwards. Extreme weather in 2021 in some parts of the country led to feed shortages and resulted in a higher number of cattle being slaughtered. International demand for beef was also up and export prices for live cattle were 21.2% higher than in the same quarter of the previous year.
The strong demand for pork continued to push the live hog prices higher (+14.8%), leading to a 13.8% rise in hog receipts to $1.6 billion. Slaughter hog receipts accounted for just over 87% of total hog receipts. Reduced Canadian processing capacity and higher international export prices (+22.1%) led to an increase of 13.3% in international hog exports receipts.
Supply-managed receipts were up by $286.5 million to $3.3 billion since all of the supply managed commodities had higher receipts in the first quarter of 2022. Receipts for dairy (+$122.8 million) and chickens for meat (+$103.7 million) accounted for almost 80% of the supply-managed receipts increase. Dairy receipts were up because of a 9.2% increase in price, while chickens for meat receipts were up on both price (+8.6%) and marketings (+4.7%).
Higher prices are contributing to an increase in crop receipts despite a decline in production
During the first quarter of 2022, total crop receipts increased by $193.9 million to $11.9 billion. Although production was down for many of the major crops as a result of the drought in 2021, geopolitical conflict combined with uncertainty regarding the world supply pushed many prices to record levels. This increase in global demand coupled with the effects of lower production translated into higher prices for many grains and oilseeds and drawn down inventories.
Despite the drop in marketings (-27.4%), receipts for wheat (excluding durum) increased by 17.5% to $2.0 billion as a result of a 61.7% increase in price. Similarly, canola sales increased to $3.1 billion despite marketings dropping by 38.0% because of a price increase of 63.6%.
Cannabis receipts increased by $328.1 million to $986.9 million from the same quarter a year ago. Soybeans increased by 30.4% to $639.8 million on both strong marketings and price.
Durum receipts dropped by 42.1% from $559.9 million to $324.3 million. Production was adversely affected by the drought and dropped by 60% from the previous crop year, and reported inventories are at the lowest in almost two decades.
Record crop insurance payments in Western Canada push up farm cash receipts
Program payments rose by $2.3 billion to $3.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022, which was five times larger than the previous ten year average for the same quarter. Most of this increase was a result of increases in crop insurance.
The previous crop year was one of the driest on record in Western Canada and resulted in crop insurance payments of $2.5 billion in the first quarter as producers made their claims before the March 31 deadline. Crop production was at its lowest since 2007, which resulted in higher crop insurance payments. Alberta ($1.3 billion), Saskatchewan ($926.4 million) and Manitoba ($241.7 million) accounted for the majority of these payments.
Note to readers
The next quarterly release of Farm Cash Receipts will occur on August 31, 2022, and will include data for January to June 2022.
Revised estimates of net farm income for 2021 will be available on November 28, 2022.
All data in this release are in current dollars. Farm cash receipts measure the gross revenue of farm businesses. They include sales of crops and livestock products (except sales between farms in the same province) and program payments. Receipts are recorded when the money is paid to farmers. These do not represent their bottom line, since farmers have to pay their expenses and loans and cover depreciation.
Farm cash receipts are, for the most part, based on monthly marketings and the monthly prices of various commodities. Marketings are quantities sold, using various units of measure.
Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys or other sources. These data are subject to revision. The COVID-19 pandemic has also had some impact on normal collection operations. For certain commodities, it was not possible to collect data either in time or at all; in these cases, estimates were produced (e.g., fur, maple syrup). Revisions to these estimates will be made in future releases as data become available.
For details on farm cash receipts and net farm income for 2021, see the "Farm income" release in today's Daily.
For the latest information on the Census of Agriculture, visit the Census of Agriculture portal.
For more information on agriculture and food, visit the Agriculture and food statistics portal.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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