|
Rivers, MB | This a lighter year for the Ritchie auction calender from my perspective. You have to remember, that covers MB, SK, and AB. That is a very big area. To drive from the SE corner of farming land in MB to the northern tip of ag land in AB would probably take about 20 hours. Many of those will be retirement auctions as well.
The other thing is that the vast majority of farm auctions in Western Canada happen in the month of April as winter is ending and seeding is almost ready to start. It seems like that in the US, especially as you move further south, there seems to be auctions almost every month of the year. So basically Ritchie bros. is doing a year's worth of auctions in the stretch of 5-6 weeks.
As to difference between US farming and Canadian farming, here's my take. From what I gather on here, US farmers have programs available that allow them to lock in some type of revenue insurance. In Canada, we only have crop insurance which only covers production insurance. This to me is a key distinction. Guaranteed production (up to 80% of average production) when the price is extremely low with high costs makes a difference but does not give much protection from potentially large losses.
Another difference is climate. I feel that the further you move from good ag land (Western Canadian ag land is on the fringe of ag land in North America), the more marginal the profit potential and the greater the risk. I feel that the price of land is almost always indicative of the profit potential/amount of risk/and climate potential of a given area. That is why land is still available in MB for under $1000/ac. That is a dream to someone in IA/IL/IN but indicates that the potential is much less "here" than there.
Edited by mennoboy 3/1/2009 22:47
| |
|
Richie Bros. Auctions?
