Saskatchewan farmland values gained over 14 percent last year, higher than the national average.

Farm Credit Canada reports the average value of Canadian farmland jumped 12.8 percent last year amid strong income, higher input prices and rising interest rates.

National farmland values saw their largest increase since 2014 and followed gains of 8.3 percent in 2021 and 5.4 percent in 2020.

In Saskatchewan, farmland values rose 14.2 percent, which was number four in the country behind Ontario, PEI and New Brunswick.

The 14.2 percent was also nearly double last years 7.4 percent.

FCC Senior Economist JP Gervais says it is a matter of supply and demand.

FCC splits Saskatchewan into six sections and the average price increases range from a low of 9 percent in the northwest to 24.2 percent in the northeast, which had the highest yields last year.

For example, cultivated land values in the west-central region averaged $2800 an acre, but the range was $1,300 to $6,000 an acre, with the highest values for heavy clay soil and irrigated land.

For the first time, FCC included statistics for pasture land sales.

There is a very large difference between cultivated and pasture land.

The average price of provincial pasture land only rose 2.8 percent last year.

Values range between a low of $400 an acre to a high of $1600.
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(with files from cjww)