A harvest of riches for Manitoba

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This article was published 17/10/2017 (2381 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This year’s above-average grain crop will provide a $1-billion boost to the provincial economy, according to the head of the province’s largest farm organization, the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP).

KAP president Dan Mazier said if Manitoba grain farmers get $100 per acre for their grain this year — and that’s a conservative estimate — that would translate into $1 billion more revenue than they would have received if it had been just an average crop.

“So because Mother Nature provided us with an above-average crop, it will be, at a bare minimum, $1 billion added to the provincial economy,” he said. “That’s a lot of money.”

Mazier noted that even if farmers end up paying 30 per cent more in income taxes this year, that still leaves them with about $700 million more than they would have had in an average crop year.

He said that extra income will help to offset the billion dollars of income Manitoba farmers lost in 2011 due to widespread flooding, as well as the 30 per cent drop in grain production in 2014 due to flooding, and the million acres of canola that had to be reseeded in 2015 after a late frost killed the first crop that was planted.

“So this was Mother Nature giving back to us,” he added.

He said the big question now is what Manitoba farmers are going to do with their extra money.

“I think it’s like any other year. If that operation is ready for expansion, they’re going to be looking at expansion. If they’re ready for just paying down debt, that’s what they’ll be able to do,” he said.

“But I think the key message is that they’ll be able to do something, instead of just trying to keep the wolves from the door.”

He said another thing working in farmers’ favour this year is that, thanks to drought conditions this past summer in parts of the United States and parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, grain prices are pretty good.

As well, fertilizer prices are at their lowest level in more than a decade, he added, which will reduce crop-input costs for next year if farmers use some of their surplus money to buy their fertilizer now.

He predicted most farmers will be hesitant to go on an equipment-buying spree until they see what happens in the ongoing talks aimed at renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“NAFTA has got a lot of people concerned. The trading world is in an upheaval, and we export 80 per cent of our products in Manitoba. So it (the future of NAFTA) is a big deal.”

He said farmers — and Manitobans in general — would be wrong to think these trade talks don’t affect them.

“Especially when it comes to food. You don’t have to go too far in a grocery store to see how much of our produce, especially in winter, comes from Mexico or California. And that’s all NAFTA.”

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca