A sign of the sizzling farmland market was this auction by Ritchie Bros. in southeast Saskatchewan last month. The 9,600-acre farm sold for an average of $416,000 per quarter, a new high for that part of the province, the auction company said. The home quarter, with 500,000 bushels of grain storage, sold for $1.33 million.

Land prices set a sizzling pace as buyers outnumber sellers

Alberta saw a much smaller price rise on average, but it depends where you farm

Reading Time: 4 minutes The drought didn’t put a damper on land prices. The average price for farmland across the country shot up 8.3 per cent last year, according to the latest price survey by Farm Credit Canada. That’s up nearly three per cent from the 5.4 per cent rise seen in 2020. “I’m not surprised that farmland values […] Read more

The increase in farmland prices in the first half of the year was normal, but price rises may slow because of the drought.

Land Prices: Interest still high, pocketbooks thinner

Scarce listings get a lot of looks, but drought may curb price rises

Reading Time: 4 minutes The hot weather this summer may cool the price rise for Alberta farmland this winter — but there are still plenty of farmers looking to add acres, say experts. Prior to the drought, the increase in land prices was typical for the first half of the year, said Kuuri Carlson, an appraiser with Farm Credit […] Read more


The value of Alberta farms shoots up again

The value of Alberta farms shoots up again

Rising land prices – fuelled by higher crop prices – up by $8 billion but debt also rose in 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes You’re richer than you think — and you owe more, too. That could be the theme of StatsCan’s latest snapshot of farm equity, the number you get when subtracting farm debts from the value of assets. If you had put all of the assets of every farm in Canada on the auction block at the […] Read more

Canola was the star, but grains and pulses also propelled farm incomes on the Prairies last year.

A great year for the bottom line of grain farmers

Farm income rose by half a billion in Alberta last year — although our neighbour did even better

Reading Time: 3 minutes Farm income in Alberta took a hefty jump last year, but nothing compared to our next-door neighbour. Net cash income rose by 15 per cent in Alberta to $3.9 billion, which is a $447-million increase from 2019. But in Saskatchewan, net cash income skyrocketed to $6.4 billion — a whopping 78 per cent increase of […] Read more


Up, up, up — farmland prices take another big jump

Up, up, up — farmland prices take another big jump

Strong canola and grain prices along with low interest rates fuel six per cent rise

Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s another good news story — especially if you’re selling farmland. Despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic, Alberta’s farm economy was robust enough to fuel a six per cent jump in land prices last year. That’s the highest price rise between Quebec and B.C., and above the national average, according to the latest land […] Read more

Land prices in Alberta rose at a torrid pace until last year, when they only went up 3.3 per cent. But the march upward resumed in the 12-month period from July 2019 to June of this year.

They ain’t making more: In land we trust — even during a pandemic

Alberta’s farmland values increased at a pace of 8.5 per cent over the past year

Reading Time: 3 minutes COVID-19 has created shockwaves across the agricultural marketplace over the past six months — but has it affected farmland prices? “So far, we’re pretty confident to say no,” said J.P. Gervais, chief agricultural economist for Farm Credit Canada. “Right now, given the data that we have, we see very little impact of the pandemic on […] Read more


Alberta farmland prices rise again

Alberta farmland prices rise again

Reading Time: < 1 minute Farmland prices in Canada are “once again showing modest increases” in the first half of the year — except in Alberta and Saskatchewan, according to the latest report from Farm Credit Canada. While the national average increase was 3.7 per cent, Alberta saw a jump of 8.5 per cent in the 12 months ending in […] Read more

Provincial comparison of farmland values: Annual percent change in farmland values from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2019.

The price of farmland likely to be unaffected by pandemic

The formerly red-hot market has cooled considerably, but the price of land isn’t getting cheaper

Reading Time: 2 minutes The pandemic seems to be impacting almost everything, but not the price of farmland. “I would expect that impacts are going to be minimal,” said J.P. Gervais, vice-president and chief agricultural economist for FCC. “We still have a very limited supply of available land for sale. That was the case in 2019. It was the […] Read more


It's been nothing but up – often by double digits – for Alberta farmland prices according to Farm Credit Canada's annual prices survey. But the latest survey found the increase was variable, with values going up the fastest in both the most expensive (south) region of the province and the least expensive one (Peace).

Farmland prices double in last five years

Many farmers thought prices were out of whack in 2013, 
but time has proven they were wrong

Reading Time: 5 minutes How expensive is Alberta farmland? Try double what it was just five years ago. “Over the last five years, we’ve seen cash farm receipts going up across the country and especially in Alberta,” said Joel Bokenfohr, manager of business structures and financial policy with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “We have a strong farm economy where […] Read more

Southern Ontario’s farmland prices have jumped, despite stagnant crop prices. (John Greig photo)

Southern Ontario median farmland price jumps in 2017

The threat of interest rate increases hasn’t dampened the prices southern Ontario farmers are paying for land. The annual Valco study of land values showed an increase in value of 9.76 per cent for farmland sold in 2017 over 2016. This increase is the largest since 2013. The median price for land in the surveyed […] Read more