From July 2023 to June 2024 the increase was 9.6 per cent.

J.P. Gervais, the federal crown corporation’s chief economist ,said values are increasing at a slower rate but described the growth as strong.

The highest average six-month increases were in Saskatchewan at 7.4 per cent and Quebec at 5.4 per cent.

Alberta and British Columbia recorded 4.6 per cent and five per cent, respectively, followed by Manitoba at 3.9 per cent and Ontario at 2.1 per cent.

FCC said higher borrowing costs, lower commodity prices and increased land prices have not deterred buyers.

“Looking ahead, declining borrowing costs and a limited supply of available farmland should sustain the current high prices for farmland,” FCC said in a news release.

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Farm Credit Canada put average national farmland value growth in 2023 at 11.5 per cent, down from 12.8 per cent in 2022.

“We had three consecutive years of . . . land values climbing. And so we’re seeing a little bit of a pullback,” FCC chief economist J.P. Gervais said. “It’s still double-digit, still a very significant increase.”

Given global geopolitical events, which have led to significant market volatility in the last few years, Gervais was expecting even more of a pullback.

There was significant variability. Land value growth in some provinces remained above 10 per cent, while British Columbia’s pace actually dipped into the red by 3.1 per cent (although that province also had the highest average land value on a per-acre basis).

The highest average provincial increases in farmland values were found in Saskatchewan, Quebec and Manitoba, with increases of 15.7 per cent, 13.3 per cent and 11.1 per cent, respectively. That’s up from 14.2, 11 and 11.2 per cent, respectively, in 2022.

Rates from other provinces included 10.7 per cent in Ontario (down from 19.4 per cent in 2022), 7.8 per cent in Nova Scotia (down from 11.6), 7.4 per cent in Prince Edward Island (down from 18.7), 6.5 per cent in Alberta (down from 10 per cent) and 5.6 per cent (17.1 per cent in 2022) in New Brunswick.

That’s a change up from 2022, when Ontario, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick topped the list for the quickest growing farmland values.

The newest report also marked the second year FCC reported on pastureland values. Due to insufficient sales in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, it focused on data from pastureland sales in Western Canada.

The most significant of those were in Manitoba, which saw an average growth of 19 per cent. Saskatchewan recorded a hike of 12.7 per cent, followed by Alberta at 9.6 per cent and B.C. at 7.4 per cent.

It was a generally unaffordable year to buy land, Gervais noted, pointing to the double hit of high interest rates and flagging commodity prices. Actual farmland sales declined slightly from 2022 as producers exercised more caution around investment decisions.

He expects that caution to extend well into 2024 due to continued high interest rates, high input costs and lower grain prices.

In fact, he said, farmland in many parts of the country is less affordable right now than it’s ever been. Fiscal circumstances have also opened up operations to more financial risk.

“It makes it more difficult for young farmers and young operations that have a desire to expand into the industry,” he said.

In the short term, farm receipts of grains, oilseeds and pulses are projected to decline by 13.2 per cent in 2024, in comparison to a 0.4 per cent increase in 2023. Gervais predicted a 4.8 per cent decline in 2024 earlier this year.

He urged producers to action to manage these losses.

“An important part of preparing for inevitable, yet unpredictable, economic changes is not only creating a risk management plan, but also updating it as those shifts in the economy unfold,” he said.

For detailed coverage and regional breakdowns of the latest farmland values report from FCC, see future editions of the Manitoba Co-operator, Alberta Farmer Express, Western Producer and Farmtario.

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FCC’s report, released Monday, revealed that the national average value of farmland increased by 8.3 per cent in 2021 — the 19th straight year in which there was an increase and the highest rate of increase since 2017 (8.4 per cent). In 2020, Canada’s average value of farmland rose by 5.4 per cent.

J.P. Gervais, FCC’s chief economist, told reporters on a briefing call Friday he was “a little bit surprised by the magnitude of the increase, quite frankly,” given the events of 2021.

That said, he added in FCC’s release Monday, “the low interest rate environment and favourable commodity prices seem to have offset some of the many challenges that could have been expected to restrain the demand for farmland and the price producers are willing to pay for land.

“It’s a testament to the resilience and business confidence of farm operators who are largely driving this strong Canadian farmland market.”

