Agriculture

The South Central region had total farm cash receipts of $1.98 billion in Census year 2006, accounting for 20% of Alberta’s farm receipts, the largest share of the 14 regions.  In that year, there were just over 3,000 farms in the region with a total acreage of 4.2 million acres and average farm size was just over 1,400 acres.

The region accounted for 15.8% of the total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $791 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was just over 950,000, most of them were beef cattle.  Its share of Alberta’s number of cattle and calves was 15.1%, of hogs 18.5%, and of hens and chickens 15.5%.

Cropland acreage totals about 2.4 million acres, 28% of which requires irrigation.  It is the province’s largest producer of durum wheat, accounting for 45% of Alberta’s durum acreage, and is a major producer of barley and wheat.  It is also one of the two largest provincial producers of specialty crops, such as potatoes, corn, sugar beets, chickpeas and beans.

Very few current agricultural indicators are available for these special geographies.  However, livestock estimates are available for Census Division 2 (CD2), which encompasses most of the South Central region1.  Between mid-year 2006 and the mid-year 2011, the number of cattle and calves in CD2 fell by less than 2% and the number of hogs by 4%.

In crop year 2009-10 (year ending August 31, 2010), grain and oilseed deliveries at elevators in the South Central region totaled 1.6 million tonnes2, down 15% from 2008-09.  Wheat accounted for 55% of the 1.6 million tonnes, followed by durum wheat (28%) and peas (8%).

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 South Central region were also 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-2428