Farm size distribution in the Canadian livestock sector

Abstract This study quantified the distribution of animals by farm size for portions of the dairy, beef, swine, and poultry sectors using the 2016 Census of Agriculture. Results showed that the distribution of farm sizes and animal populations were skewed or bimodal and varied by livestock type and by province. Thus, the average farm size has little meaning. Recognizing farm size diversity is important for developing effective policies and programs, conducting appropriate research, and developing practices and technologies to support farms of all sizes.


Introduction
Canada's livestock sector employs a relatively small number of people, with an estimated 111 700 jobs in animal production (around 0.3% of the population; AAFC 2021). Those familiar with livestock tend to specialize in one animal type or region. Understanding the broader livestock sector is important for livestock specialists and for policy makers and technology developers. Knowing the scale and size distribution of farms in Canada will help ensure that appropriate policies, programs, practices, and technologies are developed that support the sector.
Characterizing the distribution of farm sizes, by animal group, is one step toward understanding the livestock sector. The recent COP26 pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the global methane pledge to reduce methane emissions provide context for this analysis (ukcop26.org, www.global methanepledge.org). Through initiatives like the Agricultural Climate Solutions program, Canada is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to implement practices and technologies that will reduce emissions. Quantifying livestock farm size distribution is necessary to enable accurate scenario estimates for the adoption of low-emission technology and practices. Certain technologies may only be feasible for farms above a critical size with the current incentive structure (e.g., carbon pricing).
A few previous studies have reported livestock farm size distribution in Canada. Sheppard et al. (2011) analyzed a survey of 523 dairy farms and showed that dairy farm management varied by farm size. Shapiro et al. (1987) observed the log-normal distribution of all farm sizes in Canada and noted that the number of small farms grew faster than large farms even as concentration in agriculture increased. Chen et al. (2019) analyzed the Census of Agriculture data and showed the trend of increasing average farm size in all agricultural sectors from 1951 to 2016. They also showed the distribution of farms in Canada by acreage. However, the distribution by number of animals on livestock operations has not been reported. Boshukeva and Kimura (2016) reported that farm sizes tend to be highly skewed due to the coexistence of very large farms with many small farms. Thus, the mean or median will not adequately describe the farm systems in a country or region. The farm size distribution is expected to vary by animal type, including whether it is a supply-managed industry like dairy and poultry in Canada.
The aim of this study was to quantify the distribution of animals by farm size for representative segments of the dairy, beef, swine, and poultry sectors across all provinces. We hypothesized that a large portion of the animals would be represented by a small number of farms and that distributions would differ among sectors and regions.

Methods
The 2016 Census of Agriculture survey data for nine livestock categories were purchased from Statistics Canada in 2020. These categories were selected to be indicative of the four major livestock sectors (dairy, beef, swine, and poultry) but do not represent the totality of the 31 categories of livestock collected by Statistics Canada. A census farm was defined as an agricultural operation that produces and intends to sell at least one eligible agricultural product. A single census farm could operate in multiple places, in which case the location of each farm follows the "Headquarters Rule" that assigns all data collected for that operation to the area where the farm headquarters (owner) is located. Statistics Canada provided data tables with information about the number of farms and number of animals per farm aggregated in size classes based on the animal category. Dairy cows and dairy heifers (>1 year old) were each reported in 15 farm size classes (1-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-74, 75-99, 100-124, 125-149, 150-174, 175-199, 200-249, 250-299, 300-399, 400-499, 500-999, and >999 animals per farm); steers (>1 year old) and heifers (>1 year old) for slaughter or feeding (hereafter "beef heifers") were each reported in 4 size classes (1-1000, 1001-5000, 5001-10 000, and >10 000); grower and finishing pigs (hereafter "growers") were reported in 11 classes (1-49, 50-99, 100-399, 400-999, 1000-2999, 3000-4999, 5000-7499, 7500-9999, 10 000-13 999, 14 000-17 999, >17 999); sows and gilts for breeding (hereafter "sows") were reported in the same 11 size classes; laying hens (19 weeks and older; hereafter "layers") were reported in 5 size classes (1-999, 1000-9999, 10 000-19 999, 20 000-44 999, and >44 999); and broilers, roasters, and Cornish (for meat; hereafter "broilers"), as well as turkeys (all ages), were reported in the same 5 classes. Responses were aggregated by province and nationally. Cumulative distribution curves were plotted by sorting responses by farm size (descending) and plotting the total number of animals and number of farms in each size class.
When there were few respondents for a certain livestock type and size class in a particular province, the number of animals in the dataset was suppressed by Statistics Canada. The median number of farms in suppressed records was between 1 for dairy heifers and 13 for steers. For this analysis, suppressed values were replaced by national average values for that particular size class and animal category. For example, at the national level, there were 179 farms with between 1001 and 5000 steers, having a total of 372 209 animals, which were used to calculate an average farm size of 2079 steers per farm for that size category.

