Good Morning #Canada
And welcome to Day 2 of The Dirt on Canadian Farming. Just made that up. Let's continue the series with some very interesting overall statistics, which I, admittedly a numbers nerd, found insightful.
Depending on the source, it's estimated that less than 10% of Canada’s land is suitable for farming. According to 2021 #StatsCan data, approximately 6.2% of Canada was being actively farmed but a significant amount of farmland was being lost to urban sprawl. The average age of farmers in Canada is 56, and as they retire corporations are buying up the land, resulting in fewer individuals in the industry but the average farm is larger in size. Although today Canada punches above its weight in global comparisons, there are some challenges to maintaining our agricultural land.

#CanadaIsAwesome #FarmLife
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-prime-farmland-1.6877661

BTW - that CBC article used a lot of numbers from this report, which because it's all numbers is awesome. Some tidbits:
- The number of farms over 3,500 acres has nearly doubled in 20 years.
- 41.3% of Canadian farmland is rented.
- From 1971 to 2021, the farm population declined by 62.2%, from 1 in 14 Canadians to 1 in 61.
- Farm debt has more than doubled in the last 20 years, from $43B in 2002 to $138.8B in 2022. That is currently 10x the size of net farm income.
- In 2021, 96,043 tonnes of pesticides were sold for agricultural use – more than three times the amount sold in 1991.

#Statistics #Farming
https://www.nfu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Canadian-Ag-by-the-Numbers-2024.pdf

Last data point for today - a comparison of Canada and 3 of our largest trading partners in the agricultural industry. Again, there are lots of interesting numbers, but one factoid that jumped out to me: Canada is farming 6.2% of our land versus the United Kingdom at 75.0%, the United States at 36.8% and Japan 11.8%.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/96-325-x/2021001/article/00012-eng.htm

A little music to cleanse the numbers from this thread...

#CountryMusic
https://youtu.be/Y1rq-vTkMT4?si=R74Ty6qYZOldOqEp

Good Morning #Canada
Welcome to Day #3 of The Dirt on Canadian Farming.
When you think of Newfoundland and Labrador, fishing, rocks, and icebergs all come to mind. But there is a healthy farming industry in the province primarily built around vegetables. They also have the highest percentage of sales direct to consumers of any province, with farmers selling from stands and small retail shops on their property. Amazingly, there are no local farm crops used to make Screech.

#CanadaIsAwesome #Newfie
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/96-325-x/2021001/article/00001-eng.htm

Good Morning #Canada
More like good afternoon.... sorry, but I had a busy morning. Welcome to the late edition of Day #4 of The Dirt on Canadian Farming.
Today, we leap west to British Columbia since it's still early morning there. B.C. has a wide variety of farm produce spread across the province, and most Canadians recognize it for fruits, nuts, vegetables, and wine. That last one doesn't grow on trees, BTW. Likely, the most recognizable region would be the Okanagan Valley. The valley is roughly 200 km long and 20 km wide and lies between the Columbia and Cascade mountain ranges, providing a unique warm and sunny climate with semi-arid conditions. This area is famous for its world-renowned wine and fruit industries, stunning natural landscapes with lakes and mountains, its farm-to-table food culture, and the legendary Ogopogo monster of Okanagan Lake.

#CanadaIsAwesome #Agriculture
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/agricultural-land-and-environment/agricultural-regions

A little country music from B.C. native Dean Brody.

https://youtu.be/zqv4F98JjaQ?si=i7SCYX6-G6P6Nr0Y

Good Morning #Canada
Welcome to Day #Cinq of The Dirt on Canadian Farming. Today, we are in Quebec, at least metaphorically, to discover how La Belle Province contributes to Canada’s agriculture.
If you want awesome desserts, you have to go to Quebec. They have over 90% of maple syrup farms in Canada and also produce more blueberries and cranberries than any other province. Quebec also leads the nation in the number of dairy cattle and pigs, all of which must speak French by law. If you purchase cheese, and who doesn't, it's a good chance it came from Quebec as they produce more than 50% of all fromage in Canada. Quebec is also a leader in this country in organic farming and has a high percentage of sales direct to consumers.

#CanadaIsAwesome #DrinkMilk #Cheese
https://www.canadaaction.ca/quebec-farming-facts

Some #CountryMusic from Yoan Garneau.

https://youtu.be/NhV4f49D9Vo?si=LEfXNN8j_Q1QZINv

Good Morning #Canada
The Dirt on Canadian Farming now enters Day #6, and we'll hang around the east coast today.
Nova Scotia is one of the most challenging regions for agriculture as it is limited by ocean, a rocky landscape, cool and wet climate, and acidic soil. Some of those conditions are ideal for blueberries and apples, and those farms have increased recently with the rise in fresh fruit prices. Grape growing and wine production is another sector increasing and difficult to keep bottled up. Wineries are using French hybrid stock suitable for the local conditions. The rest of Nova Scotia's agriculture is made up of dairy, pigs, and maple syrup. Mink production, once a sizeable portion of the province's exports, has decreased significantly since fur coats have thankfully gone out of fashion.

#CanadaIsAwesome #Pies
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/96-325-x/2021001/article/00003-eng.htm

Some extra content this morning - how Canadian government money tried to save mink farmers in a dying fur industry.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mink-farming-canada-agristability-boom-bust-1.5495165

Good Morning #Canada
For Day #7 of The Dirt on Canadian Farming, we head west young man to a province we don't want to leave, but we wish their government would just go away.
Alberta's oil industry overshadows the importance and size of their agricultural sector. It's one of only two provinces where the number of farms increased in the most recent StatsCan reports (2021), and their farms generate the highest revenues per operator in the country. Due to the dry climate, they have invested heavily in irrigation, and over 72% of all irrigated farmland in Canada is in Alberta. Oil seed and grains, and beef cattle, dominate with almost 70% of their 40K farms involved in those products. Alberta ranks worldwide as a top exporter of beef, wheat, canola, and pulse crops. Which is interesting because if they separated, they would be surrounded by border checkpoints and tangled up in customs negotiations as a tiny country.

#CanadaIsAwesome #AllHatAndNoCattle
https://www.canadaaction.ca/alberta-farming-facts

Bonus content - Through this series, I learned what a Pulse Crop was. They even have their own website.

#PulseCrop #Farming
https://pulsecanada.com/

A tip of the Stetson to the Stampede with this #CountryMusic tune.

#YeeHah
https://youtu.be/IwvitleuJXc?si=FMwZu3z2UZOX-PyY