OTTAWA — 2015 was another good income-earning year on the farm.
Last year’s net farm income for all farms in Ontario was $1.2 billion, up from 2014’s $1.195 billion and was the second best net income earning year for Ontario farms. The best year was 2011 when total net farm income hit a record-smashing $1.3 billion.
Net farm income has been fairly stable. From 2011 to 2015 total net income hasn’t gone above $1.3 billion or dropped below $1.1 billion.
Canada, on the whole, saw much more significant variations in net incomes. In 2015, net farm income from all Canadian farms was $8.2 billion, up 60 per cent from 2014’s net income of $4.8 billion, which itself was a massive drop from 2013’s $12.4 billion, the best year on record.
The record harvest in 2013 was mostly driven by the Prairies, with Alberta raking in three-and-a-half times its five-year average in farm income. The drop in income in 2014 was caused largely by the Prairies, rocked by floods and early frosts, crippling harvests.