The final weekly report from the 2016 Census of Agriculture was published on June 21st and looks at the marketing strategies used by producers and the growing uses of technology in operations across the country.

Marketing Strategies

Producers are changing their marketing strategies by adopting practices like direct marketing and organic certification. Direct marketing is the process through which farms sell agricultural products directly to the consumers for human consumption. By using data, technologies, equipment and practices, these producers are improving efficiency and maximizing profit for their operations.

According to the report, 12.7% of all farms reported direct marketing. The most commonly reported direct marketing methods were farm gate sales, stands, kiosks or U-pick, which accounted for 89.4% of farms reporting.  

The use of direct marketing has given smaller farms access to consumers. The median sales for farms reporting direct marketing was $20,000. Farms with lower sales sold directly to consumers more often than farms with higher sales. 25.2% of farms with sales less than $10,000 reported direct marketing, compared to 5.6% of farms with $1 million or more in sales.

Ontario had the highest number of farms reporting direct marketing with 7,474 farms –  or 30.5% of farms reporting the practice in the country. However, the report shows that direct marketing was most prevalent in provinces that have the highest proportion of small farms.

Technology in Farming

The report states that 66.3% of Canadian farms are using technology on their operation. 56.2% of operations in 2015 used computers or laptops on their farm management; 42.9% of operations used smartphones or tablets for farm management. 

The number of operators on farms that reported using technology decreased as the age of the operator increased. 57.4% of operators age 60 and over were on farms that reported the use of technology. This is compared to 80.7% for operators under the age of 40.

Producers are also using larger and more advanced equipment throughout their operations to improve efficiency. The value of farm machinery and equipment in Canada totaled $53.9 billion in 2016, and increased by 15.4% since 2011 – in 2016 constant dollars. The number of producers practicing no-till seeding increased by 16.8% across Canada in 2011, to 48.2 million acres.

Click here to read the full report from the 2016 Census of Agriculture.