Content provided by Professor Brady Deaton, Jr., McCain Family Chair in Food Security, Department of Food, Ag. and Resource Economics, University of Guelph

The data provided in this report are from 1,769 Ontario respondents who participated in an online survey between January 21st and February 10th in 2019. Respondents were asked a number of questions about Ontario farmland, farmland values, and rental rates for the previous year, 2018. Many respondents did not answer specific questions, so we provide you with the number of responses for each question that we report.

A total of 19,603 potential respondents were contacted by email with the support of OFA. The cooperation of OFA and OMAFRA, and the survey respondents, is greatly appreciated. However, any mistakes in the survey should be attributed to the above contact person.

When interpreting the results presented in this report, a few issues should be kept in mind. First, respondents were not randomly sampled from each region, and therefore results are not necessarily representative of each region. Instead, results reflect the responses of those who voluntarily answered the survey. We recognize that rental rates and land prices can vary considerably within a region, and for this reason the survey asked questions with the aim of eliciting information about central tendencies – e.g., average cash rent for average quality cropland in a region. Admittedly, respondents’ knowledge of this information varies with respect to accuracy. And importantly, rental rates and farmland values can vary considerably depending on individual parcel characteristics. For this reason, these results will not be useful in assigning a particular rental rate or land value to a specific parcel. It is also important to note that reported results on land values are not derived from actual farm sales or specific rental contracts.

At the regional level, we report median values for per-acre rental rates and land prices. In most cases, these median values are close to the mean values. For cases where the median and mean rental rate or price in a region differ considerably, we report the mean in a footnote.

For more information, visit https://www.onfarmlandsurvey.com.