Farm cash receipt statistics reveal some interesting trends
According to Statistics Canada, farm cash receipts increased in Canada last year.
Rising livestock receipts more than compensated for a decline in crop receipts as well as a drop in direct payments.
Every province saw an overall increase, except Saskatchewan, where the crop sector is much larger than livestock.
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Total farm cash receipts in Canada were $101 billion last year, up from $98 billion in 2024. However, crop receipts declined from $52 billion to $51 billion, the lowest level in five years.
Total livestock receipts more than made up the difference, going from about $40 billion to $45 billion. In 2021, livestock receipts totalled only $30 billion and have been rising each year since, fueled largely by rising cattle prices.
The other aspect of farm cash receipts is direct payments from governments and various private insurance programs. Those have been declining.
Total direct payments in 2022 were $7.3 billion, with crop insurance being the largest source. With better crops and fewer claims, total direct payments in 2025 were down to $4.8 billion.
While crop insurance is the largest portion of direct payments, the numbers are a bit deceiving unless you consider the premiums producers pay into the program.
In Saskatchewan for 2025, the StatCan numbers show roughly $725 million in gross crop insurance payments. However, producer premiums were about $469 million. Therefore, net crop insurance payments were $255 million.
That’s down substantially from 2024 when net crop insurance payments in Saskatchewan were $886 million.
Calendar year payments won’t exactly align with growing seasons because some payments are carried beyond the end of the year. However, Saskatchewan had a lot better crop in 2025, with most claims restricted to the southwestern corner of the province.
Alberta did not fare as well. Crop insurance net payments in 2024 were $868 million, while 2025 still hit $615 million.
Net crop insurance payments in Manitoba were $66 million in 2024 and $42 million in 2025.
AgriStability payments, on the other hand, have been rising, going from $399 million in 2023 to $601 million in 2024 and $905 million last year. Long criticized as ineffectual, more financial advisers now promote the program.
The recent change to allow pasture-related feed costs as an eligible expense should make the program more relevant for livestock producers. As well, improving returns for cow-calf producers should translate into better reference margins in the event of a future downturn.
Payments from AgriInvest accounted for $305 million last year, with $38 million paid in Manitoba, $67 million in Alberta and $99 million in Saskatchewan.
Since government support is based on one per cent of eligible net sales, total government contributions don’t change drastically from one year to the next.
An increasing number of academics and industry observers are questioning whether the money spent on AgriInvest could be better deployed elsewhere. It’s really a government subsidy of up to $10,000 per farm whether it made money that year or it didn’t.
The forerunner to AgriInvest was the Net Income Stabilization Account, established with somewhat different trigger mechanisms in the early 1990s.
Free money with few strings attached is always popular, but is this the best use of government resources?
Public plant breeding is in jeopardy due to the large government funding cuts to research at Agriculture Canada.
Investment in plant breeding would pay greater dividends to the crop sector than the paltry interest rates achieved on the money accumulating in AgriInvest accounts.
Source: producer.com