A University of Guelph professor cautions against using just totals and averages from the Census of Agriculture to determine how the sector is doing.
Professor Alfons Weersink points out the Census considers anyone who intends to sell agricultural produce a farmer.
While that works for the numbers the Census is looking for, Weersink suggests it can distort the actual picture of the health of Canadian agriculture.
"They do grow stuff, they sell some stuff, but it's not the type of commercial producer that we typically think of in the discussion surrounding what is a farmer."
He thinks we'll see growth at the extremes in this year's census.
Professor Weersink expects to see more so-called hobby farmers - those who sell a small amount of product to a niche market, often as a side income to another job.
He also thinks we'll see more farmers generating over 250 thousand dollars in revenue from their operations - a level he refers to as meaningful agricultural production.
"Farmers are more productive, the efficiency of the sector has increased dramatically, and we have got fewer of the commercial producers. But we also have a large segment of hobby farmers - let's call them that - that will sell a little bit at the farmers market, have full-time work and have a farm on the side to generate a bit of income."
Weersink says it will be important to go beyond the totals and averages to see where the growth and shrinkage is happening to get a good handle on what's really going on in Canadian agriculture.
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Weersink points out Census Canada considers anyone who intends to sell agricultural produce a farmer, for its purposes.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WEERSINK-Census-1.mp3"][/audio]
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Weersink says he's looking for fewer farmers in the mid-category - somewhere between what could be called hobby farmers and those who generate over 250 thousand dollars in revenue a year.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WEERSINK-Census-2.mp3"][/audio]
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Weersink says the definition works for the Census, but it can distort the results for those trying to understand what's going on in the country's agriculture sector.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WEERSINK-Census-3.mp3"][/audio]
