Agriculture

The West Yellowhead region had total farm cash receipts of $222 million in Census year 2006, accounting for 2.2% of Alberta’s farm receipts.  In that year, there were almost 2,700 farms in the region with a total acreage of 1.6 million acres.  Average farm size was 600 acres, less than the Alberta average of 1,055 acres per farm.

The region accounted for 3.5% of Alberta’s total value of on-farm livestock and poultry with a total market value of $176 million in 2006.  The total number of cattle and calves was 237,000, most of them beef cattle.  West Yellowhead’s share of Alberta’s total number of cattle and calves was 3.7%, of sheep 5.3%, and of horses and ponies 6.4%.

Cropland acreage totaled 550,000 acres or 2.3% of Alberta’s cropland.  The region’s major crops include alfalfa, hay, barley, oats, mixed grains and canola.

Very few current agricultural indicators are available for these special geographies.  However, livestock estimates are available for Census Division 14 (CD14), which is part of the West Yellowhead region1.  Between mid-year 2006 and mid-year 2011, the number of cattle and calves in CD 14 declined sharply by 40%.

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).  Unlike the eastern parts of the province, which had much better than normal crop conditions in 2011, crop conditions in the West Yellowhead region were close to normal.

1 A map of Agricultural Census Divisions can be found in: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/ca-ra2006/m/car-rar-eng.pdf

Date Updated:
RDP-2430