Canadian ag census results are in

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- There are more animals and fewer people on Canadian farms these days.

Figures released Dec. 2 from Statistics Canada's 2006 census of agriculture suggest the farming population fell to a historic low that year. While one in three Canadians used to live on farms in 1931, that number plummeted to one in 46.

At the same time, the animal population exploded -- the number of cattle and chickens doubled while the number of pigs tripled.

Ian Wishart has seen the changes firsthand from his farm near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where he has worked for the last 28 years.

"There's a lot less neighbors now than there was in 1980," says Wishart, whose farm is split between specialty crops and livestock. "It's harder and harder to make a living."

Farmers have moved from growing food for themselves and local markets to producing food for cities and for export, the Statistics Canada study found.

More crops, more animals

Not only are there more animals on Canadian farms, but the volume of crops has grown as well.

Take corn, for example. A farmer in 1931 had an average of about 2½ hectares of corn. In 2006, the study found that farmers averaged just under 52 hectares.

"The average farm is larger, more diversified," says Wishart, president of Manitoba's Keystone Agricultural Producers. "To make a living on the farm, in the true sense of the word, they need to be bigger than they used to be because margins are tighter."

There were just a bit more than 728,000 farms across Canada 75 years ago with an average size of 90 hectares. The number of farms fell to 229,000 in 2006 with an average of 295 hectares per farm.

"We've seen such a change in the course of a lifetime," says Steven Danford, senior analyst at Statistics Canada. "Farms have been getting bigger and more efficient over time. The Canadian population as a whole has become more urban. You need fewer people on the farm."

Mega-farms

While some farmers say that's just the evolution of their industry, others say it's the slow demise of the family farm as more people get their food from large corporations.

Steward Wells, a third-generation farmer near Swift Current, Saskatchewan, says agriculture is being taken over by "mega-barns." Large-scale corporations have pushed volumes up steadily, forcing farmers to increase the size of their operations just to break even.

What government aid there is for agriculture is increasingly sucked up by larger operations, he adds.

"We're seeing the disappearance of the family farm," says Wells, who runs a 1,416-hectare grain farm along with his wife. "It's tremendously painful."

At the same time, Statistics Canada found the farming population also is getting older. More than 11 percent of people living on Canadian farms in 2006 were older than 65 compared with 6 percent in 1971.

Unlike the past, when the nation's farmland was settled by immigrants, today's new Canadians are settling in cities. While the number of newcomers in Canada is rising, their numbers are falling on the farm.

Immigrants made up 7 percent of Canada's farm population in 2006 -- down from almost 9 percent in 1971, when the majority of immigrant farmers came to Canada from Europe.

In 2006, the proportion of immigrants born in Asia and the Middle East surpassed those born in Europe for the first time. And the study found immigrants now tend to settle in the most populated areas.

Jurgen Preugschas, a hog farmer in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, says it takes up to $5 million to set up a farming operation in Canada now, and few new Canadians have that kind of money.

At the same time, farms are relying less on because technology has evolved, he says.

"If you go back to 1931, people were farming with horses. To plow a 5-acre field took them a few days," says Preugschas, president of the Canadian Pork Council. "Today, we do it with 400-horsepower tractors and you do 5 acres in a half-hour."