Manitoba reported a 9.9 per cent increase in 2021, the largest among the Prairie provinces and its largest increase since 2015 (12.4 per cent). The report cited limited supply and increased demand, largely from farmers wanting to expand operations, as reasons for the increase. Farmland values in the province’s Parkland region increased by 17.6 per cent, while those in Central Plains-Pembina Valley only increased by 4.2 per cent.

Gervais said in a media briefing Friday that last year’s drought had little impact on farmland values.

“(Historically), we’ve had a little bit of a slower rate of increase in years following some really significant weather events,” he explained. “But I do think that one of the things that’s really different right now (are)…really high commodity prices offsetting some of the lower yields.”

Saskatchewan reported a 7.4 per cent increase in 2021, its highest gain since 2018, also at 7.4 per cent. Farmland values in the southeastern region of the province increased by 17.4 per cent, while those in the southwestern region only saw a gain of 0.4 per cent. Eastern regions saw higher changes in rates than western regions due to being less affected by the drought, according to the report.

Gervais added that crop receipts in Saskatchewan increased by five per cent in 2021 and sales of grains and oilseeds were projected to rise 4.5 per cent. However, high commodity values could raise farmland values higher.

“Right now, I think it’s fair to say we expect those receipts to be higher than the 4.5 per cent increase we projected in January 2022. How much higher? That’s the million dollar question,” he said, adding that a 15 per cent rise in receipts would not be out of the question.

Alberta saw a more modest rise in farmland values at 3.6 per cent in 2021, the smallest since 2019 (3.3 per cent). However, the report added that most transactions were made before the full effect of the drought took place and the range in values per acre was wide. Irrigated farmland in the southern region added 10.7 per cent in value, while the northern region only had a 1.5 per cent increase.

The provinces with the largest increases in average farmland value were Ontario (22.2 per cent) and British Columbia (18.2 per cent), while those with the smallest rises were Alberta and New Brunswick (5.2 per cent).

Farmland values in several parts of B.C. were supported by “limited supplies of available land and proximity to urban areas,” FCC said.

In Ontario, meanwhile, “increasing demand and limited supply of available land were factors in many areas,” with many buyers purchasing land in less expensive areas and driving up values on a percentage basis.

Farmland on the outskirts of Ontario’s urban areas, or within close commuting distance to larger urban areas, saw additional competition from “various buyer types, such as hobby farmers and rural residential developers.”

In Quebec, FCC said, farmland values “have been increasing for the last 36 years, so it was no surprise that average farmland values increased by 10 per cent in 2021.”

No data were released for Newfoundland and Labrador or the three northern territories due to an “insufficient number of publicly reported sales.”

“The fact that demand’s strong I think reflects that land values are continuing to increase (as well as) some of the optimism and outlook for growth in the industry,” said Gervais.

“We’ve already had one (key interest) rate increase from the Bank of Canada (in 2022) and we can expect four more increases and that’s going to elevate borrowing costs for farm operations. That’s something to consider, as well.”

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.

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Farm Credit Canada on Monday released its 2020 Farmland Values report, showing an average increase of 5.4 per cent in farmland values across Canada over 2020, up from an average increase of 5.2 per cent during 2019.

The increase comes despite a “noticeable decrease” in the number of sales in the first six months of 2020, largely in April and May — but the year-end count of farmland sales came in comparable to those in the past few years, FCC said.

Commodity prices increased “considerably” in the last half of 2020 for many crops, and interest rates have slipped to “historic” lows, FCC said.

Domestic demand for food remained strong and global supply chains continued to have an appetite for Canadian food and commodity exports, FCC chief economist J.P. Gervais said in a release.

“Since land is the most valuable asset on any farm operation, the agriculture land market is a good barometer for measuring the strength of Canadian agriculture,” he said. “Despite having gone through a uniquely volatile year, farm income generally improved and the overall demand for farmland remained strong throughout 2020.”

At the provincial level, the highest average increases for Canadian farmland in 2020 were in British Columbia and Quebec, with averages of eight and 7.3 per cent, respectively, followed by Alberta at six per cent and Saskatchewan at the national-average level of 5.4 per cent.

Ontario and Manitoba both reported increases lower than the national average at 4.7 and 3.6 per cent, respectively. Further east, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick booked average increases of 2.3, 1.6 and 1.3 per cent in 2020, following significant jumps in New Brunswick and P.E.I. during 2019.

On the Prairies, FCC said, the farmland market was mainly influenced by “tenants purchasing land from landlords, neighbour-to-neighbour sales, producers buying or selling land to gain operational efficiencies and family farm purchases to support succession plans.”

