Saskatchewan leads the country in dryland farmland values for the first half of 2023

Farm Credit Canada has released its mid-year dryland farmland values report for 2023.

Leigh Anderson, a senior economist with FCC says dryland farmland values were up 7.7 per cent nationally.

Saskatchewan led the country with dryland farmland values up 11.4 per cent, Manitoba came in at 6.4 per cent while Alberta only saw a  3 per cent increase.

Anderson says there are a number of factors influencing prices but a key issue is the growing conditions.

"It's been a little bit drier in Alberta and that is probably showing up in the farmland markets. Now, if you head into Saskatchewan, we saw the highest appreciation through the first six months. A lot of that was driven by strong production the last few years and of course, strong commodity prices. Manitoba, there were some regions that had some strong appreciation the last several years, so maybe we're starting to see some of that settle down into Manitoba."