Weather isn’t the only challenge facing farmers as we pass the midpoint in this year’s harvest. Prices are also an issue.
The mid-year figures on cash farm receipts tell a tale of falling crop prices in the first half of the year, as the promising outlook in the spring with all the rain and an early start to seeding, exerting significant downward pressure. However, there was a sharp increase in livestock pricing but it was not enough to offset the declines.
The result was a reduction in cash receipts of more than a billion dollars in Saskatchewan in the first six months of the year.
Canola and wheat took the biggest hits on the pricing side – down roughly two billion dollars – to the end of June. The increase in livestock receipts mitigated the decline, reducing it to just over one billion dollars.
That resulted in Saskatchewan falling back into second place among the provinces in terms of total cash receipts as Alberta eclipsed us on the strength of its large livestock sector.
