Number of Farms (Vancouver Island) 1971 - 2006

Question

I have a research needing to know the number of farms in North Saanich, Central Saanich, and Saanich, from 1976 – 2006. ESTAT provides this information for the 2006 Census of Agriculture using the Provinces by Census Consolidated Subdivision geography option.

How do I get the same data back to 1976?

Question: Updated

I think I managed to figure this out and get this data (Farm counts from 1976 – 2006 for North Saanich, Central Saanich, and Saanich) from the excel tables located in the /census/agricultural/ folders on the DLI FTP site.

The CCS codes for these three named CCS’s seem to have changed over time.  Do I need to worry about that in terms of the geographic area for each of these 3 CCS’s.

Answer

Our contacts in the Agriculture Division have looked into your question and sent us the following response:

"I checked and found the following:

- North Saanich, Central Saanich and Saanich did not change between 1976-2006
- Victoria was combined with Saanich in 1976
- Victoria was combined with Subdivision B in 1981 and 1986
- Victoria (as a CCS) was amalgamated with Saanich in 1991 to 2006.
- Capital Subdivision A (islands) was split in 2001 and 2006 into Capital F and Capital G
- Capital Subdivision B and C (D in 1991 and 1996) were combined in 2001 and 2006 into Capital H part 2"

I am still waiting to hear back from them about your offlist question regarding the provenance of the CCS codes used in the 1976 files.

Levels of Geography for Agricultural Data

Question

What is the smallest level of geography for which one can obtain data on (a) number of livestock (preferably, but not necessarily broken down by species), with no regard for the number of farms they come from, and (b) the number of farms (of any kind, not just livestock farms)?

Two researchers here at York are interested in getting data for an area that, as closely as possible, conforms to the area of a watershed that straddles the border between Perth and Wellington counties in Western Ontario. The closest they can get from DLI data is the North Perth CCS, contains about 60% of the watershed, but is actually at least twice its size. The other portion is not within any of the CCS in Wellington County. Can they get the numbers they want (via a custom tabulation) for each of the CSDs in the relevant area, or is the DLI data the best they can hope for?

Answer

Our Agriculture Division can produce data for custom, user-defined, geographies for a fee. If the researchers wish to look into this, I will be pleased to refer you to an Account-Executive in our Toronto Office who can provide costs estimates and production timelines for such a product.

Our contacts in the Agriculture Division also mentioned that they have provided AAFC (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) with Census of Agriculture data at the Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) level for all of Canada. They suggested that you consult this resource before requesting a custom data extraction:

Interpolated Census of Agriculture to Soil Landscapes, Ecological Frameworks and Drainage Areas of Canada
http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1227624499292?=eng (See the Access Data section at the very bottom of that page. The links in this section appear to provide access to the Census of Agriculture data (1971-2006).)

Olive Oil

**Note: Correspondence translated from the original French.**

Question

A student is researching recent statistics on the consumption of olive oil in New Brunswick. Is there any data available via DLI?

Answer

The person responsible for the product "Canada Food Stats" told me that the division doesn't have detailed data on the oil consumption (by type of oil: e.g. Olive, Canola) nor provincial data on food consumption.

Genetically Modified Crops

Question

I have a researcher who needs statistics on the amount of area (acres or hectares) in Canada that is being planted with genetically modified varieties of crops — especially corn, canola, soybeans. It doesn't seem to be measured by the Census of Agriculture; however, we have found references that refer to this being measured by Statistics Canada's Crops Surveys. Would it be possible to have access to these through the DLI?

Answer

An analyst in Agriculture Division informed me that data on GM crops (corn and soy only) in Quebec and Ontario only is available online. Here is his response:

" The area, yield and production for GM corn and soy in Quebec and Ontario only for 2008 is in the Crop Reporting Series No.8 (catalogue 22-002) Table 1-2 on the STC website. We do not collect any information on GM canola . See link http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/22-002-x/22-002-x2008008-eng.htm "

Agriculture Question

Question

I have a researcher looking for estimated areas, yields and productions of principal field crops, vegetable crops, fruit crops, and specialty crops in metric units by Census Division and Census Consolidated Subdivision from 1981 to 2000.

As he needs it annually, the Census of Agriculture won’t work and because of the geography, the CANSIM tables I found don’t cut it either.

Any thoughts or perhaps Agriculture Division could provide a custom tab?

Answer

Respondent #1: This may be a bit of a stretch even as a custom tab as the survey data will not support small area data for very many commodities. In some cases, the provincial agriculture statisticians take the STC sample data and do their own analysis.
Here is the Ontario site:

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/stats/crops/index.html



This one is quite good. There are similar sites in most provinces.

***

I have looked in each province and have found a rather uneven small area profile. The census does not carry yield and production but will have the area planted. The agriculture division may have small area data in unpublished form, but it may not be very clean. Our team can find that out for you.

