Reading Time: 3 minutes Homesteaders. They came on the promise of free land. They stayed because they could not afford to turn back and root by root created the origin of the western agricultural world. The era of horses and pickaxes seems like a long time ago, but the reality is that free land is still very real in […] Read more
The lure of free land is drawing in a new type of homesteader
There is no shortage of young people wanting to be farmers, and some communities are tapping into that with offers of free or cheap land
Quebec service to match farmland sellers, young buyers
The Quebec and federal governments are putting up funds for a different kind of online match site: one to connect aspiring young farmers with producers who are either retiring or wanting to sell or rent farmland. The two governments on Tuesday announced $300,000 for the Centre de reference en agriculture et agroalimentaire du Quebec (CRAAQ) […] Read more
China money, market spur Canadian blueberry deluge
Richmond, B.C. | Reuters — An aging mansion sits vacant on an estate outside Vancouver, the garage overtaken by a blueberry sorter and a walk-in cooler packed with the fruit. The owner, an investor from mainland China, leases the estate to Fred Liu at such a bargain the farmer grows blueberries in its fields even […] Read more
Three resources to read before buying land
The high cost of farmland doesn’t leave room for emotion — or miscalculation
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farm auction sale season has begun, and a provincial farm financial specialist says a lot of retiring farmers are choosing to sell their land by public auction. “With interest rates remaining low and the majority of Alberta farms continuing to have a strong balance sheet, the demand for farmland purchase in Alberta remains robust,” said […] Read more
South Africa’s parliament approves land expropriation bill
Johannesburg | Reuters — South Africa’s parliament on Thursday approved a bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership, an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid. Most of South Africa’s land remains in white hands and many commercial and small-scale farmers are currently facing tough times because […] Read more
How to get a handle on farmland prices
Farm Credit Canada tracks percentage changes across the country, while Alberta Agriculture looks at dollar values in municipalities
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farm Credit Canada’s recently released Farm Land Value Report and a database created by Alberta Agriculture can go a long way to helping producers establish a land value, says a provincial farm business specialist. “According to the new FCC report, Alberta’s change in farmland values was 11.6 per cent which was 1.5 per cent higher […] Read more
Kazakhstan land protests widen in challenge to leader
Almaty | Reuters — Hundreds of people staged street protests in two cities in Kazakhstan on Wednesday over land reform, Kazakh media and local activists reported, a rare act of defiance that could pose a challenge to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The protests, a continuation of demonstrations that began on Sunday, were sparked […] Read more
Alberta land prices continue to soar
Farm cash receipts were a ‘pleasant surprise’ last year and that kept upward pressure on land prices
Reading Time: 4 minutes It was another big year for Alberta and Canadian farmland prices, according to Farm Credit Canada’s annual survey. On average, provincial farmland prices jumped by 11.6 per cent, the ag lender said in its 2015 Farmland Values Report while nationally they rose 10.1 per cent. But there are a lot of variations across the province, […] Read more
Canadian farmland values up again in 2015
Farm Credit Canada says the annual percentage increase in farmland values is getting smaller
Reading Time: 4 minutes Manitoba farmland values led the way with the highest average percentage increase in Canada last year, says Farm Credit Canada (FCC). But the pace of increases the last few years here and across Canada is slowing in step with the plateauing of farm cash receipts, and slower drop in interest rates, J.P. Gervais, FCC’s chief […] Read more
England’s farmland prices fall ahead of Brexit vote
London | Reuters –– Farmland prices in England fell by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year — the largest quarterly decline since 2008, weighed partly by uncertainty ahead of the June 23 referendum on European Union membership, estate agent Knight Frank said. Knight Frank’s Farmland Index fell to 19,538 pounds (C$35,881) […] Read more
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