Agriculture

The Palliser region had total farm cash receipts of $1.16 billion in Census year 2006, accounting for 11.7% of Alberta’s farm receipts, the third largest share of the 14 regions.  In that year, there were almost 3,400 farms in the region with a total acreage of 9.7 million acres or 18.6% of Alberta’s total farm acreage.  Average farm size was almost 2,900 acres.

The region accounted for 11.7% of the total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $584 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was more than 750,000, most of them beef cattle.  Palliser’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 11.9%, of hogs 9.1%, and of hens and chickens 3.6%.

Cropland acreage totaled about 2.4 million acres, nearly one-quarter of which requires irrigation.  It is the province’s largest wheat producer, accounting for 36% of Alberta’s durum acreage, and for 14% of spring wheat, and is the province’s leading grower of greenhouse crops.  It is a major producer of alfalfa, barley, oats and rye.  It is also one of the two largest provincial producers of specialty crops, such as triticale, corn, mustard seeds, chickpeas and beans.

Very few current agricultural indicators are available for these special geographies.  However, livestock estimates are available for Census Divisions 1 (CD1) and 4 (CD4), which encompass most of the Palliser region1.  Between mid-year 2006 and mid-year 2011, the number of cattle and calves in CD1 and CD4 fell by 11% and the number of hogs increased by about 5%.

In crop year 2009-10 (year ending August 31, 2010), grain and oilseed deliveries at elevators in the Palliser region totaled just over 700,000 tonnes2, up 5% from 2008-09.  Wheat accounted for 63% of the 700,000 tonnes, followed by durum wheat (25%) and peas (4%).

Prices for canola and feed grain 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 Palliser region were also much better than normal that year.

  1 A map of Agricultural Census Divisions can be found in: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/ca-ra2006/m/car-rar-eng.pdf
  2 Deliveries at grain elevators are not representative of production as not all grain is shipped to local elevators

Date Updated:
RDP-2425