Operating revenue on Ontario farms was up in 2014 but net operating income remained flat: StatsCan
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
by SUSAN MANN
The average operating revenue per farm in Ontario last year rose four per cent compared to 2013, according to numbers released by Statistics Canada Wednesday.
For all farms in Ontario, the average operating revenue per farm was $373,765 in 2014 compared to $359,480 in 2013. Average operating expenses per farm in 2014 were $312,210, up 4.8 per cent compared to $297,792 in 2013. Net operating income was slightly lower in 2014 at $61,554, compared to $61,688 in 2013.
For Canada, the average operating revenue per farm was $415,380 in 2014, up seven per cent from 2013 when it was $388,165. Average operating expenses per farm for Canada in 2014 were $343,870, up 7.9 per cent from $318,658 in 2013. Net operating income was $71,511 in 2014 and $69,507 in 2013.
Al Mussell, owner of Guelph-based independent economic research organization Agri-Food Economic Systems, says the operating revenue, expenses and net operating income numbers are lower in Ontario compared to Canada because Ontario has smaller farms than Canada as a whole.
Ontario has the largest number of farms of any province in Canada but the operations “are significantly smaller” when compared to farms in other parts of Canada, such as the Prairies, Mussell says. Saskatchewan farms are more than four times larger in acreage than Ontario operations.
“In Ontario, we have quite a large number of cash crop, cow-calf and sheep farms, which would be smaller than in the West,” he says.
Statistics Canada says in its notice nine of the 11 major farm types posted higher average operating revenues in 2014 compared to 2013. Hog farms had the largest increase and were up 24.6 per cent, followed by beef farms, up 20.7 per cent and greenhouse, nursery and floriculture operations, up 18.7 per cent.
For average operating expenses, the largest increases came from greenhouse, nursery, floriculture operations, up 18.3 per cent; beef farms, up 17 per cent; and hog farms, up 16.9 per cent. BF