Field Crops Support Farm Incomes

OTTAWA - Jun 3/08 - SNS -- Average prices received by Canadian farmers rose above month and year earlier levels in March, according to Statistics Canada, as major gains in field crop returns offset declines in livestock prices.

Prices that producers received for crops continued their double-digit increases, up 35.4% in March 2008 compared with March 2007. According to the Farm Product Price Index (FPPI), farmers received higher prices for all crops except fruit and vegetables.

However, prices for livestock and animal products were 9.6% below their March 2007 level, the seventh consecutive year-to-year decline as cattle and hog prices continued to fall. Hog, cattle and calf prices have posted 10 months of year-to-year decreases. For the last seven months, those declines have been double-digit for hog prices.

On a monthly basis, prices farmers received for their commodities were up 0.6% in March from February 2008, as the increase in the crops index outpaced the decrease in the livestock and animal products index. The FPPI stood at 116.3 (1997=100) in March 2008, up from the revised February 2008 index of 115.6.

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