Canada's Second Quarter Farm Incomes Ease

OTTAWA - Aug 26/04- SNS -- Total farm cash receipts eased during the second quarter of the 2004 calendar year, slipping 0.4% below the opening quarter to CDN $8.833 million.

Even so, Statistics Canada reports farm cash receipts for the first half of 2004 are up 14% from last year, jumping from $16,854 million in 2003 to an estimated $17,919 million between January and June of 2004. The federal agency noted receipts are 8.2% above the previous five-year average.

Crop producers saw their revenues climb 21.7% to $7.4 billion, near the 1996 record. The total was 12.5% above the previous five-year average. Farmers recovered from two consecutive droughts in Western Canada in 2001 and 2002 that had reduced production and sharply decreased grain and oilseed farm inventories.

Substantially lower cattle receipts resulted in revenue from livestock tumbling 5.6% to $8.2 billion in the first half of 2004. This was the lowest level since 1999 and 4.2% below the previous five-year average. The lower livestock receipts reflect the impact of the US border closure in the wake of the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Program payments rose 10.8% to a record $2.3 billion. Additional assistance programs to help compensate for the BSE-related ban, coupled with record Net Income Stabilization Account (NISA) withdrawals, more than offset a decline in payments delivered through crop insurance programs.

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