The Atlantic region, meanwhile, went through its worst drought in decades during the critical growing season in 2020, dragging on its cash crop values and supplies of hay and forage.

The pandemic, Gervais said, highlights the value of a strong risk management plan that accounts for possible economic changes and flexibility in budgets if commodity prices, yields and/or interest rates shift.

Farmers, he said, “also need to exercise caution, especially in regions where the growth rate of farmland values exceeded that of farm income in recent years.”

Table: Average increases (%) in farmland value in 2020, with increases in 2019 for comparison. Source: Farm Credit Canada.

By province

British Columbia in 2020 booked its largest average increase since 2016, most significantly in the Kootenay region (up 28.1 per cent), as buyers from outside the region were “drawn to what they considered affordable land and the opportunity to escape the more populated areas.”

Improved growing and harvest conditions in Alberta in 2020 “made this year much better than the past few” in that province, FCC said. The province’s central region saw the highest average increase in values within the province, at 9.6 per cent, on “better-than-average growing conditions, a healthy supply management sector and robust grain shipments.”

Saskatchewan in 2020 saw no delays in harvest and “generally average” yields throughout the province, helping improve farm incomes and farmland demand for farmland, particularly in its west-central and northeastern regions at 9.1 and nine per cent respectively on “strong demand for good-quality land in pockets of these regions.”

Buyers in Manitoba “continued to be mainly existing producers expanding their operations, next-generation producers entering the market and landlords selling to tenants,” FCC said, noting the highest average increase within the province, at 11.6 per cent, showed up in the Interlake region between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba.

Farmland values in Ontario “varied from stable to increasing” due to high demand and limited supply in many areas, FCC said. Demand came from “large, intensive, supply-managed” operations, cash-crop producers and part-time farmers alike, particularly in the province’s central-east and midwestern regions, where values were up 8.9 per cent on average.

Farmland buyers in Quebec in 2020 were “motivated to expand their operations, mostly in cash crop and supply-managed sectors,” FCC said, with major average increases in the Estrie (32.4 per cent), Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (19.5 per cent) and Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspesie (18.1 per cent) regions. Those areas, FCC said, were known for having either lower values in the province or minimal market activity lately.

New Brunswick saw a limited number of farmland sales, due in part to “the worst drought in decades during the critical growing months of July and August,” FCC said. Nova Scotia also saw “challenging growing conditions that led to stress in crops that were not irrigated.”

Prince Edward Island’s biggest average increase in 2020 was in the Kings region in the province’s east, FCC said. Newfoundland and Labrador, for the fifth year in a row, booked an “insufficient number of publicly reported transactions” to get a good read on farmland values. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Talk is starting to make the circuit that it’s time for automation to take over farmland wheeling and dealing, and it might not be that much of a stretch.

As long ago as 2013, which is ancient history for electronic technology, a University of Oxford study predicted an 86 per cent chance of automation replacing traditional real estate sales agents, and a 97 per cent likelihood of supplanting real estate brokers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly capable and it’s getting more widespread as it’s applied to numerous sectors and industries.

Included is real estate, according to auditing and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “The real estate industry will not be spared,” PwC writes. “Software algorithms will increasingly adapt and evolve to more complex areas.”

AI utilization will improve the efficiency of operational tasks, and it will also revolutionize the way buyers and sellers make land decisions, PwC says.

Julia Arlt, global digital real estate leader at PwC, doesn’t believe AI will cost the jobs of real estate agents and brokers, but she does think it will change the way they do business.

It’s good news for both buyers and sellers, she says, as it’ll provide more services tailored to their needs at a lower price.

Farm Credit Canada’s senior director valuations, Hugues Laverdure, agrees. “I don’t think it can replace the broker and real estate agent, but I think artificial intelligence is here to stay.”

Laverdure explains that AI will provide real estate agents and brokers another layer of technology to help them more precisely target the types of property their clients desire.

“We can dig really deep in details with the technology available right now.”

Farmland shopping

Today, Laverdure is seeing this more often in the residential sector, but says that if and when AI is applied to farmland, buyers can seek out additional data about potential properties, like soil types, topography, crop production and yield history, water access and availability, and existence of tile drainage.

Information like that would allow a broker or agent to better target property and client.

Farmland real estate broker Tim Hammond of Hammond Realty in Biggar, Sask., loves data and thinks a tool like AI would be amazing. But he stresses that just because the data is available doesn’t guarantee buyers will accept the information and the implied advice on offers.

“You would be surprised at how many producers who currently have access to all of this information will still make an emotional decision. It is human nature,” Hammond says.

Hammond does, however, believe AI could help predict current and future price and market trends. “It will provide people with more confidence in price,” Hammond says. “We will see less variation in the range of values. This is good. People want stability and predictability.”

Those non-locals

AI could also provide more exposure globally, and in provinces that have fewer restrictions on foreign investment in farmland, it could potentially generate more purchases.

“However, it does not matter how well a property can be researched and promoted online if the law prohibits foreign purchases,” says Hammond. “We spend too much time already telling foreigners they do not qualify under current legislation to purchase farmland in Saskatchewan.”

For years, farmland sales typically took place between neighbours. But in cases where nearby farmers aren’t interested in their neighbour’s property, AI could speed up how quickly a non-local farmer is sourced, Hammond says.

Laverdure indicates farmers are already becoming less location specific. “Right now, the buyers are looking way farther than that, they’re looking 10, 15, 20 kilometres,” he says. “They’re looking for the best piece of land that will match their needs, and they’re not afraid to go outside of their close radius.”

Farm data sharing lagging

Farm real estate is data-intense, and although the industry has improved at capturing that data, sharing it hasn’t become commonplace yet, Hammond says.

“Residential data is vastly more public and accessible, and, as a result, AI advances have been much more prominent in that industry,” he says.

Hammond believes the speed of AI advances in the farm real estate sector will be determined by how soon the data is shared. For now, owners of the individual data components in Canada seem protective, he says.

“There isn’t a lot of sharing going on yet. I believe that will change in time. The data is more public in the U.S., and I believe we will head that way,” Hammond says.

Human element

Even if AI advances in farm real estate catch up to the residential industry — or surpass it — there is likely to always be an important role for agents and brokers of farmland, says Jared Carlberg, professor of agribusiness and agricultural economics at the University of Manitoba.

He explains the value of a typical transaction is quite considerable, and he expects most buyers and sellers would want to ensure they receive good advice and service when participating in the market.

“The most serious buyers for farmland are, in my opinion, still more likely to use agents/brokers to locate parcels for sale, and certainly the most serious sellers will use agents/brokers,” says Carlberg.

Laverdure also thinks human intervention will always be required during the process. For one, there’s a level of interpretation of data and a story behind every property that only a person can deliver, he says.

AI will help select the property and help in the processing of administration duties, which will free up time for the broker and agent to focus on the needs of the client, Laverdure says.

Hammond agrees. “By helping quickly analyze the massive amount of search data that exists, technology will enable us as farmland agents to concentrate on the aspects of our profession we find most rewarding: the relational, intuitive, solution-providing and creative roles in real estate that are far beyond the capabilities of any computer,” he says. “It is enhancing our relationships and being able to bring even more value to the process.”

Hammond believes people will continue to want to work with human agents or brokers to facilitate their transactions, noting AI can help discover price and value and confidence in it, but those aren’t the only component of a transaction.

“It does not matter how sophisticated AI evolves, technology is not likely to master the very key characteristics producers seek in farmland agents, such as showing empathy, building relationships, the art of the negotiation, and storytelling,” says Hammond. “Our service is more about people than it is about farmland. I think any business tied to agriculture is.”

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The report, released Monday, shows the average value of Canadian farmland rose 5.2 per cent in 2019 over 2018, the smallest year-over-year increase since 2010, and down from a 6.6 per cent increase in 2018 over 2017.

Despite the more modest lift, “farmland affordability continues to decline relative to farm income,” the Crown farming and agrifood lending agency said in a release.

FCC in this case defines affordability in terms of a price-to-revenue ratio — that is, the average farmland price per acre, against the land’s average expected receipts per acre. And that ratio has been trending up in recent years, FCC’s chief agriculture economist J.P. Gervais told reporters on a conference call ahead of the report’s release.

A year of poor yields or weaker prices can have such an effect, FCC said, and in 2019 “weather challenges made farmland more expensive when measured against actual gross revenues,” pushing the ratio to an all-time high.

Most provinces are in such a situation, FCC said, describing 2015 as the “turning point” year in which the price-to-revenue ratio crossed its 15-year average, in the wake of several years of strong revenue growth — but since then, “the momentum hasn’t slowed to match the moderation in crop receipts.”

