Blog

In this post, I take a gander at the geographic distribution of farms for selected sectors. This is not the last post on mapping farms. I’m hoping to show how infrastructures serve farms across the country in a future post.

In an earlier post, I show maps of the distribution of crop and livestock farms across Canada based on data from the 2021 Census of Agriculture. In it, I also give the definition of a farm and some details about the census data. I explain what are dot distribution maps. Briefly, in the maps below, each dot represents one farm randomly located within the census consolidated subdivision it belongs to because I do not have the exact location of farms.

I show maps for a selection of sectors. Note that a farm is classified within a sector if it is primarily engaged in its production. Thus, the maps below do not show all the farms producing a certain agricultural commodity because that commodity is not always the main source of income for a farm.

Corn, soybean, hog and poultry & eggs

I show in Figure 1 maps corn and soybean farms because it is common practice to rotate these two crops. Most corn and soybean farms are in Ontario and Quebec. There is a concentration of soybean farms in Manitoba but few corn farms. In that region, farmers rotate soybeans with crops like peas, dry beans, canola and oats. Across Canada, there are almost twice as many soybean farms than corn farms. Soybeans require fewer growing degree days than corn so it’s not all that surprising to see more of it in Canada.

Figure 1 also shows the locations of hog & pig farms, and poultry & egg farms. Both use corn as the main ingredient in feeds with soybean meal added to increase protein content. Thus, we expect hog & pig farms, and poultry & egg farms to be located near corn and soybean farms. That is indeed the case for hog & pig farms. Poultry & egg farms, however, are located across Canada, with greater concentrations in Ontario and Quebec. This reflects the supply management system in Canada where production quotas are managed at the provincial level.

Wheat, canola, dry pea & bean and other grain

Figure 2 maps wheat, canola, dry pea & bean, and other grain farms. There is no NAICS code specifically for canola but the NAICS code for oilseed (except soybean) is almost entirely comprised of canola farms. The classification for other grain farming comprises grain farms that do not enter in the other categories or who primarily engage in growing a combination of oilseeds and grains.

The crops in Figure 2 are most important in the Prairies and are often planted in rotation. There are wheat farms all across the Prairies and in Southern Ontario. Canola is dominant in the Prairies, especially in the north of the agricultural ecumene. There are more than twice as many canola farms than there are wheat farms. Dry pea & bean farms concentrate in Saskatchewan. The other grain category is the largest. It encompasses farms who tend not to specialize in a single crop and shows that farms across the country tend to diversify into several grain and oilseed crops.

Hay, dairy, beef and sheep & goat

Hay feeds cattle. It is therefore not surprising to find in Figure 3 that hay farms, dairy cattle & milk farms, and beef cattle farms are located in the same areas. Supply management for milk, administered by provincial boards, favours a distribution of dairy cattle & milk farms across Canada. Beef cattle farms are remarkably well distributed across Canada.

It would have been interesting to map barley farms as barley is used as a feed especially in the Prairies. Unfortunately, the data do not include a category specifically for barley. To complete the figure, I added sheep & goat in Figure 3. They are not very common. Comparatively, there are eleven beef cattle farms for every sheep & goat farm. Most sheep & goat farms are Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.

Potato and tobacco

Figure 4 shows the geographic distributions of potato and tobacco farms. I chose to plot potato farms because people tend to think the Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick are the largest producers of potato in Canada. In 2022, Alberta was the largest potato producer in Canada, just ahead of Prince Edward Island. Manitoba was third, right behind, and then there is quite a drop to New Brunswick in fourth place and Quebec in fifth place.

I mapped tobacco farms because I was curious to know whether there were still many of them and where they are located. According to the 2021 Census of Agriculture, the vast majority were in southern Ontario, there were a few in Alberta, one was in Quebec and one was in Prince Edward Island. The map does not show every farm who grew tobacco as it shows farm who primarily produced tobacco. Thus, there are likely more farms who grew tobacco but for which it was not the main source of income.

The growth of soybean production

When I left Quebec in 2004 for my PhD for California in 2004, I would see very few soybean fields in my home region. As I came to visit every summer in the following years, I would see more and more of them. Higher prices, better genetics, hotter summers and know-how made them suitable for Quebec’s climate.

Figure 5 shows how the number of soybean farms has changed over the last three censuses. First, observe the growth in the number of soybean farms. It went from 6,423 farms in 2011, to 7,859 farms in 2016 and to 11,741 farms in 2021. In Ontario and Quebec, we can see the distribution of farms getting denser and expanding north. In Manitoba, there is a clear growth in the number of soybean farms between 2011 and 2016 and then the number of soybean farms declined between 2016 and 2021. Farmers switched away from soybean after disappointing yields in dryer years.

Figure 6 shows the average yields and seeded areas for soybean by province. Ontario and Quebec have the highest average yields. Yields are lower and more volatile in Manitoba. Thus, it’s not too surprising that farmers in Manitoba switched to other crops given yield risk with soybeans. On the opposite, with higher and more predictable yields, Ontario and Quebec farmers have slowly increased soybean acres.