Little Change in Canadian Cash Receipts

OTTAWA - Aug 25/05 - SNS -- Market cash receipts for farmers, or revenues from the sale of crops and livestock, remained flat at CDN $15.5 billion for the first half of 2005, according to Statistics Canada.

Cash receipts were helped by record government subsidy payments of $3.4 billion, an increase of 27.3% over the same period in 2004. As a result, government programs have provided 18% of total cash receipts so far in 2005. Most of this increase may be attributed to the large payments delivered through the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program and the Farm Income Payment program.

Higher livestock sales were offset by lower crop sales. These revenues were unchanged from the previous five-year average between 2000 and 2004, but were 3.9% below the 2001 peak.

Livestock farmers saw their revenues climb 7.5% from a low in 2004 to $8.9 billion. This gain was mainly due to a rise in the price and marketing of slaughter cattle, and also to a price increase for milk. Overall livestock receipts were 1.9% higher than the previous five-year average.

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