Asked about the effect of investor speculation on farmland values, Gervais said the amount of Canadian farmland being sold to investors, who then lease those acres to farmers, remains relatively very small, maybe touching five per cent in Ontario but mostly below that level elsewhere.

Challenging conditions

On a provincial basis, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick booked the largest increases in average farmland values, at 22.6 and 17.2 per cent respectively. New Brunswick saw increased demand from dairy and potato producers, while P.E.I. showed a growing number of farms approaching the provincially-mandated caps on land ownership.

Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan showed increases of 6.7, 6.4 and 6.2 per cent respectively. Ontario and Quebec showed strong demand from supply-managed farms and crop producers, with “very limited” available land in Ontario and “more sustained” demand in regions of Quebec where farmland values had been lower.

Saskatchewan, meanwhile, saw more landlords either put land up for tender or sell to their long-term renters. Sales of “superior quality” land began to level out, but sales of small parcels or lower-quality farmland increased.

British Columbia’s average farmland values rose closest to the national average at 5.4 per cent, with the most notable increases in demand seen on Vancouver Island as well as in irrigated land and vineyard development.

At the low end of the increases in average farmland value were Manitoba (four per cent), Alberta (3.3 per cent) anod Nova Scotia (1.2 per cent).

While Manitoba had established producers in expansion mode, “next-generation” farmers entering the market and landlords selling land to their renters, it also had “challenging weather conditions throughout the growing and harvest seasons.”

Alberta also had adverse weather as well as volatile commodity prices and weaker economic conditions; its farmland values saw their biggest lift in southern Alberta’s potato-growing regions, as more processing capacity opened up in the Lethbridge area.

Nova Scotia’s “modest” average increase followed a 4.9 per cent decrease in 2018 over 2017, with strong demand in the Annapolis Valley and Truro-Shubenacadie regions up against adverse weather conditions, including Hurricane Dorian, as well as weaker crop prices.

Looking ahead

FCC’s report noted that the values it lists reflect the market factors seen in 2019, before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic’s onset in 2020. “Any impact from the pandemic will be captured in future reports,” the farm lender said.

Gervais, speaking to reporters Friday, said to the extent that FCC can anticipate the likely effects of the pandemic, its impact on farmland values is expected to be minimal.

The economic slowdown due to the pandemic will create volatility for commodity prices, FCC said. Reduced consumer income may put downward pressure on demand for ag commodities, but if supply chains are disrupted, prices may also face “upward pressures.”

Interest rates are expected to remain low and supplies of available farmland remain limited at best, Gervais said, though it’s also expected that both buyers and sellers will adopt a more cautious approach, possibly resulting in fewer transactions.

However, he added, with the number of farmers in Canada continuing to decrease, more and more assets per farmer are going to be transferred or sold when those farmers leave the industry. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Predicting the evolution of Canadian agriculture is never easy, mainly because the evolution of agriculture is driven by the accumulation of countless decisions by countless farmers in an industry so vast, so complex and so varied, it’s impossible to take every critical factor into account.

But here’s a start, in the form of six numbers that reflect some of the important national trends in the last few years. Take them in, roll them around, and ask yourself: Where are these trends driving us?

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 record production of several field crops in Western Canada, coupled with greater on-farm storage capacity and a railway system that simply couldn’t keep up.

According to 2015 Canadian Agricultural Outlook produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, aggregate net cash income for 2014 is expected to reach $14 billion, 10 per cent above the 2013 record.

Farm-level average net operating income is forecast to be $78,139, also an all-time high. Although grain and oilseed prices fell, strength in livestock prices and margins has buoyed average farm income.

Alberta fed cattle prices reached $202 on May 1, points out Jerry Klassen, a commodity market analyst in Winnipeg who maintains an interest in the family feedlot in southern Alberta. That is up 40 per cent over last year, while feeder cattle prices are up 40 to 50 per cent on average over the past year.

Lower energy values have resulted in larger disposable income for the average consumer, Klassen explains. Lower crude oil prices have also contributed to a weaker Canadian dollar, enhancing the competitive edge for Canadian cattle producers.

Finally, the North American economy is firing on all cylinders, causing a rise in wages, lower unemployment levels, greater disposable income and pre-recession-type consumer confidence levels that are causing a demand shift toward beef products.

Now the fourth largest crop in Canada, soybeans are projected to keep growing. In 2014 Canadian farmers planted a record 5.5 million acres, up nearly two million from 2011. Notably, soybean acres in Western Canada have ballooned, with over one million acres in Manitoba alone. Better short-day bean varieties with herbicide tolerance have been the catalyst for the expanded acres, and this trend is expected to continue, thanks to more new varieties bred for Western Canada.

