Census results

[grassfarmer]

One of the local papers detailed the census results
pertaining to agriculture in Clearwater county was
kind of interesting. I guess it provides in statistics
what many of us are seeing in our rural
communities.
Clearwater county is a huge county - west of HWY 2
in central Alberta spanning HWY 22 and running all
the way into the mountains. It's basically where the
western edge of the prairie meets the foothills.

Comparing 2011 to 2006.
Total number of farms down from 1209 to 1096.
beef cattle operations down from 698 to 469.
dairy operations down from 17 to 14.
hog operations down from 9 to 6.
mixed livestock down from 35 to 13.

Number of operators 55 up from 830 to 890.
number of operators 35-54 down from 880 to 680.
number of operators < 35 down from 140 to 90.

They don't mention grain/oilseed or people growing
hay to sell but if my calculations are right reading
between the lines the number of these non-
livestock farms must have increased from 450 to
594. I would think this county could all be deemed
extremely marginal grain country climatically.

[Kathy]

you can't assume that those that got out of cattle or mixed farms, are now only growing crops... Some will have retired and rented out their land to the neighbors, thus there is no increase in grain-farmer numbers. Or some will let the land sit idle for a year or two while they try to sell it - some may have taken off-farm work to replace the farm income entirely...

What is going up is costs of production, and costs of living.

[grassfarmer]

That makes sense Kathy - i wouldn't have thought
there were many - if any - straight grain farms in the
county.