Agriculture

The Calgary region is one of Alberta’s top agricultural regions, with production concentrated in Wheatland County and the Municipal Districts of Foothills and Rocky View.  It had total farm cash receipts of $1 billion in Census year 2006, accounting for 10.2% of Alberta’s farm receipts.  In that year, there were more than 3,900 farms in the region with a total acreage of 3.2 million acres.  Average farm size was 825 acres, less than the Alberta average of 1,055 acres per farm.

The region accounted for 8.3% of the total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $415 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was 518,000, most of them beef cattle.  Calgary’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 8.1%, of hogs 9.4%, and of hens and chickens 9.4%.

Cropland acreage totaled about 1.7 million acres.  The region is the province’s third largest producer of barley, accounting for 10.6% of Alberta’s barley acreage.  Its major crops also include spring wheat, alfalfa, canola, hay and mixed grains.

Very few current agricultural indicators are available for these special geographies.  In crop year 2009-10 (year ending August 31, 2010), grain and oilseed deliveries at elevators in the Calgary region totaled 1.5 million tonnes1, down 23% from 2008-09.  Wheat (excluding durum) accounted for 64% of the total tonnage, followed by canola (24%) and barley (7%).

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).  Crop conditions in the Calgary region were also much better than normal that year.

 1 Deliveries at grain elevators are not representative of production as not all grain is shipped to local elevators

Date Updated:
RDP-2419