In response, a new national organization was formed last September replacing the Canadian Soybean Council and the Canadian Soybean Exporters Association. Members and directors of the board include representatives from each of the major soybean grower associations across Canada plus industry representing crushers, exporters and seed companies.

“Soy Canada will speak with a single voice for the industry and, working collectively, will develop and implement a strategic plan to grow the industry and maximize returns to all components of the value chain,” says newly hired executive director, Jim Everson.

According to Farm Credit Canada’s (FCC) farmland report, the average value of Canadian farmland increased 14.3 per cent in 2014, following increases of 22.1 per cent in 2013 and 19.5 per cent in 2012. Average land values have increased every year since 1993.

FCC’s chief agricultural economist, J.P. Gervais, has been predicting a soft landing for farmland values since crop prices began moving closer to the long-term average, following abnormally high prices due to the 2008 U.S. drought.

Gervais doesn’t anticipate a collapse of farmland values, but he does see slower increases in the coming years. The most likely drivers of increased values are crop receipts and interest rates.

The highest increase last year was in Saskatchewan at 18.7 per cent but this is slower than in 2013, when average value jumped a colossal 28.5 per cent following a 19.7 per cent jump in 2012.

However, farmland in Canada is not appreciating everywhere, with increases in the Maritimes being much slower.

Overall, average net worth per farm is expected to set new records of $2.0 million in 2014 and $2.1 million in 2015.

In agriculture, strong crop receipts have kept the debt-to-net-income ratio relatively flat for the decade. “It’s important to remember that even as farm debt is rising, land values continue to increase on average across Canada,” says Gervais. “Interest rates remain low, and asset value and farm size continue to grow.”

According to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), year-to-date sales of self-propelled combines are very soft in Canada, dropping from 4,130 in March 2014 to 2,500 a year later. This big drop of 39.5 per cent follows a combine- and tractor-buying bump in October.

AEM, citing U.S. Department of Commerce data, sees similar 2014 trends around the world for all types of ag equipment. Exports of U.S.-made farm machinery ended 2014 down 29.2 per cent compared to 2013. Exports to Canada dropped 38.4 per cent.

All world regions recorded double-digit declines except Central America. Asia, Europe and Canada had the highest rates of decline.

AEM’s director of market intelligence Benjamin Duyck says the decline has continued into 2015. “We are currently experiencing a global ag downturn,” Duyck says. “The overall downturn is a combination of various factors, mainly economic, but some of it is also driven by legislation and issues regarding the strong dollar.”

Two farmers, 2,000 miles apart, are shaping Canada’s e-farm future, with their combined 22,000 social media followers.

Andrew Campbell, a young dairy farmer from near Strathroy, Ont., has about 18,000 followers between Twitter and Instagram. “Twitter makes up the bulk of that — but I do post the pictures to Instagram as well,” he says. You can check out his website at thefreshair.ca.

Nurse and mother, Sarah Schultz is also a farm wife to Jay Schultz who grows about 6,000 acres of wheat, canola and yellow peas in south central, Alberta. She also has a blog ‘Nurse Loves Farmer‘ and is on Facebook.

Schultz says the payback for being part of agriculture on social media includes all the connections she has made with people from all over the world, plus being able to have questions answered within minutes. “As a farm wife and mom who spends the majority of my time at home, social media has been a great way to still be social and have that human connection that sometimes gets lost living in a rural area,” Schultz says.

The downside includes getting pulled into arguments, and finding out how easy it is to be misunderstood. It’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to interpret someone’s tone on social media, she warns, and it’s far too easy to have your words taken out of context.

Schultz has learned to choose her words wisely, and to be kind and respectful. “It’s guaranteed that you won’t agree with everyone on everything, but we can at least respect each other’s differences,” says Schultz. “I also go by the rule: tweet as if Grandma is watching.”

Andrew Campbell knows the impact that negative feedback can have in the social media world. Earlier in the year, he achieved some notoriety when animal rights advocates targeted him and his livestock farming, yet he also received praise for how he handled being a lightning rod for activism. “It just shows the importance of opening up our industry,” says Campbell. “We do need to address the issues and conceptions that the majority of consumers have, so we can continue farming the way we know is best for our land and livestock rather than being told how to do it.”

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