The value of farm assets rose 10 per cent last year and now tops $627 billion, says Statistics Canada.
Most of the farm equity is in land and its collective value reached $577 billion, up 11 per cent, but the growth in wealth was not evenly distributed.
Farm equity in Ontario was up nearly 20 per cent while B.C. saw a 15.6 per cent rise. Meanwhile, Alberta saw an increase of just 3.6 per cent to $163 billion — and again, a rise in land prices accounted for nearly all the increase.
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Taking the farmers’ market online
Two Albertans, who have a cow-calf operation near McRae, had the idea to create Arvo, an online farmers’ market, after being unable to find beef from within their own community.
The estimated value of equipment on Alberta farms hit $16.7 billion (up 4.4 per cent) but the value of breeding livestock fell to $3.7 billion.
Total liabilities were also up last year — 6.4 per cent nationally to $121 billion and 4.2 per cent in Alberta to $27.6 billion.
