Farmland lease rates

Higher land costs translate to higher rents for farmers who lease their land, according to a recently released analysis of farmland rental rates from Farm Credit Canada.

The annual analysis, which plots cash rents against the value of farmland for each province, indicated that landowners were charging tenant farmers rent equivalent to 2.52% of the value of their land. This was virtually unchanged from 2.55% last year, indicating that lease rates were keeping in step with increases in land costs.

FCC reported in March that farmland values increased 11.5% last year.

Nova Scotia was alone in seeing rental rates outstrip growth in farmland values, with all other provinces either seeing rents rise in step or lag changes in land values.

“The three provinces that recorded the highest farmland value increases in 2023, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec, also saw increases in rental rates, maintaining stability in rent-to-price ratios,” FCC notes.

BC, which saw land values fall 3.1% last year, driven by declines in the Fraser Valley, was absent from the analysis, however.

FCC says there simply wasn’t enough rental rate data from the province to analyze.

Secure tenure and high land costs are big issues for farmers in the province, so much so that Young Agrarians set up a land-matching program, now funded by the province, to foster lease arrangements between landowners and farmers.

Census of Agriculture data indicate that 771 of the 15,841 farms in the province were wholly dependent on leased land in 2021. Private landowners leased land to 3,092 farms, awhile government leased to 820 farms.

Government leases totalled 1.7 million acres, reflecting the importance of Crown land to the province’s farms and ranches.

This also complicates the picture of compensation, however.

Several payment arrangements exist. Some owners are content with the reduction in property taxes that comes from allowing their land to be farmed while others accept a share of production. Cash rates run from as little as $1 an acre up to a few hundred dollars.

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7 hours ago

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12 hours ago

Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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4 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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5 days ago

The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.