Fewer Future Farmers

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports [registration required] that nearly a quarter of Western Canadian farmers expect to be out of farming within the next five years.

The survey, conducted by Sensus Research Inc. for The Western Producer magazine, polled 805 active farmers and ranchers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, asking for their opinions on their future prospects in the sector.

The results showed that about 23 per cent of those surveyed said it was to some degree doubtful that they would still be farming by end of the decade.

...The findings come as the Canadian agriculture sector battles against widespread difficulties, ranging from weak commodity prices to the impact of mad-cow disease on cattle exports.

Expected economic profits are negative, and so firms exit.
Just the way we draw it up on the overheads in the classrooms.
Isn't economics terrific!

What do you think will happen to the relative prices of agricultural real estate over that same period?
If you think they are going to rise, we need a different explanation for why farmers are expecting to exit.
One possibility is that their expected earnings elsewhere are greater than in farming -- good old opportunity costs as an explanation. Again.