Agriculture

The Mackenzie region had total farm cash receipts of $42 million in Census year 2006, accounting for 0.4% of Alberta’s farm receipts.  In that year, there were about 650 farms in the region with a total acreage of 530,000 acres.  Average farm size was 820 acres.

The region accounted for 0.3% of Alberta’s total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $15 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was 20,600, most of them beef cattle.  Slave Lake’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 0.3%, of hens and chickens 0.3%, and of goats 3.0%.

Cropland acreage totaled 300,000 acres or 1.3% of Alberta’s cropland.  The region’s major crops include canola, spring wheat, oats, alfalfa, hay, barley and field peas.

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 the High Level elevator in the Mackenzie region totaled about 105,000 tonnes1, up 4% from 2008-09.  Wheat (excluding durum) accounted for 37% of the total tonnage, followed by canola (38%) and barley (14%).

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).

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

Date Updated:
RDP-2422