Here is what I found out looking prov by prov
If it is not on their web site, they may still have it an an XL ss.

Manitoba http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/statistics/yearbook2006/past_trends_crops.pdf

Sask http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/apps/agriculture_statistics/HBV5_P2.asp

Alberta: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sdd12401#tables

This may not go back far enough but they do have the data.

BC: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/stats/index.htm not very good but it has the contact info

Ontario: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/stats/crops/index.html

Quebec: http://www.fadq.qc.ca/index.php?id=828&L=1

NB: http://www.gnb.ca/0168/01680004-e.asp limited

NS: http://www.gov.ns.ca/agri/bde/econ/NSStats2002.pdf does not go back very far but they may have it

PEI: http://www.gov.pe.ca/af/agweb/index.php3?number=70179&lang=E#field

NF-Lab http://www.nr.gov.nl.ca/agric/mark_stats/pdf/stats2003.pdf limited

Respondent #2 : I had forwarded your question to our Agriculture Division and they confirmed that this information is not available. Here is their response:

"Unfortunately, for yields and specialty crops, the smallest level of geography that we have data for is crop district. For fruit and vegetable crops, we don't have any data other than at the province level."

Respondent #1: The reply from the Agriculture Division Their suggests that crop district level data are available for some crops...no doubt the major ones.  I suspect that this would be useful when trying to look at sub-provincial data.  The links that I sent earlier are probably all at the crop district level.  CCSD data (area) are only available during a census year and for non-census years, would have to be estimated using census data to dis-aggregate  crop district data.  Or the researcher would have to reformulate the research question to look at broader areas.

Hazelnut Production Figures for British Columbia

Question

I am trying to find time series hazelnut/filbert production figures for B.C. Could any of you agriculture statistics gurus out there please point me in the right direction. I thought I might have luck in CANSIM, but nothing so far.

Answer

I can't find a time series either, but there is a series of annual reports from the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands on this page:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/stats/index.htm

Check out Annual B.C. Horticultural Statistics for 2004. Further down the page you can find Selected Fruit and Vegetable Statistics - Berry and Nut Statistics. These tables cover 1991-2003. If a time series database exists I failed to find it.

The Agriculture Division has also indicated that data back to 1977 is available through the Query function in Canada Foods Stats
(http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=23F0001XBB).
Click on View and follow the instructions.

Annual crop yields for M.D. Taber and S.A.#2 in Alberta

Question

I have a graduate student and researcher working on the drought impacts on some Canadian communities. The patron is interested in annual crop yields for the Municipal District of Taber under CD 2 and Special Area No.2 in CD 4 in Alberta from the year 1954 up to now.

Alberta Agriculture and Food do not have and suggested contacting StatsCan.

Responses

You need the crops small area historical data (22f0004xdb), which contains area seeded, area harvested, yield, and production statistics annually. It is yet another standard product that is not available under DLI. I bought it about 4 years ago (after having tried to get it under DLI), and at that time, only the years 1976 through 2003 were available. The price at that time was $995.

The data comes from the Crops section of the Agriculture Division. Producing them involves a bit of 'data fiddling'. The area is based on the Census and the intersectional estimates are created by joining together a number of indicators. The yield information comes from the yield surveys (which I believe are collected through a telephone survey. There stratified by CD/ag. areas (combinations of CD's or CSDs.) The survey level information at the CD level is weak but they are created to that they are consistent with the overal crop estimates. While not perfect, they are the best available.

Seed Statistics

Question

The following is a question from a PhD student:

Would you please advise me about whether statistics on the amount of seed that is saved ("Saved seeds" being those collected by farmers from the previous years' crops for use in future years) by Canadian farmers is available and if so, how I might obtain it. Preferably, there would be statistics collected in various years so a comparison could be made; however, I would also be interested in the latest collected data on this topic.

As a worst case alternative, if there is data on the amount of certified seed used, the acreage seeded, and the recommended rates of seeding I suppose I could calculate the amount of non-certified seed used in various years. However, since this would not necessarily indicate the amount of seed saved, obviously real statistics on saved seed would be most helpful.

Answer

The Census of Agriculture does not collect the information, and I asked the Agriculture Division for their input. It follows:

We calculate the total amount of seed used by multiplying the seeded area by average seeding rates. The seed data are published in supply-disposition tables for the major grains and special crops. These tables are available in catalogue 22-007 Cereals and oilseeds review for free on the Statistics Canada website under Publications and are also on CANSIM, tables 41 and 42 for a small fee (*but available free of charge through E-Stat or CHASS if you subscribe*).

The calculated seed data are likely also available from the Crop Reporting Unit of the Agriculture Division as a special tabulation for a fee.