Though the recent year-over-year increases in farm prices are levelling off in southwestern Ontario, good land remains too pricey for many people with dreams of becoming an owner.
"Anything like 100 acres, you're just not going to find it for under $5 million," said Crispin Colvin, a farmer and area director of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture for Lambton and Middlesex counties. "There isn't really any cheap location to get into farming."
A report released this week by Farm Credit Canada, a Crown corporation that provides financing to the agriculture industry, said the average price of a farm in the southwestern Ontario region rose by 3.2 per cent in 2024, reaching an average per-acre price of $33,700.
That rate of increase is down considerably from recent years, which have seen double-digit increases in average farm prices: