Fewer farmers in Alberta in 2021, but number of women increasing: StatsCan

Valerie Ehrenholz is busy on the family farm.

Her to-do list varies by season, but last Thursday it included caring for the cattle, setting up an electric fence and tending to a barbed-wire fence, and helping her father, who seeded a field to grow grain.

If time allowed, she'd tend to her garden, which features potatoes, lettuce, carrots, peas, tomatoes and eggplants. There are saskatoon berry trees and blueberry and raspberry bushes too, but they were planted last year, so she doesn't harvest much from them yet.

"It's pretty fun," said Ehrenholz, a third-generation farmer running Ehrenholz Farms in Barrhead, Alta. "It's what I've known all of my life. It's not something that I have to learn all at once.

"At the same time, there's a lot of pressure that, if something goes wrong, it's not just myself I'm letting down. There's a lot of family who — they wouldn't blame me, but it would be disappointing for them if the farm failed."

Statistics Canada gathers and releases information about the country's farms and agriculture industry every five years. The 2021 agriculture census data was released last month.

There are 57,200 farmers in Alberta, down 405 from 2016  — and about 19,000 fewer than in 2001.

The proportion of female farmers, however, has grown over the past 20 years.

In 2001, females made up about 28 per cent of all Alberta farmers. Now about one in every three farmers is a woman.

The number of female farmers also grew by 765 to 18,525 in the latest census period.

Women, historically, have worked in farming in various ways, but the increase suggests more women are being recognized for their role, said Ellen Goddard, an agricultural economist at the University of Alberta.

"The job itself is changing its definition. Maybe that means it's more amenable to everybody chipping in, and more families are recognizing the contribution of more than one senior member of the household," Goddard said.

The trend could lead to more innovation in the industry, as women tend to try new things more often than their male counterparts, said Tom Johnston, a University of Lethbridge associate professor of geography, whose focus is local food systems.

"It's a really great thing," Johnston said.

"The more diversity we have in the industry, the more likely it is that those innovations are going to be embraced."

There is often an added pressure for women running farms, though, said Ehrenholz, who took over from her father in 2017.

"We want to prove we can do it, so we don't ask for help much," she said. "We forget that our fathers asked the neighbour for help."

Less farmland as value skyrockets

There are more farms in Alberta in 2021 than there were five years before, but it's not a clean comparison.

Data shows the number of farms in Alberta is 41,505, up 867 from 2016. But StatsCan changed the definition of a "farm" or an "agricultural holding" for the latest census, so one cannot accurately compare to years past.

Previously, a farm was defined as an "agricultural production" that produced at least one agricultural product intended for sale, according to StatsCan's website.

They now refer to "a unit that produces agricultural products and reports revenues or expenses for tax purposes to the Canada Revenue Agency."

Although there seem to be more farms, data shows the total area of farmland has dropped from about 20.3 million hectares in 2016, to about 19.9 million hectares in 2021.

This may suggest farms are becoming more efficient by requiring less land to produce the same amount of crops, Goddard said.

Johnston, meanwhile, is concerned about what it could mean for land prices.

Data shows the number of farms and overall area dropped from 2001 to 2016, but a farm's average area increased by 108 hectares.

In that time, the value of farmland and buildings in Alberta increased from nearly $38.9 billion to about $118.3 billion. In 2021, the value of those assets was about $160.9 billion.

"Even after taking into account the effects of inflation — which haven't been all that significant until recently — that's a pretty substantial jump," Johnston said.

As a consequence, it could make it harder for younger people to break into the industry — something he says is desperately needed.

Average farmer keeps getting older

The average Alberta farmer continues to get older, data shows, coinciding with general population aging driven by the baby boomer generation.

In 2021, the average age for a farmer was 56½.

Data shows the number of farmers under 35 has grown by several hundred since 2011, but farmers older than 55 are outpacing that demographic, growing by nearly 5,000 in that time.

The number of farmers aged 35 to 54 has cratered, decreasing by nearly 24,000 since 2001.

"I'm really concerned," said Johnston. "It's not like we didn't know this was happening."

Part of the issue is simply that farming is hard work that cannot be procrastinated and can become more physically taxing with age, said Goddard, of the U of A.

Another aspect, underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic, is supply chains: local farmers allow people and businesses to more easily access food, as opposed to relying on trade, Johnston said.

Data shows 5,800 "agricultural operations" in Alberta have a written succession plan, the vast majority of which include one or more family members. Nearly 10,400 other operations have a verbal plan.

There are more than 25,300 operations in the province without a succession plan, however.

Ehrenholz, 30, doesn't yet have a succession plan for the farm in Barrhead, but it is something she considers often.

"It's not urgent at the moment," she said. "But on the farm, you're always thinking a little bit about the future."

Ehrenholz has no children of her own, but she has many cousins who do. So during summertime, if one of the kids has reached a certain age, she'll offer them to come out to the farm to learn about it.

"If they do express interest later on, maybe I could pass the farm on to one of them," she said.

Another option: when she's 60 or so, she'll find a young farmer without a farm and have them take over.