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Census of Agriculture

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Just as the Census of Population counts every person and household in Canada, the Census of Agriculture counts every farm.

In 2001, 247,000 farms were counted. The census asks the farmers about their crops and livestock, whether organic practices are followed, whether computers are used in their farm businesses, as well as a host of questions on land management practices such as irrigation, no-till, crop rotation, and other queries about their farming operations.

All farms that produce agricultural products intended for sale are counted. The range of products is wide and includes crops (hay to fruits), livestock (cattle to game animals), poultry (hens to ducks), animal products (milk to fur), and other agricultural products (Christmas trees to maple syrup).

Chart: Farm operators, by ageAs well as tallying the inventory of livestock, crops and other farm products, the census reports on the machinery used on farms, farm operating expenses, gross receipts and the value of land, buildings and machinery.

The Census of Agriculture also gathers some information on the farm operators themselves, such as their age and hours spent working on and off the farm. But most of the demographic and other descriptive information about the farm operators, their families and households come from a linkage with the results of the Census of Population, which asks questions about subjects such as family income, education and off-farm jobs.

Canadian censuses have included questions on agriculture since 1871, the year of the first post-Confederation census. Going even further back, Jean Talon gathered data on farm animals in his Census of 1666. Such continuity means census data allow us to trace the evolution of farming from Canada's earliest days right up to today.