Results
The curves in Fig. 1 show how farms and livestock were distributed across farm sizes in Canada in the 2016 census year. For dairy cows and dairy heifers, both curves follow a similar pattern. For dairy cows, there were 939 071 dairy cows on 12 895 farms overall. The distribution showed that the size class with the most farms (3553) was between 20 and 49 dairy cows, and the largest number of cows (198 315) was in the 50-74 size class. Indeed, 77% of all cows were kept by 95% of the dairy farmers on operations with <200 milking cows. There were fewer farms in the larger size classes, and there were only 11 farms with 1000 or more dairy cows. While there were fewer large dairy farms, those farms contained a considerable portion of the national dairy herd. The largest 159 farms contained 10% of the cows, and the largest 2600 farms had 50% of the animals. Dairy heifers had similar results, with most heifers being located on the same farms as milking cows.
Farm size distribution in the swine sector had double peaks. In terms of the number of farms, the first peak was in the smallest category (1-49 animals; 2279 farms for growers and 2195 farms for sows), and the second peak was 1000-3000 growers (1328 farms) or 100-400 sows (638 farms). In terms of the number of animals, peaks were shifted toward the larger farms. The first peak was in the middle of the distributions, but the second peak was at the largest farm size class of at least 18 000 pigs. Overall, there were 5464 farms producing 7.6 million growers; the largest 418 farms raised 50% of these animals. Similarly for sows, out of 3716 farms producing 1.2 million sows, the largest 191 farms produced half of these animals.
The beef sector had a highly skewed distribution of farms, but the number of animals was less skewed (beef heifers) or bimodal (steers). For steers, there were a total of 1.57 million head on 23 613 farms. Nearly all (99%) of these farms were in the smallest size class, and within this class, the average farm size was 30 head for both steers and beef heifers. Though few in number, the largest 178 farms (>1000 head) kept 50% of all the steers. For beef heifers, there were 903 741 head on 14 971 farms, and the largest 137 farms (<1%) had an average of nearly 3300 head per farm and kept half of all the animals.
The poultry and turkey sectors had the most highly skewed distribution of all livestock groups. For laying hens, there were 24.3 million birds on 18 664 farms. However, 95% of the farms were in the smallest size class, with an average of 38 birds per farm. On the other hand, the largest 118 farms (<1%) had 94 745 birds on average and kept 46% of all the birds. Turkeys had a similar distribution to layers, with the smallest farms (84%) having 26 birds on average. The largest 70 farms (<3%) had >20 000 birds and kept half of all the turkeys. For broilers, there were 102.9 million birds on 7249 farms. The distribution of farms had two peaks, one in the smallest size class (68%) and the other in the second largest class (20k-45k, 12% of all farms). Nevertheless, the distribution of birds was concentrated in the largest class (67% of the flock). The largest 575 farms (8%) had >45 000 birds and contained half of all the birds. Table 1 shows provincial data by farm size for one group in each of the dairy, beef, swine, and poultry sectors (groups with the most animals were selected in each sector). These data show that the distribution of farm sizes differs by province. For example, in AB and NL, there are more largeand medium-sized dairy farms than small ones. In contrast, ON and QC have thousands of more small dairy farms than large ones, even though ON has the highest number of large dairy farms of any province. It was also evident that large swine and beef operations are concentrated in a few provinces. Specifically, MB and SK have more than half of the large growing-pig operations. The largest category of farms with steers are only present in AB and SK. Large dairy and poultry operations are present in all provinces.
The number of farms involved does not follow the number of animals in a given province. The beef sector provides a good example: the number of steers in AB was by far the largest of any province (almost 700 000) and was more than double the number of steers in ON. However, the total number of farms with steers was almost the same in both provinces due to both provinces having over 6000 small operations.

Discussion
Overall, the analysis showed there are large differences in farm size distribution among both animal groups and the regions of Canada. The dairy industry has tended to slowly consolidate over the past two decades with more farmers leaving than entering the sector (Jelenski et al. 2015), but this trend has likely slowed due to stable milk prices, high investment costs, and commitment to lifestyle by many dairy families. While the poultry sector is also supply-managed, it has reached a high level of consolidation on large farms in every province. Poultry production is concentrated near markets, labour, and services. In regions like south coastal BC, a large number of poultry operations with no cropland depend on other sectors to utilize their manure (e.g., horticulture, dairy, and mushrooms). The beef sector was a balance of extremes. Over 1.16 million steers and beef heifers were kept on 38 232 small farms (averaging 30 head) distributed across the country. At the same time, over 1.31 million head were kept on 352 farms with over 1000 head (334 farms with 1000-10 000 head and 18 farms with >10 000 head; 14 for steers, 4 for beef heifers). The large and small beef operations are linked as cattle raised on small operations move to feedlots for a finishing diet. The swine sector had a wide range of farm sizes with over 4000 farms having fewer than 10 pigs, but the majority of the pigs were on farms with between 1000 and 5000 animals. A minority (66) of large farms had over 10 000 growers or sows, and most of these operations were in the Prairies where there is abundant land and grain to produce feed.

Conclusion
This analysis showed that farm size distribution varies by livestock type and province. It is important for national environmental strategies to recognize the farm size diversity to develop effective policies and programs, conduct appropriate research, and develop practices and technologies to support farms of all sizes.