Future in Farming and Ranching
Farm and ranch real estate sales in B.C. have been slow over the back half of 2008 and early part of 2009. In the past month there seems to be a serge in inquiries on working ranches. Some of these inquiries are coming from people that are involved in agriculture who are looking at the current state of the livestock industry and what the future potential may be.
Over the past few years the cattle industry has been hit hard with BSE, export restrictions, high grain prices, and a surplus of product driving markets to record lows. Input cost began to soar and ranchers and feedlots watched as their equities began to decline. As a result many operators had had enough and began to down size or got out of the cattle business completely. Other livestock operators, sheep farmers and hog farms have experienced similar problems with the same results. They too have quit raising livestock.
Today we are on the edge of having a severe shortage of meat products being produced in Canada. We are already having difficulty in finding wean-er hogs, lambs and goats in both feeders and seed stock and we are seeing prices increasing dramatically. The cattle prices this spring have shown some real positive ground but continues to be regulated by the US dollar.
Like the supply management commodities,milk, broilers and poultry are marketing abilities are dictated by supply and utilization. Unlike the supply management commodity were quota's regulate supply the meat industry is self regulated with profits and loses being the monitor. With B.C. cow herds down over 35% and the nation herds down 30% it only seems logical that we should have a pretty good run over the next few years.
If your thinking about getting into the Ranching business or increasing your farming or ranching capacity the timing may be right.
