Reading Time: 7 minutes Farmland’s reputation as a safe and profitable asset seems sure to draw more investment dollars into rural Canada, whether farmers are happy about the extra demand for their number one source of wealth or not. A look at Calgary-based investment fund Veripath Farmland Partners and its 90,000-acre row crop portfolio shows why. Farmland is just […] Read more
The story of high prices
Return on investment is driving a rise in farmland purchases by non-farmers that looks like it’s here to stay. Is that bad? Or good?
New ways to buy and sell farmland
These options are putting a lot more power in the hands of sellers. They’re also changing how the real estate industry works
Reading Time: 7 minutes Today, farmers don’t buy land with a handshake over the fence, as Grandpa and Grandma, or even Dad and Mom might have done. Selling methods like sealed tenders and online auctions are becoming ever more prevalent, and the key is finding which one best fits the size, type and circumstance of the farming operation. “There […] Read more
Rock solid: Can anything tame farmland prices?
Drought didn’t do it. Nor has the threat of rising interest rates
Reading Time: 7 minutes Land is in an investment category almost all by itself, says Steve Duff, Ontario’s chief ag economist. “Outside of GICs, there aren’t a whole lot of assets in today’s market that don’t have some downside risk.” It’s little wonder that other market watchers agree. Canada’s farmland prices increased by double-digit percentages every year from 2011 […] Read more
What if bigger farms aren’t better?
Canada’s largest farms are unbeatable. At least, we’re pretty sure they maybe are
Reading Time: 6 minutes Are Canada’s mid-sized farms heading in the same direction as the dinosaurs? That’s not exactly what a recent analysis by think-tank Agri-Food Economic Systems is predicting, but there’s no question it wants to raise some doubts before you grow your own farm any bigger. Large farms are booming in Canada, and they’re doing that mainly […] Read more
The value of Alberta farms rises again
Rising land prices – fuelled by higher crop prices – up by $8 billion but debt also rose in 2020
Reading Time: 3 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – You’re richer than you think — and you owe more, too. That could be the theme of StatsCan’s latest snapshot of farm equity, the number you get when subtracting farm debts from the value of assets. If you had put all of the assets of every farm in Canada on the auction […] Read more
Making a smarter deal for farmland
If farmers are so sharp at land buying, who do so many pay too much?
Reading Time: 9 minutes On most farms, it’s among the big decisions of an entire lifetime. Do you buy that farm down the road and take on all that risk? Or do you watch someone else farm it and mutter, every time you drive, “That could have been mine”? Either way, it’s harder than anyone outside of agriculture might […] Read more
Southern Ontario median farmland price jumps in 2017
Reading Time: 2 minutes The threat of interest rate increases hasn’t dampened the prices southern Ontario farmers are paying for land. The annual Valco study of land values showed an increase in value of 9.76 per cent for farmland sold in 2017 over 2016. This increase is the largest since 2013. The median price for land in the surveyed […] Read more
Manitoba, 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
Six numbers in agriculture to make you stop and think
It isn’t as quiet as you might think on the home front. Yes, today’s farms seem stable, but the next evolutionary wave is gaining energy
In 2009, total Canadian net farm income was $2.8 billion. Four years later, it was $10 billion more, with Statistics Canada’s saying a $5.6-billion rise in the total value of farm-owned inventories from the year before accounted for almost all of the increase in total net income in 2013 That inventory increase came from a[...]
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Is it time to sell your land?
Have prices peaked, or will you regret taking the price you can get in 2015?
Reading Time: 3 minutes With the heat leaking out of ag real estate markets north and south of the border, you can almost see landowners starting to ease back in their armchairs, settling in for a good, long wait. As an investment strategy, in fact, that might be a wise choice. All eyes are on the market, wondering if[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
